How to Smock

Smocking a fabric is a popularly used embroidery pattern since years. This type of embroidery pattern is widely used in making clothes more fashionable. It is used to fancify skirts, shirts, frocks, kids wear and pillows as well. You can either smock a fabric using a sewing machine or with your hands. If you are wondering how to smock a dress, how to smock a pillow, how to smock by hand, how to smock with elastic, then this article will answer all your questions. Here is the detailed procedure of how to smock fabric.

How to Smock Fabric: Step-by-Step Procedure

Material You'll Need

    * Fabric
    * Cotton thread
    * Needle
    * Fabric pencil/chalk
    * Elastic
    * Pearl pins
    * Smocking pleater (if available)

Procedure

Step 1
The first step of how to smock a fabric is to pleat it. You can mark the starting and ending point of smocking with a fabric pencil. While using a smocking pleater is an easy way of doing this, you can also do it without this equipment. While working on the fabric just remember 3:1 ratio and start pleating the fabric. This means, that you have to take 3 inches of un-pleated fabric and then 1 inches pleated fabric. Go on doing this. Read more on sewing.

Step 2
Pin the pleats with pearl pins as you move on. Keep 3 inches fabric plain from both borders. The total number of pleats formed must be even. Now mark a horizontal line along the length of the pleats.

Step 3
To keep the pleats in place use a running stitch, which you can easily remove later. Go on removing the pearl pins used previously while pleating the fabric. Mark the required number of rows for smocking on wrong side using a fabric pencil/chalk.

Step 4
Now thread the needle with 3 strands of cotton thread, tie a knot at the end. Now let's see how to smock with elastic. Take a narrow elastic of size bit smaller than length of the fabric you have after pleating. Now place the elastic thread on the wrong side of fabric, over the marking of second row. Go in stitching it in a row. Once you reach the end, put a back stitch so as to secure the stitches properly. Now put a knot and cut off the remaining thread. Learn how to embroider by hand.

Step 5
Start working on the next row below it in the same way with elastic and thread. Go on doing this till you finish the number of rows you have marked for the project. The smocked fabric is ready to be used. Instead of using thread and elastic you can use an elastic thread as well.

Remember, that if you want to smock a particular part of a dress, first smock this part and then join it with other pieces to form a dress. Also, make all the marking on the wrong side of the fabric that won't be visible. Usually, the cuffs or sleeves of a dress are smocked. Smocked chest line is a popular fashion for dresses. This gives a classy touch to the outfit. You can have variations in the smock pattern. You can have wider or tiny pleats to have a detailed smock pattern. You can try this on a rough piece first and do variations as desired on the final fabric, to have a fantastic pattern ready!

Blanket Stitch Instructions

Any good seamstress will tell you that one of the most handy stitches to know is a blanket stitch. It is used to sew the edge of thick blankets or any other heavy and thick fabric. It is also used for sewing hand appliqué to a fabric. Of all the different types of embroidery stitches, it is the easiest to master and is usually done by hand, although you can do it in a sewing machine too. The trick to having a nice even looking blanket stitch is that all the individual stitches should be of the same size and they should be evenly spaced. Blanket stitching will come in useful for many other sewing projects for both adults and children. Here we are going to give you blanket stitch instructions.

Simple Blanket Stitch Instructions

Here is a step by step blanket stitch instructions that will teach you how to make a simple blanket stitch on a piece of fabric.

    * The first thing that you need to do is to thread a needle with a strand of embroidery thread and then make a secure knot on one end.
    * Take your piece of fabric and hold it tight in front of you. Draw a line about ½ cm away from the top edge of the fabric, which is parallel to it.
    * Now insert the needle from the bottom side to the top at the edge of the fabric at the left. Now insert the needle again from the drawn line and take the needle out at the edge of the fabric, directly opposite to the location where the needle was inserted.
    * As you draw the needle out through the top edge of the fabric, make sure that the thread is under the needle.
    * The resulting stitch will look like a square and this is what we are aiming for.
    * Again insert the needle at the line at equal distance and take it out parallel to it at the edge.
    * Place the thread under the needle and draw out the needle slowly, making sure that the stitch is secure.
    * Repeat steps, making sure that the height as well as the spacing of the stitch is maintained.
    * When you finish, insert the needle through the back of the stitch and secure with a knot.

Machine Blanket Stitch Instructions

It is possible to do blanket stitch in a sewing machine provided you have the right embroidery sewing machine. Different sewing machines depending upon whether they are manual or automatic, will have different setting for sewing it. For a manual sewing machine, you need to set the set the needle tension to 1. Then you have set the fabric into the machine and start stitching along the edge of the fabric. You can also roll the edge of the fabric to make decorative blanket stitch along the edge of the fabric.

Embroidery Blanket Stitch Instructions

Many beautiful embroidery can be made with blanket stitch. It is also used in knitting patterns for baby blankets. Another very important embroidery that is made with the blanket stitch is called as the button hole wheel. It is often used for making floral motifs while embroidering. To make this stitch, you need to simply make a blanket stitch in the form of a circle so that each stitch passes through one central point. Make sure that the blanket stitch are evenly and tightly spaced, otherwise the embroidery stitches will be ruined and these tips on embroidery stitches will go waste.

This was all about blanket stitch instructions. Blanket stitch is one of the most simple and easiest stitch to master. It comes in very useful for making appliqués and for embroidery. Now that you know how to make blanket stitches, you can make any embroidery project with it.

Korean Summer Bikinis 2020

Korean Summer Bikinis

Bikinis (swimwear) are popular fashion trend in S.Korea due to recent hot humid weather.
Check out Korea's different style of swimwear for this summer!

Photo credits: Chuu

Virginia's Men's Rights Groups Supporters in Virginia Were 25% Women.

During the 70's, men's rights groups in Virginia were supported by women who comprised 25% of these organizations whom themselves were mothers, wives and grandmothers, who were helping men fight bigoted judges and the justice system who just painted them as "radicals" and even went as far as to lie to say that any advance on men's causes, were done so by feminists":

"Donald A. Hillstrom, an 'approved' Minneapolis attorney who specializes in representing men in who seek custody, credits men's groups not only with instilling members with a positive attitude that has helped them win, but also changing the attitudes of the courts. 

' At first', says Hillstrom, 'the Minnesota courts considered them radical organizations and ignored them. Then they realized the men's groups were there to stay, and subtle changes began to occur. Judicial treatment of men became more fair, and more men began to win custody over their children.' 

Chief Judge Susanne C Sedwick of the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Family Court, sees it a little differently however. 

'The courts really haven't been influenced by the existence of men's rights groups;, says Judge Sedwick. Instead, she attributes the decline of ' the stereotyping courts have been guilty of" to a general raising of the public consciousness begun by the Women's Rights Movement.' 

'Most of the men's rights activists do not consider themselves anti-feminists, but rather- as Virginia's Diamond puts it- 'Pro-family'. 'Texas' Shelton says that 25% of his members are women, whose ex-daughters- and sons-in-law, who have prevented them from seeing their grandchildren after divorce. 

In Virginia, Diamond's group is forming a 'Second Wives Coalition' whose members have all married divorced men and whose paychecks, because of what they claim are inequities in alimony and support statutes, go to help support their husbands' ex-wives."

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dx5cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=N1UNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2516,1591029&dq=men%27s+rights+1970+25+women&hl=en


That judge was a founding member National Association of Women Judges which is another sexist female supremist organization pretty much. Check out their mission statement and website:

"NAWJ is the nation’s leading voice for women jurists dedicated to preserving judicial independence, ensuring equal justice and access to the courts for women, minorities and other historically disfavored groups, providing judicial education on cutting-edge issues, and increasing the numbers and advancement of women judges at all levels to more accurately reflect their full participation in a democratic society."
https://www.nawj.org/

Frameless Duck Head

We believe what we're told and rarely trust our own instincts. A museum is as good a place to start as any. Priceless art hangs on a wall and for years people line up to look and admire. Not so much because they know anything about art, but because they've been told the painting is art and, this is always important, it's worth a shit load of money.

One day the curator learns the painting is a fake and -- what elicited so much respect -- is no longer worth looking at. So what happened? One day it's art. The next it's not. The painting didn't change but perceptions did when the authenticity was taken away.

Museums offer a frame to art. Not the one you see with the painting but the one that gives you a perception. "Well, it's a museum so this must be art." Same with a popular restaurant, "It's impossible to get a reservation so the food must be good." With wine, "Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator gave it a 90. It must be good." Art, food and wine are given a 'frame' to help our increasingly lost and vacuous culture find their way, without much effort, to the "good stuff."

And since all this is about making a buck - too many times the black velvet Elvis painting gets the nice frame while real art sits frameless and ignored in a dusty corner. When Goody's, the southern discount store, was going out of business I was traveling around a big chunk of the Southeast on business.

Goody's carried Duck Heads and I was positive their demise would spell the same for Duck Head. I stopped in every Goody's I could find and bought up every pair of plain front pants for insane discounts.

It's been a few years but Duck Heads are finally back. The classic trousers that are the sartorial symbol of the khak-i-fied south are the same shade of boiled peanuts and just as salty. Duck Head never had much of a frame. They don't need one. I know my memories connect me to these trousers in ways I can't even begin to describe.

You don't need to frame your memories -- 'cause they're something you understand and know. More Duck Head to come. In the mean time visit their web site and Face Book page.

Duck Head is offering a coupon code DHW186520 for 20% off and Free Shipping on orders over $100.

Wide Boys

A Wide Tie: Purple Label Shirt/ Tie & Turnbull Asser Blazer


A Wide Boy: Hardy Rodenstock aka Meinhard Gorke

They say they're coming back -- As if they ever left. In London, 'Wide Boy' is a derogatory term for a working class schemer. A phony always on the make. Someone who deals in goods of questionable authenticity. Hardy Rodenstock (not his real name) allegedly created bottles of rare wine (not his real job) and sold them to the world's biggest suckers. Rich people. I suppose it's hard to be poor and a sucker -- At least not for very long.

But Rich people can be suckers and live long lives -- As long as the money holds out. Kip Forbes paid $156,000 for a suspect bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. I doubt it has kept him up nights. You can read about Hardy/Meinhard and Kip and Robert Parker and Michael Broadbent and lots of other "experts" in the true mystery, "The Billionaires Vinegar" by Benjamin Wallace. You'll never look at the wine world or experts in the same way.

Someone told me they were an 'expert' since they had read a 'book' on a hot new collectable. Of course, this party also sells these hot new collectables so I'm sure they know what they're doing. The point is, you should know what you're doing -- But that's not always possible. Like the $300 I threw away on a fake box of Cuban Cohiba cigars in 1994. Or, back in '76 when I gave $25 to a hooker -- who told me to drive around the corner where she'd meet me -- only to find a Fayetteville cop who asked me what the fuck I was doing and convinced me to leave before I got into, 'real trouble.'

There's a lotta Wide Boys in the world but there's not a lotta Wide Ties. Least not in the High Street shops. That's an old Purple Label up there from six or seven years ago. Word is they're coming back. Which means some of you are gonna have to have one or two. And that means you'll have to buy shirts with a spread collar. And suits with wider lapels. And a watch with a larger dial. And... You see where this going? No? Then I have a box of amazing Cuban cigars and if you'll give me $300 -- I'll meet you around the corner.

15 Hottest Bob Haircuts & Hairstyles for 2020

It's another year presently, individuals normally crave getting a new look that won't just revive their appearance. In the event that you need another look this year, here are the most recent most prevalent sway hairdos for you to attempt.

Extremely Dark to Really Light Ombre

Weave hair styles and hairdos truly look great with ombre shading impacts, and the look beneath is no exemption to that. Go from an extremely dim shading to a truly light one, for a mind boggling emotional impact. Also, here are more ombre hair shading thoughts for you to browse.

Salt and Pepper Angled Bob

Simple day by day haircuts for short hair: This look is a hybrid of a weave and a pixie trim, however it looks incredible in any case – particularly in the salt and pepper shading which is presently never again held for individuals who are becoming more seasoned!

Easy Waves

Bounce hairdos look awesome wavy – simply take a gander at the style underneath. Accomplish this easily by hitting the sack with your hair wet – get up in the first part of the day with stunning waves.

Calculated Bob with Volumized Back

In the event that you need volume with your bounce hair styles, have a go at something like the style underneath – everything at the front is kept typical and straight – yet the back is blown dry for volume.

Wavy Angled Bob with Bangs

Short hair style for 2020: If you need a bounce, yet additionally need a few blasts, don't stress in light of the fact that these two work very well in a mix together! Take the underneath picture for instance – with the featured finishes, this look can truly outline a face!

Low maintenance Layered Bob

One reason why bounce hair styles and haircuts are so well known is the way that they are so natural to keep up. Like this low maintenance style underneath: so natural to simply wash and allow air to dry!

Standard Lob with Balayage

Balayage is a shading strategy that has been around for quite a while, however that is beginning to return to the scene to an ever increasing extent. The hand painted features can truly improve your standard hurl.

Wavy Angled Bob with Balayage

Another balayage hit, this calculated bounce has been improved with some delicate waves to outline the face and make the wearer look more youthful and better.

Sprinkle of Color at the Front

In the event that you need a trace of shading in your hair yet would prefer not to focus on getting the majority of your hair colored, take a stab at something like the photograph beneath: simply get the base of the sides of your hair done!

Gruff Bob with Highlights

Gruff weave hair styles and hairdos are making a rebound, with an ever increasing number of young ladies beginning to hop onto the fleeting trend. It makes you look more youthful, and when rectified, a lot fiercer!

Inclination Blue Bob

This straight sway, which is practically unpolished, looks incredible with its dim closures and roots. The slope of blue in the inside includes edge – like the young lady straight out of the Scott Pilgrim motion picture.

Long Blunt Bob

Have an inclination that diverting your inward French young lady? Attempt this long unpolished bounce – with a bleach blonde shading no less – and prepare to have croissants in Paris. Very design young lady!

Pale Pink Curly Bob

In the event that fun and coquettish is your style, and you appreciate a touch of shading, at that point attempt this pale pink wavy weave – feasible with a major zoomed hair curling accessory. Yet, recall that you have to take great consideration of the shading or else it will blur too early.

Ideal Dark to Light Ombre

Take a page from Bey's book – go for a crease twisted sway with a dull to light ombre – extremely dim to truly light, in an exceptionally steady blur. Be the ruler simply like her – and look astonishing while you're grinding away as well.

Dim Brown to Teal Blue Ombre

Wanna resemble Kylie? Attempt this bounce – in a dim dark colored or dark shading blurring into a dynamic blue-green blue. With a little certainty you can pull this off, no issue – simply make sure to play around with your hair and deal with it!