Easy Stack

Picture Smocking

Tutorial

Begin by bringing needle straight up thru the valley of a pleat.

Your embroidery floss is now straight up in the center of the valley

Your knot is sitting on top of the pleat on the back of your smocking

Take your needle thru the pleat to the left

Pull it all the way thru

You are now ready to begin your cable stitches

Begin with a down cable - floss is down, needle is up

Work an up cable - floss is up, needle is down

Continue cables, working 15 across

When you reach your 15th cable, bring the needle thru 2 pleats at an angle

Pull floss all the way thru - it comes up between 2 pleats, as shown

Invert your work and take the needle thru one pleat to the left

Pull floss all the way thru and now begin with an up cable

Don't take your needle thru too close to the previous row, your floss will fill in between rows

Continue with cable stitch working 13 cable stitches across, stacked under the previous row

When you reach your 13th cable stitch, angle the needle down thru 2 pleats

Pull floss thru and it will be between 2 pleats

Invert your work and take the needle thru one pleat to the left

Pull it all the way thru

Begin cabling 11 cable stitches across your work, stacking your row

When you reach your last cable, angle the need thru 2 pleats and pull floss all the way thru

Invert your work and take the needle thru one pleat to the left

You are now ready to begin your next row of 9 cables

When you reach the end of your row, angle the needle down thru 2 pleats with floss coming up between those 2 pleats

Invert your work, take the needle thru one pleat to the left and pull it all the way thru

You are now ready to begin your next row, stacking cables - continue working row doing 7 cable stitches, when you reach the end of the row, continue as you did on previous rows.

The next row is 5 cables. At the end of the row, angle the needle up thru 2 pleats, invert and work 3 cables to finish the top of your sail.

On your last stitch of the 3 cables, bring the needle thru the side of the pleat and to the back

To tie off, loop your floss onto the needle, then stick the needle to the base of the floss where it comes thru to the back of your work.

Holding onto the floss, let that knot ride down the needle to the fabric. You will need to hang onto the needle with your other hand.

The knot will ride all the way to the fabric and pull to knot, but not too tight to the pleat.

Tie off.

Completed sail

To begin the hull of the boat, bring your needle up thru the valley to the right of the specified pleat on the graph

Pull floss all the way thru

Take needle thru one pleat to the left

Pull thru

Begin cable row with an up cable

Next cable is a down cable - needle is up, floss is down.

Continue cable stitches, working 17 across on the half row

On your 17th cable, take the needle down at an angle, thru 2 pleats

Your floss will come up between 2 cables

Invert your work and take the needle thru one pleat to the left

You are now ready to cable your row

Cable 15 across the row, stacking cables

Complete your row by taking the needle down thru the side of the pleat to the back

Loop your floss on the needle

Ride the knot down the needle to your pleat and tie off

Sail & Hull completed!

Using 2 strands of blue floss, connect the sail to the hull - bring needle up between center 2 pleats coming up the center of the valley

HALF

CABLE

STITCH

Take your needle one pleat to the left

Pull it all the way thru

Take needle thru 2 pleats

Begin satin stitching thru 2 pleats

Satin stitch all the way to bottom of the sail, then take needle thru just one pleat in the middle

Bring floss up to the top of the sail

Take needle down thru fabric at the tip of the sail - bring floss to the back, knot and tie off.

Sailboat is complete!

Several people have troubles with half cable stitches, so here is a demo on that

You have reached the end of a row and it calls for a 1/2 cable - take the needle thru one pleat

Take your needle thru the side of that pleat to the back

Close up of half cable

Invert your work and bring the needle up in the valley to the right of that half cable

Take the needle thru that pleat to the left, as shown

Floss is now to the left of the pleat

Take needle thru just one pleat, as shown

Half cable

You are now ready cable a full cable

Full Cable next to half cable

Close up of half cables at the far left of smocking