What is Back Smocking?
Back smocking is a process wherein your smock the back of your pleated piece of fabric (or create the pleats as you go with iron on dot method). Depending upon the stitch in the front you can either use the cable stitch (pleats held in pairs) or the outline/stem stitch (singularly held pleats). The reason for back-smocking is simply to hold the pleats together that are not smocked on the front. Usually back-smocking is worked on picture smocking designs or for designs that have a lot of open space or behind bullions that are worked in the center of diamond stitches. Another use for back-smocking is to ‘hold’ the very top row of a bishop dress so that the pleats don’t bend over while you are sewing on the bias binding. In Elizabeth Travis Johnson’s great OUT OF PRINT book Sewing For Children, she recommended that you do this on the front (not the back) on the 1/2 space above the top row so your pleats will stay in place while you are stitching on your bias binding that forms your neckli
