These pleated inserts are made using 60" wide 65% polyester 35% cotton poplin fabric. Most often the fabric is white. However, these inserts may be order in many other colors depending on the application. The inserts, 4 3/8” height (including seams allowance) are especially suitable to embroider a picture smocking design and apply the insert to enrich the front of a basic yoke dresses, the front of boy’s overalls such as John Johns, or the front of a jumper or romper.

Using Coats & Clark™ hand quilting thread, there are seven (7) rows; two (2) holding rows; and eight (8) half rows. The seven (7) rows and holding rows are pleated using orange thread The half rows are identified with blue thread.

These blue extra pleated half rows will help enormously in the accuracy of the picture smocking, facilitating an effective stacking. The estimation on where to stitch the cable rows is minimized.

These inserts are best used when doing the picture smocking using four (4) strands and stitching five (5) cable rows from pleated row to pleated row. That is, stitching the first cable row on one orange thread row, the second cable row in the middle between the orange thread row and the next blue thread row, the third cable row on the blue thread, the fourth cable row between the blue thread row and the orange thread row and the fifth cable row on the orange thread row.

These inserts will work also for machine smocking when pleated using the same color thread as the color of the fabric because these pleating threads can’t be pull out after the machine smocking.

Notice: When using white and light color fabric inserts on deep color fabric outfits, make sure the outfit fabric and the floss used to do the picture smocking is colorfast.