How much floss a smocking plate needs

Smocking uses less thread than most people expect, but running short mid row is frustrating. This guide shows how the estimate on every plate page is built so you can adjust it for your own tension.

What goes into one row

The visible travel of the stitch between bites, measured on the chart.
A quarter inch of thread per bite for the part that goes into the pleat.
Four inches of tail at each end for starting and finishing.
15 percent waste on top.

Converting to skeins

A standard 6 strand skein is taken as 8 meters, or 315 inches. If you stitch with 3 strands, each strand of thread counts as one sixth of the skein, so a length of 3 strands uses half the skein length. The tool converts for you; always round up to whole skeins.

Strands used	Share of a skein per length
2	one third
3	one half
4	two thirds
6	all six strands

Example

A 41 pleat cable row is 41 bites. Its travel is about 10 inches, the bites add about 10 inches and the tails add 8, so roughly 28 inches of thread. With 3 strands and 15 percent waste this is a small fraction of one skein. The Plate Designer shows the exact number for your plate.

Tips

Buy one extra skein of the main color.
Cut lengths of 18 inches or less to keep the thread from fraying.
Buy all skeins of one color from the same dye lot.

See the Bishop Yoke Classic plate for a full worked table.

Adjusting for your own tension

The estimate assumes an even, moderate tension. Tight stitchers use a little less thread and loose stitchers a little more. Stitch one row, measure what you used, and compare it with the estimate on the plate page. If you are consistently above or below, scale the rest of the plate by the same amount.

Colors

Each plate lists floss per color, so you can buy exactly what the plate needs. Rows that share a color are added together before rounding up to whole skeins.