Smocking glossary

These are the words used on the plates, in the Plate Designer and in most smocking books.

Illustration of smocking swatches showing cable, wave, trellis and honeycomb stitches

Term	Meaning
Cable	Pick up each pleat on the row line and let the working thread fall alternately above and below the needle.
Outline	Pick up each pleat on the row line with the working thread kept above the needle the whole way along.
Stem	Same movement as outline, with the working thread kept below the needle the whole way along.
Baby wave	Cable-style bites that step half a row up, then half a row down, one step per pleat, between two guide rows.
Wave	Cable-style bites that climb two rows in half-row steps and come back down, one step per pleat.
Trellis	Two crossing passes: the first climbs and falls one full row per pleat, the second runs in opposite phase to close the diamonds.
Honeycomb	Pairs of pleats are joined on the upper row, the thread travels down behind the pleat, and the next pair is joined on the lower row.
Surface honeycomb	Charted as two crossing diagonal passes between the same two rows, one pleat per bite.
Plate	A chart of the stitching drawn on a grid of pleats and rows.
Pleater	A machine with rollers and needles that gathers fabric into even pleats.
Bite	One pick up of a pleat by the needle.
Holding row	A pleater row left in place above or below the smocking to keep the pleats parallel.
Ease	Extra width beyond the body measurement.
Pleat pitch	The distance from one pleat to the next, 0.25 inch on these plates.

Learn the stitches

Read how to read a plate to see each term on a chart, and try any stitch in the Plate Designer.

Reading the stitch names

Stitch names describe how the thread travels. Cable rows alternate the thread above and below the needle. Outline and stem rows keep it on one side. Waves and trellises step between rows, and honeycomb joins pleats in pairs. Once you know these five ideas, most plates are variations on them.

Related pages

See using a pleater and sizing by chest for the setup terms, or open the free plates to see each stitch on a chart.

More terms you will meet

Term	Meaning
Pleat count	The number of pleats a plate is charted on, for example 29 or 41.
Fabric ratio	Raw width divided by pleated width, 3:1 by default.
Raw width	The width of the flat fabric before it goes through the pleater.
Strand	One of the six threads of a standard floss skein.
Skein	A standard 6 strand skein, taken as 8 meters or 315 inches in the floss estimates.
Mirror	Reflecting the chart around its center pleat, which needs an odd pleat count.
Picture plate	A plate where rows of stitches build a small picture, such as a heart or an egg.
Tail	The thread left at each end of a row for starting and finishing, 4 inches in the estimates.

Terms that describe movement

Rise and fall words describe how the needle moves between pleater rows. A step is one pleat wide. A baby wave takes half row steps between two rows, a wave climbs two rows, and a trellis moves a full row per pleat. If a pattern uses another name for one of these, compare the description of the movement rather than the label.

Numbers used on the plates

Pleats and rows are both a quarter inch apart on every plate. A bite adds a quarter inch of thread, and every row gets waste added on top. If you know these constants, you can check any estimate on the site by hand.

Using the terms in the tool

The Plate Designer uses the same words: pick a stitch by name, set the number of pleat rows and read the bites, pleats and skeins in the result. If a term in the table above is unfamiliar, try it in the tool and watch the chart change.