Peggy Ussery Sep 6, 2021
With soft fabric gathered and held together with embroidery thread, the neck and ruffled sleeve openings of the infant gown are strikingly small.
When the gown is finished, it will go to dress a premature baby weighing 3 to 5 pounds. Other pieces laid out on a table could even dress babies that weigh less than that.
“You could never find anything this small in a store,” said Joann Carpenter, vice president of the Land of Cotton Smocking Guild.
The smocking guild started up earlier this year, and one of its first projects as a guild is to create hand-smocked pieces for premature babies.
Carol Ann Pileggi, president of the guild, posted on a smocking site to see if anyone else in Southeast Alabama would be interested in starting a smocking guild. Carpenter responded. The guild now has about 10 members out of Alabama and Florida and is a chapter of the Smocking Arts Guild of America.
Smocking is a form of needlework with embroidery stitches over pleats of gathered fabric. The embroidery stitches are both decorative and functional in that they allow the gathered fabric to stretch. It’s a favored technique for children’s clothes.
“If you’ve ever embroidered, you can smock,” Pileggi said.
Pileggi learned to smock so she could make dresses for her daughters and later her granddaughters. The technique was simpler than she expected and she learned with no lessons.
The smocking guild meets again on Thursday and regularly meets the second Thursday of each month at Piney Grove Assembly of God Church, located at 206 County Road 9 in Wicksburg.
Of course, the smocking guild does more than just smocking. Carpenter works with beginners in the group to help them learn the embroidery and smocking techniques. The guild also hopes to do demonstrations at a local library or even Landmark Park to get more local people interested in the fine needle art. The guild supplies materials, embroidery floss and even needles for beginners.
Pileggi said many needle sewing techniques are not practiced like they once were.
“Just like sewing is not as common as it once was, smocking is not as common as it was once either,” Pileggi said. “But that’s our goal is to not let it die out.”
The main focus for the guild now is making enough pieces for the Wee Care Program. Smocking chapters around the country make gowns and bereavement pouches to clothe premature babies who died at birth or shortly after.
The Land of Cotton Smocking Guild has teamed up with the Preemie Project of Dothan to donate hand-smocked gowns and pouches small enough for babies that could weigh as little as a pound.
Some of the clothing items the smocking guild makes are so parents can simply hold their premature baby without worrying about hurting the baby’s fragile skin. The guild makes small square pouches that have a string that gathers the pouch around the baby, creating a fabric cocoon.
“A lot of parents are scared of ripping their baby’s skin or touching their baby because they don’t want to hurt it – it’s so fragile,” said Mandy Booth of the Preemie Project of Dothan. “So it being in this little cocoon, it helps them be able to hold baby and feel safe.”
Booth said having something other than a blanket for their newborn can give parents some comfort during what may be a tragic situation.
“That gives them a little bit of beauty,” she said.
Peggy Ussery is a Dothan Eagle staff writer and can be reached at aussery@dothaneagle.com or 334-712-7963. Support her work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com.