Australian Dress Register

Margaret English Clarke was born in Southampton, UK on 9th January 1939. With her parents, Phyllis and James, and little sister Mary, the family migrated to Perth in November 1946. Clarko, as she soon become known, attended Presbyterian Ladies’ College from 1946 until 1956. After leaving school she attended Business College.

In 1960 she married Michael Herzfeld, at Guildford Grammar School chapel. After he graduated as a civil engineer, they worked in Northam for two years where their first child was born, then Derby where their second child was born. They moved to Claremont in 1969 where their third child was born. The family continues to live in the nearby suburbs.

Margaret died in 2005.

You are 24 years old, married to a an civil engineer and  living in the Kimberley in the north of Western Australia. You have a baby and a toddler, the dreaded “two under two” and want to dress them in something other than the limited choices available. So you learn smocking from a “Semco” magazine. (Semco being an Australian company specialising in embroidery fabrics, threads, pattern and  instruction books.)

Twenty years later, you now live in Perth; your three children have grown up; you have studied smocking to the high standard expected from the Embroiderers’ Guild (UK), and smocking is fashionable again. What do you do?

Well, Margaret used her considerable talents to teach in Western Australia and interestate, designed original garments for “Australian Smocking and Embroidery" magazine and established a business making smocked garments for many Perth children until illness cut her life short in 2005.

Between 1990 and 2003, Margaret’s designs appeared in twenty one issues of “Australian Smocking and Embroidery” magazine.  Two of these outfits made the front cover, and one was voted as one of the “Great Designs of Australia”. For each of these issues, a photo shoot took place in Adelaide, so the garments and the detailed instructions had to be ready well ahead of the publication date. Correspondence confirms that Margaret was always well prepared and that her instructions were easy to follow.

Mind you, in her teaching, she had a neat line to ensure students returned for further classes, by only giving information sufficient for the day, and inviting them to come along to the next class. Historically, smocks were worn by trades people, with the embroidered pattern showing the symbols of  their trade or craft. Margaret taught wearing a smock she had designed, incorporating the tools of her trade in the embroidery.

Margaret’s dresses won prizes in Australia, the UK and the USA. Her year book records that in one year she worked 408 smocked garments.

Gaynor Ashford, September 2014 using information in the eulogy for Margaret, given by her daughter. Additional information from Valerie Cavill, Curator of the “Historic Textile Collection”, The Embroiderers’ Guild of WA.

Cable stitch. Trellis, outline and stem stitches. Back smocking, French knots and bullion stitch for the rosebuds.

This dress is made from a light weight poly/cotton batiste in a pale cream colour called "champagne".

The garment comprises five sections - front, left and right back and two sleeves. Firstly the sleeves are pleated prior to smocking and attached to the front and back sections using an overlocker. The front and back are then pleated. The garment is laid out flat and the pleats adjusted to form the neck circle. The smocking can then commence with cable stitch to hold the pleats in position. The scallops are worked by wave shapes of cable stitch on the front. Back smocking is worked on the reverse of the fabric giving the ripple effect. The sleeves have four rows of wave pattern worked in stem and outline stitch forming diamonds. Each scallop has an embroidered rosebud decoration.

The garment is then constructed by joining the side seams (French seams) and making a six centimeter hem. The back opening has a pop fastener at the neck and below this, three buttons and hand worked buttonholes.

The neck edge is neatened with a bias cut strip of the same fabric, machined to the raw edge, folded over and hemmed on the reverse side by hand.

The main garment is cut on the straight. The neck band is a bias cut strip.

The fastenings are located at the centre back of the garment. A metal pop fastener is attached to the bias strip at the neck edge. Three cream plastic nine (9) millimetre buttons are handstitiched 60mm, 100mm, and 100mm  from the neck edge. The burronholes are handworked.

This little dress was originally designed for Margaret's grandaughter's first birthday. Although the entire garment is easily washed by hand or machine, it could be treated as suitable for a formal special occasion or Sunday best.

You are 24 years old, married to a an civil engineer and  living in the Kimberley in the north of Western Australia. You have a baby and a toddler, the dreaded “two under two” and want to dress them in something other than the limited choices available. So you learn smocking from a “Semco” magazine. (Semco being an Australian company specialising in embroidery fabrics, threads, pattern and  instruction books.)

Twenty years later, you now live in Perth; your three children have grown up; you have studied smocking to the high standard expected from the Embroiderers’ Guild (UK), and smocking is fashionable again. What do you do?

Well, Margaret used her considerable talents to teach in Western Australia and interestate, designed original garments for “Australian Smocking and Embroidery" magazine and established a business making smocked garments for many Perth children until illness cut her life short in 2005.

Between 1990 and 2003, Margaret’s designs appeared in twenty one issues of “Australian Smocking and Embroidery” magazine.  Two of these outfits made the front cover, and one was voted as one of the “Great Designs of Australia”. For each of these issues, a photo shoot took place in Adelaide, so the garments and the detailed instructions had to be ready well ahead of the publication date. Correspondence confirms that Margaret was always well prepared and that her instructions were easy to follow.

Mind you, in her teaching, she had a neat line to ensure students returned for further classes, by only giving information sufficient for the day, and inviting them to come along to the next class. Historically, smocks were worn by trades people, with the embroidered pattern showing the symbols of  their trade or craft. Margaret taught wearing a smock she had designed, incorporating the tools of her trade in the embroidery.

Margaret’s dresses won prizes in Australia, the UK and the USA. Her year book records that in one year she worked 408 smocked garments.

Gaynor Ashford, September 2014 using information in the eulogy for Margaret, given by her daughter. Additional information from Valerie Cavill, Curator of the “Historic Textile Collection”, The Embroiderers’ Guild of WA.