Smocking is a beautiful way to add surface design texture to a piece, and can be done simply by drawing a grid of dots and connecting adjacent ones to another in a sequential pattern that remains consistent through out the piece.  The Dritz Smocking Ruler is an example of a ruler that you could create marking which sets of dots you are connecting.  Using the Smocking Ruler, the diagonal lines in the ruler represent where the dots are connected by where the line starts and stops.  Just draw all the diagonals in on the top side, move the ruler so that the bottom side now sits on the previous row, match the next set of lines, and fill an area with line marks on the back side of the fabric.  Use a needle and long like color thread, connect the ends of the lines by whip stitching and knotting each set but never cutting the thread till the end and leaving a loose connection between each knot determined by how far apart they rest with room for give.