Week 10: Wednesday What's It?

I came across this unusual item as I was packing. Here is something that many of you have probably never seen. Care to take a guess?

What's It?

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Need a hint? This is something I use. It has a bunch of needles that you can see sticking out of it. When I use it, I have to use at least one other needle to continue to do my project.

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I use it to create clothing.

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This item is a pleater. I can thread each of the needles and turn the knob to pull fabric through the gears and onto the needles. When I am finished I pull the threads tighter and that creates tiny pleats in the fabric. Then I can use colored floss to smock the piece. 

Here is a piece of smocked fabric.

You can see the tiny pleats made by the

threads from the pleater.

Here is a garment I made for one of my boys. 

In addition to creating geometric designs you can also

smock pictures, like these elephants.

I made this dress about two years ago. 

It was made using a fine linen fabric and

has delicate flowers around the neck and sleeves.

Maybe one day I'll get back to this. My neighbor's daughter just had a little girl. She deserves a dress like this!

So, did you know what my tool was called? Have you ever seen anything like that before? Do you sew and have you ever tried smocking?