Wednesday, May 25, 2011

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?

4 comments:

  1. Never seen anything like it...ever.

    I've never pleated anything though.

    Cindy Bee

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  2. My goodness, your energy and talents seem endless! And, I think you win when it comes to weird gadgets! :-) Beautiful dress. Every little girl should have one like that.

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  3. I haven't seen that before. My guess was that it might be used for binding pages into books, but I was wrong. I used to sew clothes for myself, but it would take me so long to finish each project that I'd be several sizes larger or smaller by the time I was finished.

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  4. Oooh! The smocking is gorgeous! I've always admired people who are able to create outfits with smocking.
    But pleating is a nightmare! I used to make some of my own clothes which started when I was prego with my twinlings...because no store-bought maternity clothing fit me. I did mostly machine sweing, but creating pleats made me want to pluck hairs out of my head one by one! gah!

    ~Lisa

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