Great "egg"spectations...Pt. 1

OK, I borrowed the corny title. It seemed appropriate for my next project....Hannah's Easter dress. Before she was born, I smocked a dress for her dedication. Kim asked me then to explain what smocking is. It's kind of hard to describe, so I thought I'd post pics periodically to show my progress...good shooting practice for me and hopefully a better explanation for Kim. Here goes.

First step is selecting the pattern, fabric, smocking design, etc. Hopefully these supplies will turn into a cute little dress over the next couple of months. The pic on the left is the dress pattern and the duck picture is the design I'll smock. Check out the cute little duck buttons too. :)
After cutting the dress front to the appropriate length, I have to roll it up on a dowel rod to make it easier to feed it through my pleater.
What's a pleater? ...this handy little machine with rows of threaded needles. I feed the fabric through slowly and carefully, being sure to keep the top edge even with one of the needles and it folds the fabric into tiny little pleats. Those pleats will become the "canvas" for my smocking design.
I'm not sure when I'll post Pt. 2 or how many posts there will be, but stay tuned. I'll show you my progress along the way.