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How to Use Read Pleater Needles

A pleater machine is used for smocking a fabric. The machine uses a row of needles to gather the fabric into pleats; the fabric stitches create an embroidered pattern. Read Pleaters make pleating machines that use interchangeable needles. The pleating needles are fragile. Bent or misshapen needle points should be replaced.

Things You'll Need

Read Pleater machine
16 needles
Dowel
Fabric
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Insert the needles into the needle grooves, blunt end first. The tip of the needle should point down into where the fabric is to go. Thread the needles with lengths of thread longer than the expected length of the smocked material.
- 2
  Prepare the fabric for the Read Pleater by washing the fabric and soaking it in fabric conditioner. Cut away any frayed edges. Remove existing selvages in the fabric.
- 3
  Mark the midline of the fabric. Lay the end of the fabric on a table. Lay the dowel over it and roll the fabric onto the dowel.
- 4
  Insert the dowel wound inside the fabric into the side plates of the Read Pleater. Feed the fabric through the Read Pleater rollers.
- 5
  Pull the fabric through the roller until it has come all the way off the roller and through the Read Pleater. The sides are pleated. Cut the threads of the needles loose.

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