Smocking!

So I've found a little corner of the sewing world that I have not previously explored and I just want to share it will ya'll (I live in Texas now so it is required of me to say ya'll). 
It's called smocking, and there are many types of smocking.  The first you have all (ya'll?)  seen before, it is especially popular with baby dresses.  Elisa has a few of 'em:

It is created by running fabric through a machine such as this:

Basically, the machine makes a bunch of tiny, even pleats, in which the seamstress then hand-stitches a design within the pleats.  Super-cute! This type of smocking is quite old-fashioned--it's been around forever--but cuteness never goes out of style!

As fun as this looks to do (and I say that in all seriousness), I do not have $200 to shell out for a pleater machine. Luckily for me though, there are many beautiful, fun, amazing smocking designs that are done by hand.

I'm not going to post them all for you, but if you go to this lady's website, you can see all the neat smocking designs you can do, and I believe she has a tutorial for a lot of them.
I tried out the easiest--the flower pattern.  You make a square, pull it together, and wrap and tie! Easy, slightly time consuming, but it looks totally awesome! Even the back looks neat:
 

  
I don't think I will be getting super into smocking, but it was fun to try it out!