Hybrid top tack and happy fingers

My favorite top tack style is with coordinating color thread wrapping around the front, like these:

There are other ways to create a top tack.  (As well as a lot of names for it, including Euro, fan, butterfly.  I call it top tack.)  I made this sampler to help my client choose between wrapped, stab, and across the top edge.  (The little pinch pleat was a last-ditch pitch though I knew she wouldn't choose it.)  She chose wrapped, yay! 

The pleat can be stabbed through the sides- and although I like how discreet this tack is (you can't even see it, can you?), it is really hard to do by hand.  Of course if the pleat is tacked by machine, this is easier, but not as nice looking.  But when tacking by hand, the layers of fabric, lining, and buckram make a stab tack almost impossible.

The pleats can have zero visible stitching, too, by tacking the folds across the top; but I like this the least, because I feel it doesn't control the fall of the fabric as well as the other methods.

Regardless of which method, it's important to catch the fabric at the top and back of the pleat to hold the folds securely in place.  Usually this step is done in conjunction with the hand tacking, but it adds up to a lot of time that my aching hands spend fiddling with controlling the folds. 
So I had a brilliant idea- why not do that step by machine?  It would save my hands, and also make the pleat much more secure. 
So I did!  Easier AND better = Winning!  (Another example of my "best of both worlds" fabrication philosophy.)  And I bet I am not the first person to have thought of this!!
I flattened out the pleat, making sure it was centered, then ran the tacker for one cycle.

There- that took a second or two, whereas doing that by hand would take a minute or two.

I formed the pleat and held the folds together with Wonder Clips.

With the folds secure, it was much easier to make pretty, even stitches.

On the back there is this little stitch from the machine.  On the front, nothing, because it's hidden!

I'm happy- but more importantly so are my hands, with this easier AND better pleat! :)