It's made of metal and trains your mind and hands to work the same as they will when quilting... The motion is the same as when you are doing FMQ on your DMS. You are moving the plastic as you will move the fabric under the needle. I did look at it for a while and thought there should be a way to make one, but didn't figure one out, so finally purchased this. It came promptly and is helping with what I thought was hopeless..