This post is the culmination of the basic pleating principles I have covered in the last three blog posts. The importance of understanding this post is to help you identify the different types of pleating used by others and how they incorporate pleating into their designs. Furthermore, if you are a fashion designer, it will help you to clearly communicate your ideas to pleating contractors such as ourselves. Now that you know the three basic components of pleating styles and panel shapes, let’s put them together and see what we come up with. Below we have a picture of the three basic pleats: Combining The Three Basic Pleating Styles with Panel Shapes If we apply each of these pleating styles to...
For those of you who are going to hem your fabric before it gets pleated, this is a WARNING! Below is a problem we see time and time again, and it often ruins the fabric. The reason for this is the fact that after the fabric is hemmed, the length of one side has stretched and is longer than the other side. See the diagram below: Below is an example of a hem that has been stretched after hemming. Since the fabric is not a perfect square it will be pleated off grain. If we attempt to shirr the distance of the stretched hem, then we will have puckering as in the photo below: As a result...
So, you had your skirt dry cleaned and something looks a little different… Eeeek! I wish I could say I don’t get this call often! So often, in fact, I’ve decided to write a little bit about the process of restoring open pleats touching a little bit on each of the most frequently asked questions to provide as much information as possible on what to do now. So before you give up on your pleated skirt, read through this post! Can you restore the damaged pleats in my garment? Well… anything is possible. For repairs, however, everything is going to be case by case. If you are local, it’s always best to schedule an appointment to come in and show us the piece. This...
This post is in response to the many questions we have received regarding the Bias Skirt Fabric Calculator we published a few months ago. It appears people find this document to be a very useful tool, but I still need to add some more detailed information. As I was writing this post I realized there was way too much information for one post, so I will be breaking them down into several posts. The primary focus of these posts is for sunburst pleating. However, much of the same theory can be applied to non pleated skirts as well. Please note that when I refer to “skirts” I am referring to skirts that are attached to a dress as well as separate skirts with a waistband. It’s important...
A question I am often asked is: “How many yards of fabric do I need to make a sunburst pleated circle skirt?” When I start to discuss the concept of panels, people are often unable to follow me. For a bias circle skirt, one panel is the equivalent of a half circle (see Figure 1). This is the same for both pleated and non-pleated circle skirts. For sunburst pleating, the panels must be cut before the fabric can be pleated. Whether you decide to use one, two, three, or more panels will depend upon your desired look. The kind of fabric used and the fullness you want the skirt should also be considered. The images below will illustrate these concepts: In Figure 1, the skirt...
