It probably won’t surprise anyone to hear that a sciency person like myself ADORES the predictability and specificity of pleats.
They’re parallel and geometric!
They’re neat and controlled!
And they’re easy enough for me that I could do them in my sleep (the pleats themselves, anyway. The math required to make a PATTERN for pleats is a whole different can of worms).
Imagine my surprise when I learned that some people are utterly flabbergasted by pleating diagrams, pleating instructions . . . pretty much anything pleat-related. If one of them were sitting in my workroom with a piece of to-be-pleated fabric, I daresay they might be hyperventilating.
Yet despite my love of pleats, I understand their anxiety. Because I remember my very first chemistry class, and my complete inability to absorb the concept of “moles”. By the time several people had tried to make it easier for me, it felt twelve times harder.
To this day, the thought of moles still makes me twitch.
All this to say, I think we get in our heads sometimes and turn bits of nothing into unnecessary molehills (see what I did there?) Unnecessary because the human brain is pretty amazing, and can usually figure things out for people if they focus on one step at a time.
“Can you hold a ruler and a Frixion pen?”
“Can you use them to draw a straight line on your fabric?”
“Can you draw another straight line an inch to the side of the first line?
“Can you fold your fabric along the first line and baste along this fold?
“Can you match this folded edge to the second line you drew and baste that edge down along that line?
If you answer “yes” to each of these questions, you can pleat anything you want to. I promise!
And I think, once you’ve seen Maddie’s new bias cut dress, you’ll very much want to . . .
To follow along with Maddie’s Bias Cut Cotton Dress project, click HERE.
Or to read about all her projects so far, head over HERE.