Since I made that pleated dress for Nyssa, a few ladies have asked about how to make pleats… Here was the first dress on Nyssa that I made 10 years ago… like those pleats?
Then here is the latest dress I made for Nyssa, using the same pattern I had drafted… only I used a tighter pleat this time…
This is my favorite way to make pleats but I wanted to tell you about a few other ways first…
Today we are going to talk about the Pretty Pleat. It’s a rubber mat that is about 15″ long and about 5″ wide. (I forgot to measure it.)
They come in 1/4″, 1/2″ and 1″. I saw one on Ebay for a lower than normal price and wanted to give it a try… the picture showed it was the 1/2″ size mat and I never questioned the lady. Since I didn’t know exactly what it was or how it worked, I didn’t know “what I didn’t know!” Well, when it arrived, I soon realized it was NOT the 1/2″ pleater, it was a 1/4″ one. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do much with it, but decided to give it a try and see what I could do with it. The lady didn’t accept returns…
Here is what it looks like… and the only information in the package. You can see the little 1/4″ ribs sticking up…
I believe this is mainly for making curtains or drapes or a dust ruffle for a doll bed, maybe the size of Barbie… but not the American Girl dolls.
I decided even though it was the wrong size, I’d give it a try and see how it actually worked… I found a scrap of fabric and sprayed it pretty well with starch. Then I ironed it, till it was mostly dry..I had no idea how much fabric I would need to do a row of pleats, so I just used a scrap that was about 30″ long.
You first begin by hemming your fabric…and pressing it flat.
Then you take a credit card or the little card that came with it and push it into the first groove…
Once you get it in the groove, run it from top to bottom on the mat and it will stay in place. Carefully take your steam iron and press it… I didn’t make a pleat in every single groove on the mat. I did every 5th groove…
Let it set for just a second and place something to hold the pleat in place… like a popsicle stick or I used a couple of metal bodkins…
You’ll want to keep your hemline even at the bottom of the mat as well…
Something has to be laid in the groove every time you slide the card to keep it from pulling out your latest pleat..
So you keep lifting out the bodkin and moving it to the newest pleat you made… I hope you can see what I mean from my pictures…
When I got to the end of my fabric, I let it cool and removed it… because it was starched, it was pretty stiff, and held its shape.
See what I mean about it looking like it would be perfect for Barbie drapes?
This is what the back looked like…
Here is the whole piece all pleated… (I’m calling it pleated, but it’s not what I had in mind…)
I was disappointed that it wasn’t what I was hoping it would be… if it had been the 1/2″ grooves, I think I could have used it for the AG dolls… but this was a waste of time…
However I’m not one to let all that time count for nothing, so I decided to see if I couldn’t do something with it. So I took the tucks and sort of manipulated them so every other one lapped over the one beside it… starting in the middle and working my way out to the sides.
It is a little complicated to even tell you how I did it, but I just did some lapping and folding and this is what came out of it.
I pinned it in place… since I was turning some back and some forward… I stitched across the top of the pleats to hold them in place, making sure the bottom hem was even.
I decided since I had come this far, I would try to make something out of it… how about an American Girl’s doll skirt.
I cut a curved waist band and attached it…
…and this is what I ended up with…
It is just pinned in back. I didn’t take time to sew on a snap, but might just keep this for when I have to show a girl. this way she won’t be naked…
I took another scrap of fabric and tried making box pleats… and they were slightly better…
I did it the same way, only this time I put the card in every 6th row… then I took that piece, after it was grooved and folded my tucks to the middle and had them touching… then I pressed them so they looked like this…
So my thoughts on the 1/4″ Pretty Pleat? I give it a D! I was NOT impressed with it at all. It was way too time consuming and it didn’t give me the results I wanted. Perhaps if I had gotten the 1/2″ pleater, it might have been better. Deeper pleats would make all the difference for what I was wanting to use it for.
The mat itself it pretty sturdy…the hot iron didn’t hurt it at all and it seems like it would hold up to lots of use. It seems like an okay concept to make little grooves, but I was hoping to turn those grooves into pleats and it was just too complicated.
I felt kind of bad giving it a D, so I looked on Ebay to see if there were any other instructions for the 1″ Pretty Pleater… I do believe the 1″ mat might work for making pleats for doll clothes. All the instructions are shown in pictures on this one.
I read how you can tuck the fabric in the 1″ grooves, then you take some kind of stabilizer and fuse it to the back while the pleats are still in the mat. It holds them in place. Then when you take it out of the mat, you press the tucks one way and you have perfect pleats… for blinds or a dust ruffle, but I just realized they would be stiff from the stabilizer and not move like you want pleats to do in a skirt.
We’ll try something different tomorrow!
See you then!
Blessings, Jeanne
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De: I Dream of Jeanne Marie - https://idreamofjeannemarie.com/2020/09/08/testing-out-pleaters-first-up-is-pretty-pleat/
Fecha: September 08, 2020 at 02:25AM
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