Pleats for Days

I was altering a beautiful green polka-dot dress (post coming soon), that was 10 sizes too big. I decided the best way to use as much of the original fabric without bulking up the waist line would be to put in some accordion pleats.

Wrong kind of accordion.

That's more like it. 

Half-way through pinning and measuring the skirt, I realized the pins I had placed at the beginning were slipping out of my tediously measured, perfectly pinned pleats. Instant frustration.

One cup of coffee and 10 minutes of Googling later, I had a solution. A pleating board.

There are so many other blogs with how-tos for this particular item, that if you don't think that mine will work for you, keep searching. So many options. I looked at so many before starting my project, that I don't even know who deserves a little credit and extra web traffic.

Here's what I used:

You'll need some wet-seal packing tape, a damp sponge, scrap fabric, fusible webbing, ruler, pencil, and an iron.

Once I decided how big I wanted my pleats to be, I measured and marked where the folds should be on the packing tape just like I would if I were marking the fabric. Then I folded it, using the damp sponge to seal it together as I went. Next, I cut out fusible webbing and scrap fabric to match the size of the folded tape.

Here's the easiest part: make a sandwich and press it. Place the fusible webbing on the wrong side of the tape and place the fabric on top of that with the right side of the fabric facing you. Now, press it like a panini.

Enough sandwich analogies. 

That's it. You're done. Pleat board finished. I made two different sizes.

To use it, I pin the beginning of the fabric that I wish to pleat at the top of the board (pleats facing down). Next, tuck the fabric into flaps. I use my EZY-Hem to help slide it in there. Since it's metal, you can iron as you go without fear of melting anything.

When the fabric cools, you can remove it and do whatever it is you want with your perfectly measured and pressed, pleated fabric.

I promise to post the finished pictures of the green dress soon-ish. The only thing I have left to do with it is put in the zipper. So close....