How to Treat Quilting Threads for Pleating

Quilt pleats properly using basic sewing supplies.

Quilting a piece of flat material typically involves stitching a marked pattern through layers of fabric. However, you can create a more dynamic quilt by including more dimensional elements, such as pleats. To sew pleats into a quilt, you must treat the quilting threads carefully to prevent the threads from deforming the folded pleats, or from creating tugs and gathers where they should not be.

Things You'll Need

• Quilting ruler
• Rotary tool
• Quilting needle
• Quilting thread
• Straight pins
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Lay a quilting ruler across the surface of the quilt, and run a rotary tool along the edge of the ruler where you want one of the pleats to be. This will poke small, non-damaging holes into the fabric so that you can see where to stitch.

2. Move the quilting ruler down the fabric until you reach the area where you want the next pleat to be. Run the rotary tool along the ruler, as before. Repeat this process for each pleat marker.

3. Thread a quilting needle with quilting thread. Then fold the fabric along each marked pleat line and sew vertically, using a running stitch. Do not cinch or pull the thread as you sew.

4. Press the pleats flat to one side, then pin them down with straight pins.

5. Sew horizontally along the pinned pleats using a running stitch, making as many rows of stitches as you prefer. The more rows of stitches you sew, the more firm and intricate the quilting pattern will be. Remove the straight pins.

6. Trim any excess thread with scissors before completing the rest of the quilt.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep sharp quilting needles, straight pins and scissors out of the reach of children.

References

• JMD Designs: Sewn Wavy Pleats Tutorial