How to Hand sew a Pleated Skirt

Sewing a pleated skirt is an easy task to perform. Use a skirt pattern to know the amount of fabric needed to get started making your pleated skirt. A pleat is a several folds around the length of the skirt in a vertical or up and down direction. The pleated skirt is popular because its fullness makes a person look thinner because of its A-line pattern from the waistband to the hem.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Step One: Gather the top of the skirt in one inch pleats held together by stick pins. Follow the pattern instructions and sew the pinned pleats together.

2. Step Two: Cover the top of the skirt that was pinned with straight pins and sew on a waistband. The waistband is a strip of cloth the length of the waist on the skirt and be sure to follow the pattern to make the waistband adequate to cover the pleats. The waistband should be folded so that the ends of the fabric is not showing unless that is the style of skirt you are making. A good rule of thumb is to following the directions on the pattern. Pattern companies include McCalls and Butterick that are in the business of providing directions on making pleated skirts among other type of fashion design to be made at a sewing machine. The pleated skirt described can be hand sewn as well as made at a sewing machine.

3. Step Three: Sew the waist band onto the skirt making sure that the band is over the pleated skirt equally around the skirt. Make a wider skirt by adding elasticity to the pleats with an elastic band. Instructions should be included in the pattern instructions to make the task easier. Use a thin band of elastic if the pleated skirt that you are making has a thin waistband and use the wider elastic if the skirt that you are making will have a wide waistband. The wider the waist band the less pleats so the thinner waistband is better so that a fuller skirt will make for a thinner look from the waist.

[Magentaslb]

on 9/21/2009 Great article... I love to sew. 5*s