Wow, time flies when you are immersed in pleating projects. I spent the last couple of weeks, before this week, making cushions, shams and a bed skirt with pleats. I have plenty of sewing jobs to do, which I am very thankful for, so I have been working hard while the work is available.
I thought I would share a method I used, out of desperation, while making 5 inch box pleats on a king sized bed skirt. That comes to about 48 pleats that I was trying to finish in a hurry.
I cut a piece of cardboard the width of my pleat (5 inches) and used that as a pressing guide, pressing the pleat right on the cardboard.
Then I cut another piece of cardboard twice the width of the fold under the pleat. Normally I would fold it to the middle of the top part, but I didn't have enough fabric to do that. This cardboard was used to form the underside of the pleats, keeping everything nice and straight while I pressed it.
Then I pinned the pleat in place. To keep from losing track of how many of the 48 pleats I had completed, I stuck a pin in my cutting table, off to the side, every time I finished a pleat.
After all that pleating, I made slipcovers for my daughter's chairs. We made the 300 mile trip to visit and deliver them last weekend and had a really nice visit. They took us on a couple of beachside outings, and of course we had fun playing with our 9 month old grandson. He is sooo cute.
I was so excited to put the covers on the chairs, that I failed to give them a good press first, but the beauty of slipcovers is that they don't have to look too perfect. Right?
