Emerald's Thread: Pleats on a Dress

Take one 1950s style dress.

100% silk

Really good value. £110 reduced to £15.

But top half not big enough. Sigh.

Take some matching ribbon. It's worth getting an exact colour match to one of the colours in the dress so the pleats look like part of the design and not an afterthought. Go for ribbon that complements the fabric of the dress. Here I've chosen the smooth satin ribbon to match the silk of the dress.

Do this.

This took approx 3 metres ribbon. How much you need depends on the size of the dress and how you space the pleats. The width will depend on how much you need to add to the neckline. Here the ribbon is 3.5cm wide. You can do the pleats on a sewing machine or here is an easy way to do it by hand, especially if you want to experiment with what sort of pleats look good on the dress.

1. Seal the ends of the ribbon with nail varnish. Leave a space then make a pleat of a certain width. Here width is 3cm. Pin.

2. Decide how much space you want between pleats and thus how much overlap in relation to your pleat width. I have chosen 2cm between pleats. Measure 2cm from the first pleat and stick a pin.

3. Fold the next pleat to this pin. Measure the length of this pleat as 3cm. 3cm with a 2cm space between them gives a 1cm overlap.

See, measure 3cm and a 1cm overlap.

4. Take the pin out and pin it longways. Now start again measuring the next pleat with a new pin. Stop when you have enough pleated ribbon to cover the dress. Cut pieces to size leaving extra length on the ends to fold any raw edges over where they will show. Seal the ends with nail varnish.

It will look like this.

5. Sew 1-2mm from the edge. Machine stitch is the best as it is most secure but small neat handstitches are also fine. Then press lightly with an iron.

6. Pin to your dress and sew with invisible hand stitches. The pins on the right side are to stop the pleats sticking out. Next secure these with one or two invisible stitches.