box pleat call for help

[MacWage]

That is 2 1/8 for the facing. If hand sewing, the inside works itself out easy enough. Just line up the middle of the inner pleat the stitching. The back facing and the forward sections of the inner pleat become evident. (That's what I do.)
IF you want to measure it, it would be 2 1/8 for the back facing (what is toward you) and 1 1/16 on each side (for the part linking the front and back facings.

I'd also look at 3 1/4 for each facing, alternating centering between pivots (for a pivot-> I'll use Wallace-> one is the yellow on black and the other is the black on red). That is what I did for the USA and the MacNeil.

[Erisianmonkey]

Okay, I've got it sussed. I'm using 3.25" for the facings, which means I have pivots of the center orange stripe and dead center of the broad green stripe. This material holds a crease pretty well, so once I press it, the 1.625 pleat depth should be enough to make it look respectable. I plan on making this one as quickly as I can without screwing up. (I hate using a seam ripper, I plan to avoid it!) I'll post pics of the finished article, but I don't think I'm up to the step by step.

[Moosedog]

This raises a question I can't find the answer to, despite searching repeatedly. I have made box pleats using a sewing machine: in cotton-ploy I stirch from the top as the dge stitichign shows anyway. On a wool kilt I stitch from the back so nothing really shows.

Now, if I want to hand-stitch box pleats in wool--how do I do it? Do I stitch from the front like a knife pleat, and just stitch down both sides of the box? Do I stitch from the back? What looks best and is strongest? I will reinforce the pleats with cloth on the inside but don't plan to cut them out as there will not be much excess fabric around the waist. I know the upcoming box-pleat addendum will explain this but I cannot wait any longer..

For some reason I cannot get my mind around this one. Help!

Moosedog

[Erisianmonkey]

What I did with the acrylic was just to machine stitch down the fell like I would a knife pleat I was sewing with a machine, right down both edges. If I was hand stitching wool, (unlikely, as my hands would not take doing a garment the size of a kilt) I would stitch from the back. I'd use small stitches too. I'm interested to see what the knowledgeable folks have to say.

[Moosedog]

I asked my mom and she suggested just doing an embroidery running stitch from the back. That sounds pefect, I just wonder if that will pretty much require I reinforce with canvas as that line of stirching would be taking any strain, as opposed to being spread out more via the whipstitched edge...I was planning to reinforce but wondered what would make it strongest and look the best. Everyone must be out playing or hard at work sewing...

Moosedog.

[Moosedog]

Hi, just bumping this for help fom any box-pleated stitchers out there...

Moosedog

[dwmoffatt]

Hey Moose, its been some time since your post but I read another post here on X with someone talking about sewing box pleats from the backside with a machine.
I'm still learning to do this but so far so good.

[Barb T]

Now, if I want to hand-stitch box pleats in wool--how do I do it?Moosedog

This is actually much simpler than you would think.

-Hold the kilt with the top edge to your left, and the apron in your lap. Baste the apron edge.
-Locate where the center of the first pleat will be, and measure half the pleat width at the waist and hips toward you (toward the apron edge). Line the basted apron edge up with the marks you've just made, and hand stitch through _one thickness_ of the pleat using a blind stitch (a very closely-spaced hem stitch).
-Locate the center of the first pleat again, and measure half the pleat width at the waist and hips away from you, and fold the edge of the first pleat (this doesn't need to be basted).
-Locate the center of the next pleat, measure half the pleat width toward you, line the folded edge of the first pleat up with the marks, and stitch through one thickness.

If you've made a trad kilt before, it's the same thing that you do for the very last pleat when you stitch it to the underapron. It differs from stitching the other pleats in a trad kilt because, for all of the other pleats, you fold the next pleat and stitch through two thickness of the next pleat.

Anyway, once you've worked your way across the back of the kilt, you just turn the kilt over and make boxes out of each of the loops of fabric instead of folding them all one way.

If this is confusing, just let me know, and I'll try to explain again.