How to figure out what pleats you want.

[Barb T]

I don't think it can be done in MSPaint. I might be able to do it in Gimp, I don't own photoshop.

All you need to be able to do is select a non-rectangular object, in this case a trapezoid. In PhotoShop, it's called the polygonal lasso tool. You just click four times, once in each corner, and you have a non-rectangular selection. I imagine that this could be done in Gimp.

Do you have a rule of thumb for rotating each successive pleat reveal in photoshop, or do you just wing it since you know what you are doing?

I actually measure. In the case of the tartan below, I scaled the sett size and the pleat size at the waist and hips, and drew lines to scale:



Then I used those to make a tapered selection that would be the right size at both the hips and waist. Depending on how generous I am with the pleat size at the waist, the rotation is typically somewhere between ~1 and 2 degrees. I just do trial rotations until the rotated slice matches perfectly, and then I just use that same amount of rotation for the next cloned slices.

Having said all this, it's infinitely easier to just pin up the tartan as a test (provided that you actually have the tartan). Just be sure to pin _tapered_ pleats that are the right size.