Thursday, May 29, 2014

All hail to the cartridge pleat queen!!!

What you might ask is a cartridge pleat?  First popularized in the Elizabethan era, cartridge pleats are a means of gathering yards and yards and yards of fabric for a skirt.  Simple gathering could never accommodate the volume of material that was being used at the time, so tailors developed a method of sewing parallel lines of  stitches where every stitch lined up exactly.  When the threads are pulled, the fabric forms perfect accordion pleats that are then stitched individually to a waist band.

Our cartridge pleat queen is Paula Nigh.  Not only is she queen of the cartridge pleats, she is a tireless, talented and terrific volunteer.  See her work below.




1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the complements, Jane. Strangely, I have an overwhelming desire to figure out how to incorporate cartridge pleats into the clothing items I have cut out that are waiting for me in a closet....I think it is only a fantasy.

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