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.