How to sew pleats

If you are sitting and wondering how to sew pleats, I have good news. It’s the easiest thing in the world.

Pleats can look so good on a garment and add that tiny bit of extra look and feel it needs to look fantastic. But few people know how to sew pleats and find it hard to understand the patterns.

The first thing you need to remember when your pattern has pleats is that you need to make certain that you mark it on the fabric that you are about to sew the pleats onto. You cannot proceed and think you will get the pleats right if you haven’t marked it on the paper. This is not how to sew pleats. It has to be marked.

The next thing you do, as indicated in the image below, is to fold the marked lines of the pleats together, right sides facing.

You then take the rest of the area and fold it back over the fold you have just made. This is indicated below. I did use an already finished garment to demonstrate the next picture as I forgot to take the picture while I was busy sewing as all the other pictures. But it’s the same step.

The last part of the sewing pleats is to just sew them with a stay-stitch at the top where they will ultimately be sewn together in either an elastic, seam or hem. The last picture indicates this.

I hope this has shown you how to sew pleats. It really is an easy process and once you learn how to sew pleats you will be well on your way to beautifying whatever you sew.

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