To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory. Isaiah 61:3

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

1863 Dress Project: Cartridge Pleating...

Whoo hoo!!  I had never made cartridge pleats until yesterday!  I had always looked upon them as super cool, but maybe they would be super difficult to make!  Maybe it was the type of fabric I used, or the fact that I didn't interline the skirt (I have found extant evidence that some skirts were not interlined) making the fabric not so bulky...whatever the reason, my cartridge pleats went together so beautifully!  I absolutely loved the whole process!  I followed the steps I read from many blogs and costuming sites....one of my favorites being Historical Costuming's article on cartridge pleats....


I do believe I will be employing this method of taking ridiculous quantities of fabric and making it fit into a very little...well not SO little....space again!   


Here are my cartridge pleat thread lines.  The top thread I left white as it would be hidden beneath the waist band.  The bottom two I Sharpie'd black as I didn't have any heavy duty thread on hand in the shade of black and really didn't feel like venturing out in the cold to acquire some.  The Sharpie worked wonders!!!


What my cartridge pleats looked like after I laid them down and sewed them to the outside of my waistband.  I totally forgot to take pictures of them sans the waistband and for that I am sorry.  But here you can see how uniform and lovely they are!  

Tomorrow I will take pictures of the completed skirt!  I am quite in love!

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