Tips

A trick on pleating a bishop

I came to this "trick" while working on some baby bishops. I have always wondered about the top row on a bishop neckline as a holding row as well as a smocking row and where was the seam allowance?

My first smocking teacher taught an outline stitch is worked on this row to be covered by the bias neckline but a lot of designs tell you to start smocking on this row, so there has always been a pocket of confusion in my procedural brain until realization hit. I suddenly thought 'why not use a half space needle as the holding row for the very top which would solve a couple of problems that the ladies are always asking me about, that of bent pleats and fold overs pleats caught up in the sewing on the bias step. I tried it and found that it worked beautifully.

With the very top row being a half space row above your first row your graph would then look like this

row 1

row 2

row 3

row 4

row 5

row 6

With the extra pleating thread at the very top it makes adjusting the gathers easier, if you break one of the threads you have the other in place already, and your gathers are less likely to fold over onto each other when applying the neckline bias.

***

This top 1/2 row is backsmocked with the outline stitch, as you would the top row, and allows the top row to be smocked.

After I came to this realization I found the old Yvonne Denise Patterns from 1984 (now ABC Kids) had this suggestion already in print as well as in Elizabeth Travis Johnson's books - brilliant minds think alike, except my mmb (menopausal mushbrain moving into senior moments) took years to come to the conclusion.

So give this suggestion a try and see if it doesn't help.

What is the best way for me to get the fabric off of my pleater needles?

When the fabric fills the needle about 1/2" (about 5 or 6 turns of the handle or when the pleaters makes a sound like "crunch, crunch, crunch") it's time to move the fabric onto the pleating threads. To do this keep your fingers parallel to the slightly angled needles and GENTLY without pulling up or down milk the fabric off of the needles (as in the motion one would use for milking a cow - left then right, left then right). With this milking motion gently slide the pleated fabric onto the pleating threads down as far as you can smoothing out the pleats to make room for the next batch of pleats.

Be careful not to bend the needles as you are gently pulling the fabric. Don't tug the fabric off in one motions, it's better to do a gentle pull in a milking motion on one side of the pleater and then the other is the best method for getting the fabric off of the needles and onto the thread. Don't pull to hard either as you might break a thread at the eye of the needle. The junction of the needle to the thread is the weakest part as that is where it frays the quickest so be aware when working that area.

What about selvedges and seams? Can I pleat through them?

Some people recommend you cut the selvedge off but most of us like the finished edge for our seams however sometimes the selvedge is very tightly woven, too tight some say for the pleater needles. The way around this is the same way you treat french seams, when you feel the selvedge running into the needles you rock the handle of the pleater back and forth until the selvedge is pierced and the fabric is caught onto the needles. As for seams, these you will run into when pleating a bishop or are pleating a wider than normal piece of fabric. Using French Seams you trim the first seam down to 1/8" or tinier (depending upon how close together your stitches are) and press thoroughly. When rolling onto a dowel for pleating have the seams on the bottomside so they fold back when fed through the pleater. By trimming the seam down to 1/8" you eliminate two extra layers to pleat through. When you get to the seam while pleating gently rock the handle back and forth getting the seam to go onto the needles. You will be able to feel when it goes through the roller bars. Turn the handle a few more times so you can milk the seam off of the needles as soon as posslble due to the weight of the seam will affect the pleater needles.

Pleating by Hand