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skirt: pleats to flat-front removing pleats from contour yoke skirt
doompancakes Intermediate Member since 11/8/10 Posts: 15	Login to reply to this post Like this post Date: 3/17/11 1:35 PM Before I start chopping into anything I wanted to double check with you all that I'm actually on the right track. This afternoon I plan to work on Simplicity 2451. I'm super excited about this skirt, and it has all the thhings I look for in a skirt, but it also has pleats. And experience tells me that pleats are a design element that just don't work for me. My tummy/front torso are quite flat, and my bottom/hips are really not. Because my front is so much smaller then the back its difficult to get skirts to fit without below-dart "poofiness" (added bulk or the appearence of added tummy fluff where i t isn't). To avoid that poofiness I'm hoping to remove the pleats compleatly rather then closing them off as darts. I've searched extensively within the PR boards and found lots of good information, though most of it has been about pants. My plan is to fold out the pleat from the waist all the way through to the bottom, and measure the pattern pieces to see if they'll still be big enough. Some advice seems to suggest drawing a line in the center of the pleat-marking lines and fold from one edge to there, Trial and error will help figure out how far to fold I guess. Some questions I have are: will I need to modify the yoke so that everything will fit together sans-pleats? Would it be possible to rotate the side pleat out through the pocket (I don't know what I'm tlaking about, just have this vague mental image of moving triangles around)? Would blending to a smaller size at the waist make this dramatically more complicated then it needs to be? Other alterations I'm doing: Adding length (I'm tall, with a short waist or high hips, and want the bottom of the yoke to be at my hip bone), and adding length at the CB to compensate for a large bottom (unless I do this my skirts are embarrassingly short in the back. Does it seem as though I'm on the right track? Any advice you can give (or warnings that I'm about to make a major blunder) would be appreciated.
kwpanthermom Advanced USA Member since 11/9/05 Posts: 416	Login to reply to this post Like this post Date: 3/17/11 3:13 PM You're on the right track. Folding the pleats out will remove that pleat-iness. Try this on the tissue pattern: fold the pleats along the pleat lines up at the waist seam, just as if you were actually going to sew them according to the instructions. Now fold/smooth the pleat flat (as if you were pressing a pleat into a fabric skirt or a pair of pants); most likely in order to flatten the tissue the pleat/fold will taper to nothing somewhere between hip and knee, but probably not all the way to the hem. It will look like a folded dart, and it should be following the grainline pretty closely, if we are to assume the stitched pleat area is parallel to grain. When your pattern lies pretty flat on the table, you've taken the pleat excess out, and there is your working pattern for the front now. It will look like you've folded out a long dart. Measure across the hipline in the front, measure across the hipline in the skirt back, and see if that total will be enough for your hip measurement plus ease (a snug pencil skirt would need about 3-4" ease for comfort, for a reference point). You don't need to fiddle with removing excess out through the pocket or anything. The folded pleats up at the waist seam are the same measurement as the seamline on that yoke, since all you've done is fold out the pleats like they told you too anyway (you can measure to confirm). Hope that helps! ------ kwpanthermom
Brine   Intermediate IL USA Member since 11/21/04 Posts: 129	Login to reply to this post In reply to doompancakes Like this post Date: 3/17/11 3:18 PM No expert here, but from the drawings on the Simplicity website it appears that style B is similar to C and D in the upper part of the skirt if you ignore the two front seams and the lower flare. I would look at the front pattern pieces for skirt B to see if those seams include shaping darts (for your tummy); i.e., are those front seams straight lines or do they curve as they approach the yoke? If the seams just below the yoke are straight you could eliminate the them (remember to remove the seam allowances) and substitute that portion of pattern B for the upper part of the skirt, pegging the bottom of the skirt to match the lines on C or D. On the other hand, if those seams are curved, you would need to extend the original front seams vertically before eliminating them and put the darts back in below the front yoke. ------ Brine
doompancakes Intermediate Member since 11/8/10 Posts: 15	Login to reply to this post In reply to Brine Like this post Date: 3/17/11 11:00 PM I'd initially thought about doing that, but view B has princess seams, whereas views C and D don't.
Kay Manuel Member since 11/1/11 Posts: 10	Login to reply to this post In reply to doompancakes Like this post Date: 1/24/12 8:49 AM I was happy to see your post re this skirt and the pleat elimination! I too want to do the same thing! I find though, that when I fold the pattern pleat and try to smooth it out along the pattern piece, the fold line at the centre of the skirt is not straight unless I fold the pattern piece all the way down to the end. Is this okay?
Kay Manuel Member since 11/1/11 Posts: 10	Login to reply to this post In reply to doompancakes Like this post Date: 1/24/12 8:49 AM I was happy to see your post re this skirt and the pleat elimination! I too want to do the same thing! I find though, that when I fold the pattern pleat and try to smooth it out along the pattern piece, the fold line at the centre of the skirt is not straight unless I fold the pattern piece all the way down to the end. Is this okay? -- Edited on 1/24/12 8:50 AM --

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