This week's project, the Betty Jumper, came about from a peruse through the sale Simplicity patterns. I found a pattern for a women's dress that featured a curved yoke of sorts. And voila! the Betty was born.
In another post I will talk about the use of commercial patterns in creating other styles. For now, I am focusing on adapting a bodice pattern that started with a gathered front to a box pleat. The box pleat itself provides a lot of opportunity for easy style!
A basic box pleat is defined by wikipedia as:
"Box pleats are knife pleats back-to-back, and have a tendency to spring out from the waistline.[2] They have the same 3:1 ratio as knife pleats, and may also be stacked to form stacked box pleats. These stacked box pleats create more fullness and have a 5:1 ratio. They also create a bulkier seam. Inverted box pleats have the "box" on the inside rather than the outside."
A bodice can use either the standard or inverted, but note that the inverted lends itself to "peekaboo" styling.
Here are some suggestions for going wild with a bodice box pleat:
1. Keep it simple. A basic or inverted box pleat at center is no vanilla way to say "I put thought into my garment."
2. Double up. Try side-by-side box pleats or off-center box pleats. Stretch your pattern engineering skills by simply widening your bodice pattern piece at an interesting point.
3. Get horizontal. A horizontal box pleat from armpit to armpit can look adorable on babies and toddlers. For older girls, this pleat can work if it lays high above the bust.
4. Peekaboo! Add a strip of fabric which will serve as the inside of the inverted pleat. A great choice would be a high-contrast fabric of similar weight to your garment's fabric.
5. Triangulate. On a pattern like the Betty, you could sew the top of the pleat in the standard fashion, but then open it up to where the bodice meets the skirt.
Try it! You'll like it! Here are some other great examples of pleats as embellishment:
- Birthday Party Dress from PinkLizzyfromAus
- Pleated Skirt for Girls from SewFrivolous
- Hard to Resist Accessory Pouch from sewingsparklz
- Slate Scarflette from flutter
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