hi I'm Tova with Professor pincushion
and today I'm going to show you how to
do the knife plate knife pleats our
pleats that tend to all go in the same
direction
you'll find them in garments but they
can also be used in home decor I'll
offer my own tips so that your knife
pleats will turn out
professional-looking
let's go ahead and get started
let's take a look at an example of what
a pattern may look like if it has knife
plates now in this particular one that I
just made up myself
I have four pleats so you can see I have
a dashed line and then a solid line so
this is one this is another one another
one and another one you'll notice
usually the patterns they'll have arrows
to show which direction that you'll be
folding your pleats they're all going in
the same direction which is typical with
knife pleats now mine because I'm doing
something that kind of is like a pillow
goes from the top of the pattern to the
bottom of the pattern if you're doing
something like a skirt it might just
have your lines up here at the top which
is fine but this is there's different
ways that you can have it the point is
you're going to be taking one part
folding it to another line and you're
going to go in the same direction now if
you want to create your own pattern
let's say you want to create a pillow as
well you need to add on to your pattern
because as you start pleating everything
everything is going to start shrinking
up if it's something simple like a
pillow you can just add to the length of
it just realize like this is an inch
apart so when I fold this to this I'm
losing it an inch so if I want to make
sure that my pillow is going to end up
the same size I want to at least add
another inch on the end here to make up
for that if you're doing something that
is a different shape so it's not a
rectangle like this maybe it's a skirt
or maybe you want your pleats to go
diagonally at one way that you can do
that that's really easy you're going to
draw a line where you want your pleat to
be then you're going to cut on that line
and insert a strip of paper that's going
to be the width so for in this case
maybe I'll add an inch right and tape it
right where that line is and then you
can just draw a little arrow so you know
exactly where you want your pleat to be
one thing you don't want to do is put
your pleats right next to each other so
you can see I have a little bit of a gap
which is an inch gap here so I wouldn't
do this pleat and then add another plate
right next to it because all you're
going to do is get your fabric looking
like an accordion where they're just
going to be stacked on top of each other
instead of having a pleat having a
little bit of space and then have
your next plate whatever marks you have
on your pattern you're going to then
want to transfer it to your fabric so
you can see I have a bunch of pleats
lined up dashed lines and solid lines
now if you're doing something like a
skirt and you just want a soft pleat
sometimes your lines are only going to
be in this top portion so you would take
your dash line you're going to fold it
on right on that dash line or whatever
line you have in the direction that
you're folding it in and it's going to
be right on that fold line and you're
going to go to the line next to it and
so you just have to pin up here if you
want more defined pleats you're going to
do it for the whole length so I'm
folding on my first line bring it to my
second line and get a pin it like this
this is so we can press it and we can
get a nice crisp press for the whole
length of the pleat and it also depends
on what kind of fabric you're using if
you want a more defined pleat you're
obviously going to want to use a fabric
that really holds your pressing very
well like a cotton or a poly cotton if
you're doing something like a knit it's
really not going to hold it well it's
not very good for pleating so once I
have my first one done I'm going to pin
it into place I'm just going to grab a
couple of pins pin through all layers so
it makes it nice for ironing I'm just
going to do a couple of pins here and
then I'm going to go ahead and do the
next one so now I'm going to my next
line again you don't want to do it right
next to it because all you're going to
do is just stack everything on top of
each other and you're not going to get
the look that you want so I'm going to
go to this next one fold right along
that first line and then bring it to the
second line then pin it and then sew on
this is what it looks like when it's all
pinned up you can see that my fabric
definitely shrank that you want to go
ahead and iron it once it's all pinned
up and you want to have your heat
setting on the highest heat setting that
your fabric and handle so if you're
doing a cotton then you can do a high
heat setting especially if you want
those defined pleats after you press
your place you should have something
like this now the next step is wherever
you're going to have a seam you're going
to want to first baste across your
pleats
just to hold everything into place
before you go ahead and do any seam so
if I was doing a skirt
for example say this is my top of my
skirt and I'm going to have a waistband
before I add a waistband I'm going to
base right across the top if I'm doing
something like a pillow where I'm going
to have a seam on both top and bottom
you can go ahead and base the top part
and the bottom part and that's just
going to keep everything laying flat so
it doesn't get twisted once you go ahead
and do your seams when doing these type
of basting stitches you don't have to do
any back stitching it's just a temporary
stitches to hold it into place and you
can see that I'm sewing with the folds
of the pleats instead of going against
it so that way I don't worry about these
popping up or anything like that so it's
just a lot easier to do it this way you
can see my basting stitch here now the
seam allowance for this really doesn't
matter because you can remove it once
you have your seam in place you'll
notice I added a new stitch which is
this vertical stitch now this is right
on the fold of whatever I have my pleat
and you're just going down a few inches
or whatever inches you want because it's
really a matter of style and whatever
you want it to look like I'm just doing
a regular length straight stitch I'm
making sure I'm doing a back stitch at
the top and bottom and again you could
do whatever link you want and even use a
contrasting color because this is just
for style what it's doing is since
you're stitching right on the end it's
giving you a nice defined pleat up here
at the top but it's still allowing the
bottom of the pleat to open up so it's
just giving you a little bit more
definition at the top let's go over
hemming I think some people are confused
on how you hem something that is pleated
and maybe the confusion is they think
they're just folding this under and
doing a hem but then your pleats are all
connected at the bottom and we kind of
want it to be open like this like an
accordion so this is what I do I just
open it up I do my hem and then I refold
it and I press it now because I don't
want a lot of bulk underneath all these
pleats I would recommend doing something
like a narrow hem which we have it to
tour on if you need to get a refresher
on that or I just do sort of an overcast
stitch all down here at the bottom so
the edge is kind of finished and then I
can just fold it over once and do a very
small hem
and then I can refold and repress and
that way you're not going to have a lot
of bulk underneath we're going to
pretend this is my skirt and I just
hemmed it up so if we were to look at
the back of this I just did a quick over
casts folded it under about a quarter of
an inch and then just did a stitch right
on top so it's a nice small hem doesn't
have a lot of bulk and then I refolded
it and I pressed it so I have the nice
defined look at the top and then it's
kind of a little bit more open here on
the bottom but it has a nice finished
edge because now we have that hem in
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