Tutorial: Cartridge Pleating

Another Old-To-Me-But-New-To-You tutorial. Not really new to anyone, as this technique is centuries old, but yeah. The tutorial itself is newish. Cartridge pleating pops up over and over again over the centuries. Pretty much any time fashion required large amounts of fabric to be squashed into a small space, tailors employed this technique. 

There are multiple schools of thought on the proper method of attaching skirt to waistband - some sew only the outer folds to the bottom edge of the waistband, others sew both the inner and outer folds, and others still will sew along the entire serpentine of the pleats. This tutorial focuses on the former, but that is not to imply that this is the best and only method. In fact, I generally stitch both the outer and inner folds when attaching slops legs to canions/leg bands in order to get the right look. You also don't have to add felt to the pleats; it's pretty and eliminates the need for a bumroll, but it's not necessary to do, if you don't mind a more smooth/flat transition from waist to skirts. 

It's also worth noting that some people prefer to stitch gingham ribbon to the inside of their skirts, as the little squares in gingham weave make it easy to gauge their stitch length. And others still employ shirring tape, meant for drapery, which eliminates measured stitches entirely. The only downside to this last method is that you can't control your stitch length, so you'd better hope that your fabric isn't too thick to fit into whatever you're planning to attach it to.

Okay, enough pedantry. Onward, to the tutorial!

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Cartridge pleating is a period method for gathering a wide piece of fabric to be attached to a smaller width of fabric, like attaching a skirt to a bodice or full slops to a waistband. This kind of pleating allows the skirts or slops to spring out from the waist, creating a period silhouette. In this tutorial, you will learn not only a method for cartridge pleating, but how to pad out the pleats and make them fuller and sturdier. You can use one thickness of felt or two – one piece will give you a nice, soft curve to your pleats, and two pieces will give you a very sturdy and rigid pleat. This tutorial uses a sewing machine and hand stitching, but if you’re feeling really gung-ho about it, you can hand sew the whole thing.

You will need

 Your skirt fabric

Your lining fabric

Your already constructed bodice or waistband

A strip of felt the same length as the circumference of your skirt or calze

A spool of the strongest thread you can get your hands on (I like upholstery thread)

A sturdy needle

A thimble (or a dime stuck to your finger with a bandaid)

Optional – A second strip of felt the same length as the first, with half the width

Step One: If you are using a double thickness of felt for your pleats, stitch the two widths together at least once. If you are only using one width of felt, you can skip this step.

Step Two: Sew your skirt/slops/whatever fabric and lining right sides together along the waist seam, with at least a ½” seam allowance. If your fabric isn’t pressed yet, you should probably do this now. I’m using some cabbage left over from another project, so let’s just pretend that this sample is pressed.

 Step Three:  With your skirt/cslops/whatever fabric and lining pressed open with the wrong sides facing up, stack your felt on top of the seam allowance. With one side of the felt butted up against the seam, stitch the felt to the lining, about a ¼” away from the edge.

Step Four: Flip your garment right side out. Using your extra-super-strong thread, make two lines of stitches through all layers of your skirt (self, felt, lining), near the top of your skirt/slops/sleeves/whatever. Don’t eyeball it like I did; take the time to make sure your stitches are evenly spaced. Remember that the circumference of your garment will determine how wide your stitches are. Mine are usually at least 1”.

Step Five: Gather your stitches, making sure that the fabric folds where you want it to. Extra funky folds should be tugged or cajoled into place. The tighter together your pleats are, the more rigid they will be.

Step Six: Right sides together, stitch the top edge of your slops/skirts to the bottom edge of your waistband/bodice, using the same heavy duty thread. Make sure to pass the needle through the lining, the felt, the slops/skirt fabric, the waistband/bodice fabric, the waistband/bodice interlining, and the lining. You can use as many stitches as you want per pleat; I use two.

Congratulations! You have finished cartridge pleating your garment! And look – they spring away from the body without the aid of a bumroll or arming bolster! One less layer to don in the morning; how exciting is that? If you’re wearing a sottana and properly executed the doppia at the hem of your skirt, you have eliminated TWO extraneous pieces of clothing! For an example of what this looks like in practice, check out my hastily compiled post on the Florentine Barbie ensemble.

Oh, Look! It's a Project Wrap Up!

Shocking, I know. Remember that Russian Court gown I teased and then never did anything about? Well, this entry is an attempt to make up for that. "Long time coming," you say? I totally agree with you. 

I finished and delivered this project last August (I know, I know. I'm the worst blogger ever). I haven't asked P about getting photos of her in it, so you'll have to make do with images of a dress form. Just pretend there's a pretty girl in it, okay?

So. 

The inspiration image: Maria Fedorovna by Makovskiy, 1912

After lacing P into her new corset, I fit the toile. Like you do. I have no pictures, because who takes pictures of their poor, unsuspecting, client who just got off work? Not me. So pretend there's a picture of the fitting. It went pretty well.

Onto the building process! First off, this was a time-consuming project, even with cutting corners on embroidery and such. P had a specific budget and time limit (and I pushed that deadline way farther than I should have), so instead of the insane amount of silver embroidery depicted, we agreed to echo the look with rhinestone and sequin appliques. P also preferred an aubergine (how's that for a $2 word?) velvet over the lighter purple in the portrait. So when you see black velvet in my crappy cell phone photos, know that it's actually eggplant.

On to the pictures! 

Laying down the trim was pretty straight forward, there was just a lot of it - about 150 yards, in fact. After marking off my lines and stitching down the wider trims, I started on the lattice work. The silver lattice on just the skirt took roughly 16 hours. On an industrial sewing machine. Did I mention this was a labor-intensive project?

Here's another shot of the skirt while I was sewing the lattice. See those stars in the bottom bit of the photo? Those are my PJs. More precisely, those are the PJs I stole from my fiance. Yes, I work in my pajamas. Don't judge me.

The skirt/train after I finished up the lattice. How many times can I say 'lattice' in this post? Too many. If the fabric looks small, check out the hip curve (curved metal ruler) laying next to it. That hip curve is 24" long.

And here's the train after I finished with the silver trim. So much trim. So much. Again, the picture makes this look like a smallish piece of fabric. Wait till we get to the end result.

And then the fun part: Laying out appliques and finding a configuration I liked! Fun! Well, it was fun for me, anyway. After coming up with about 20 different patterns, I narrowed it down to this one.

And then I changed my mind. This ended up being "The One" after I bought a bunch of other appliques, because of course more is more.

Sewing on appliques. So thrilling.

And then came the sleeves. Second verse, same as the first. Mark, trim, lattice. So much lattice.

And more trim to finish off the raw lattice edges.

And then came appliques! Because more is more!

For some reason, I never took construction photos of the bodice. or the underskirt. Because I'm a clown. But it did happen, I swear. This was after making the main part of the bodice, itself. I was testing out applique placement. I love appliques, especially rhinestone ones. But after this project, I needed a year away from them. 

Closeup of the bodice detail. Thrilling. I am in love with those buttons, however. They were the right ones for the job, and added a bit more glitz without detracting from the rest of the garment. 

After the sleeves and bodice were completed, I hand stitched the sleeves into the armscye. Normally I wouldn't do that, but these had some cartridge pleating at the back to give them a bit more oomph. So far, so good.

And then I finished the train! See? I told you it was kinda big. I ended up making the train and underskirt as one garment, to avoid having too many pieces to keep track of. I have no idea if this was how it was done in 1912, but from a costumer standpoint, it made the most sense.

Big Finish!

See? More totally is more. Overall, I was quite please about how this turned out. I would have loved to add more silver embroidery and maybe some soutache to more closely follow the original portrait, but quite frankly there just wasn't time or budget for it. Again, I don't have photos of P in the dress, so just pretend that this cheapo dress form is her. 

Here's a closeup of the completed bodice, taken by my mother. She's a good photographer, no? You can see more (read: better) of her work on her flickr site.

Post Mortem

I'm still chuffed with the way this turned out. Would I have liked to add more silver trim? Yes. Did I have to take a break from purple fabric for a few months? Heck yes. But it was a joy to work on, a pleasant challenge, and the customer knew what she wanted, which made it easier to build this costume. I have no idea what event she wore it to, but I hope she enjoyed it and knocked the socks off of everyone she met.

Whoops, Where Did That Year Go?

Apologies to anyone who attempted to follow my exploits, only to be foiled by my lack of posts. Seriously, I am a jerk. I made promises. I hinted at projects that would be blogged. And then I lost track of it all. I'm a jerk, and I'm sorry.

Also, despite my profuse apologies, I have no images to share with you at the moment. I have a number of projects that were completed, including those for Giovanni de Medici, Luigi Gaddi, Giovannie Salvatore de Malatesti, and the Russian Court Gown. These will all be given attention, and they will be posted. Just not today. I also have a number of other projects that I have finished or am currently working on, but some of them will not be given a blog post until after the Renaissance Pleasure Faire has opened. For nondisclosure reasons, of course.

Oh! And other news: I have been hired as costumer at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale! Yay, me! Also why I can't share everything I make with the world. You'll just have to come and see my work for yourself, while enjoying historical reenactment, artisan crafts, stellar entertainment, and delicious pear cider. It's a tough life.

Keep your eyes peeled for things to come soonish (I hope).

Evolution of a Corset

This entry is going to be somewhat image-heavy, mostly because I don't have a lot to say about the project. The sky blue corset I've been working on is nearing completion - all that's left at this point is adding grommets. But since that's the only thing left, I'm going ahead and creating an entry as if it were done. Because I can.

Here is a picture from after I had assembled all the fabric bits and threw it on my form. I like putting things on dress forms often, because I like checking and making sure everything is about where I want it. Plus, it's just plain satisfying.

Aaaand, here's a shot of it, as I was adding boning and channels.

Exciting, right? Maybe only for me. Next is one of the bias binding, and a closeup of some of the flossing.

Flossing was originally added to help keep bones in their channels, thus avoiding issues of them popping through stitching and/or the fabric, itself. The technique quickly evolved to become more than just functional, and there are some beautiful examples of flossing in period and modern corsetry. Mine isn't particularly beautiful or refined, and it doesn't take theform of flowers and the like, but I do enjoy it, nonetheless. Like embroidery, it's soothing to do and helps complete the overall look.

Nice effect, huh?

And lastly, the finished corset.

I'm very satisfied with the finished product. This corset would look better on a body than my crappy form, but it definitely achieves the look I was going for: feminine, soft, pretty. 

What I learned from this project:

Not much, really, though I did enjoy working on it. I did learn that Ageless Patterns isn't much help, beyond just the basic pattern. If I ever need to make something I've never done, I won't buy a pattern from this company. The stitching on the corset isn't as perfectly symmetrical as I'd like, but it's still quite satisfactory. 

After I get the grommets in, this piece will be delivered to its new owner, and I'll be taking measurements to get her gown underway.

Up Next: Luigi Gaddi and Mario Sforza

Update on the Russian Court Dress

Back to work on the corset! I'm almost done, which is rather exciting. The bias binding is now sewn down, and I am currently working on flossing the thing. I'm planning on being done with the corset within the week, and moving on to the dress.

This weekend, I was also able to fit the giubonni for Mario Sforza and Luigi Gaddi, so there will be updates involving those, as soon as I get the muslins trued up and adjust my patterns. Exciting! For me, anyway.

In other unrelated news, I got engaged over the weekend! Yay, me! And my fiancé, of course. We're not getting hitched for a little while, as we have other ducks to queue up, first (even though I'm already planning things in my head). But Yay! I swore to myself years ago that I wouldn't become a wedding-obsessed-type. We'll see how well that pans out.