Pleasing Pleats

Before I started designing clothes for myself, I never realized that it didn’t have to be some big, huge production. No need for a mind-blowing concept for a garment that the world has never seen before. You just need to be willing to walk into the unknown.

Uh oh, too preachy? Reword: You just need to be willing to figure out how all those little details you like work design-wise. Say you want a shawl collar. How does that look flat, drafted? How wide do you want it to look? How deep?

For me, the unknown with this project (a dress, made from the starting place of the dirndl dress in Wendy Mullin’s new Built by Wendy Dresses book) was pleats. I knew I wanted them, I knew the general pattern-making technique for them was vertical slash-and-spread, but that was all I knew. Knife pleats or box pleats? How would the spacing work?

I didn’t have any references to look at, so I just dug in, folding the fabric in a pleasing way, marking where folds met and how far apart they were, and measuring it. I figured out that I wanted pleats 3″ wide (before being folded) and 1.5″ apart. In the middle, I wanted there to be a 3″ space and then for the pleats to change direction. That was that. I started slashing and spreading and a lot of taping later, I had a skirt to go with my altered bodice. (I’d folded up the bodice pieces 1.5″ and adjusted the darts for my petite bust.)

Like I said, nothing earth-shattering. Neither was this or this or this or this or this. Still, they’re some of my favorite clothes, because they fit right, and they have just the details I like. Perhaps I don’t interpret the night sky in tailored black leather or make “leather” pants from trash bags, but I design clothes I like to wear, and that’s enough sometimes.

Design is accessible.

Actually, my original idea for this dress was more complex. It was to be a shirt dress, with three-quarter sleeves, a mandarin collar, and a partial button placket up the front. I still love that idea and want to make it out of a chambray, maybe. But with this dress, the fabric demanded simpler design. Sleeveless with a high collarless neckline, it just seemed right. I even tried putting short sleeves on it, but they added too much…just too much. This dress didn’t want to turn the world on its head. All it asked was to be simple, airy, polished.

So I listened.

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