Cartridge Pleated Skirt - Two Part Question

[Irma]

First question:
How would I attach a skirt to a bodice, with the center front and center back knife pleated, with the rest of the skirt cartridge pleated?  Is that possible?
Second question:
Can I add piping between the skirt and the bodice?

[isabelladangelo]

There is a reason this wasn't done in period.  ;-)

That being said, if I was going to do something like this anyway, I'd roll the top edge of the skirt and stay stitch BEFORE pleating.   This way, you can just stitch the pleats to the outside of the bodice without worrying about unfinished edges.   

As for piping- piping the edge of a bodice is a 19th Century thing and only for when the skirt was somehow attached under the bodice.  With cartridge pleats, the skirt needs to be attached over (outside) the bodice.   

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

Often it is best to either Knife pleat or Cartridge pleat the skirt, then attach to a  bodice. I have never seen both done.

As far as piping the bodice, that is fine if the bodice is a Seperate piece from the skirt. I have not done that very much on Women's garb. Doublets, yes!

[Irma]

Thank you for the advice.  I am glad to have a resource to avoid such a blunder.   

[Irma]

I found some very helpful posts of the method using the one-inch gingham to do cartridge pleats.  When stitching the skirt to the bodice, how far from the edges do I make the stitches?

[Rowan MacD]

  Using gingham is the only way I have done cartridge pleating.
  I start my first row of stitches about 1/2 from the top of the fabric, and ran rows of 1" running stitches about 1" apart.
   Hint: For very long skirt panels (mine were 7 yards total),  I cartridge pleat the skirt in sections of about 24" at a time.  I used 1/2 inch checked gingham and ran 3 rows of 1" running stitches per section, using 3 needles. The rows were 1" apart which made the pleats 3.5 " wide x 1" deep.   If you have a very small waist you may have to go deeper to take up more material.
    Gather the section and do the next the same way until done.   I'm a novice, and it worked very well for me.

   Depending on the weight of the material-the skirt can be heavy, and it's best to hang all that pleating on a waistband preferably made of belt webbing wrapped in fabric.  That way, there is no stress on the bodice, and the weight of the skirt rests on your hips instead of your shoulders.  That was probably why they did it that way in period, too.  I would not recommend attaching them directly to a bodice.
   With cartridge pleats-you attach the pleats to the waist band by placing a stitch through the top edge of the pleat (they are vertical, and waist band is horizontal) and through what ever you are attaching them to.  They (and the weight of the skirt) will 'hang' from the stitches.