More about gored skirt panels with curved tops & cartridge pleating

[gem]

I am reviving this thread about gored skirt panels that are cut with curves at the top of the panels, because I have a new question!

Here is the pattern diagram Princess Sara originally posted:



I'm getting ready to cut out a skirt using a similar pattern--but I was thinking of cartridge pleating it. Since you finish the top edge of the skirt before you pleat it--how would this work? I don't hem my skirts before pleating them--will that matter? Or does the curve more or less disappear once you put the panels together? 

[Lady Rebecca]

I've never done a skirt with a curved top and pleating, but I just made a sleeve with a cartridge pleated curve. I lined it, but I always line cartridge pleats with gingham duck anyway - so I would just sew all the gores together, and then sew the two layers together and turn, and I would think it would keep the shape.

[CenturiesSewing]

Gem if you are not going to line the skirt, and are stilling wanting to cartridge pleat it, then cut a facing for the curved top. Use the top of the skirt pattern as a base and have it extend down only 1.5 to 2 inches. Finish the bottom edge and then sew to the skirt, turn it to the inside, press and then tack the seam allowances in place, then pleat.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

For  a gored Skirt pattern such as this, Knife pleats might be suggested. They would lie better. Cartridge pleating needs more volume to be effective.

This makes me think of the gorgeous Light Green Gown Glenda Jackson wears in ELizabeth R, second episode that shows a gored full skirt with large knife pleats.

Screen caps from www.naergilien.info

[NicoleBridget]

Lady K, that is my FAVORITE dress from the Elizabeth R series!  Such a beautiful color on Glenda's Elizabeth too.  Thanks for the screen caps, I saved them.

[Butch]

I thought the purpose of the gored pattern was to have LESS fabric at the waistline?  I imagine if you wanted a gored pattern and still wanted to pleat the waistline, you would make the angles of the gore smaller, thereby making the entire skirt larger.

I just got done with a similar project making two capes using a gored pattern.

[gem]

Butch, I'm actually using the same pattern I've used for all my basic skirts, an OOP Simplicity underskirt pattern. It takes about 4 yards of fabric in three very slightly gored panels (so /     \ instead of / \, if that makes any sense). The versions I've made so far are all gathered with elastic waistbands, and I do find it a little bulky, particularly since losing weight. But I like the volume of the skirt overall (it works well both with and without a farthingale), and thought to see how it would do as a kirtle skirt, with a different treatment at the waist. I've already draped a knife-pleated version, and now I want to see what a cartridge-pleated version would look like.

Lady Rebecca and Centuries's suggestion of using a facing at the top is what I'll probably go with.

Gramercy!

[Rowan MacD]

Butch, I'm actually using the same pattern I've used for all my basic skirts, an OOP Simplicity underskirt pattern. It takes about 4 yards of fabric in three very slightly gored panels....

Which pattern is this? I'd like to make a couple of elastic waisted underskirts/foreparts to  change out under my split front overskirt.  I already have a fabric in mind.   This looks easy enough that I wouldn't mess it up. 

[gem]

Rowen, it *is* easy. I can make one in an afternoon (which is quick for me!). It's the old Simplicity Irish dress, 7756. Here's a picture.

It was a *great* beginner pattern, and it's a shame they discontinued it. I loved the dress I made from it, and wore that thing into the ground until I shrunk out of it, even when I had gads more sewing experience.

[Adriana Rose]

ooh that is exactly what I want to make for my mom! I love the look of the clasps over the lacing.

[amy]

Just a note Rowen.   If you are making forskirts with a gathered or elastic waist for easy of change out be prepared for it not to lay smoothly at the top edge under your skirt.  I did the same for quick sake on my last gowns and am now tearing them down because of the very unattractive twists and lumps I got in the forepiece.  If you want smooth be sure not to gather the front 8 inches or so.  See how it didn't lay well here.  It has been remade now.


Wow.. how awful to post my screw ups. UGH.  And the over skirt was way too wide apart in front because I gained so much weight I couldn't close it all the way and was too lazy to re-pleat the whole thing.  

[gem]

Ok, I'm bumping this up because I'm still not clear on something. 

Whether I line or hem or face or leave the top unfinished, the curve will still be there.

So... do I ignore the curve and mark the pleats all straight across parallel to the floor?

Or do I mark for the pleats along the curve?

Thanks!

[Lady Rebecca]

I would think pleat along the curve, possibly even making the bottom of the pleat slightly larger than the top of the pleat, so that it will hang right. But then again, the only knife pleated skirt I've done was just one big panel, knife-pleated in a straight line, which is the 18th c way to do it...