Designing The Pleated Skirt

I’ve been contemplating adding a pleated skirt to the pattern collection for a while and the recent return of pleated skirts in the runway collections confirmed this upward trend.

Many of the skirts in the designer collections have knife pleats, following on from summer 24’s ‘Tennis-core’ trend, boosted by the Challengers movie.

However I decided on box pleats for several reasons: I find box pleats more flattering, I wanted to have the pleats stitched in place from the waist to the hip to create a smoother line across the tummy and hips and I could integrate the shaping into a box pleat more easily.

Each pleat is made by stitching down from the top of the skirt to the top of the pleat. The pleat is then opened out and stitched into place. The excess fabric above the pleat has been removed, avoiding multiple layers over the tummy and hip area.

When choosing the correct size, go by the hip measurement first, and if the corresponding waist measurement is too large or too small, it can be adjusted.

Divide the difference between the pattern waist measurement and your own waist measurement, across the five box pleats, and adjust the line in or out, as shown in the illustration above.

To perfect this, make a toile in calico or inexpensive fabric first. You may find you prefer to make the adjustment just on the back two pleats if this suits your shape better. When you are making the toile try the skirt on before adding the waistband. Put the skirt on inside out, it makes it easier to mark the changes required.

The skirt comes in two lengths, but of course alternative lengths will work equally well.

The pleats can be pressed crisply into place if the skirt is made in a cotton fabric or similar, to hold the pleat.

Alternatively the pleats can be left soft if using a wool or other fluid fabric types.

The skirt has optional pockets in the side seam, a centre back zip and is finished with a button or hook and bar fastening on the waistband.