Page 203 - CTS - Dress Making - TP - Volume - 1

DRESS MAKING - CITS

Fig 5 Fig 6

Calculation: Material requirement for pleats

Objectives: At the end of this exercise you shall be able to
• calculate the material requirements for knife pleats, box pleat and inverted pleats.

Knife pleats
Example 1: A pleated section should be of 92 cm width. The pleat depth should be 4 cm and the pleat width
should be 5 cm.
a How many shallow pleats should be made?
b What should be the pattern width of the material strip for the pleated section?
c How much material (=length in cm) is required to make the pleated section, if the fabric is of width 90 cm, the
length of pleat is 15 cm and 2 cm seam allowance per strip are necessary for each seam?
Solution
a 92 cm : 5 cm = 18.4 (pleats) 18 pleats
92 cm : 18 = 5.11..... = 5.1 cm (corrected pleat width)

Explanation: If the pleated section is divided by the pleat width, it gives the number of pleats.
If the number of pleats so got is not a whole number, it must be rounded off (can be rounded off to the next higher
or to the next lower number, at free will). But then - as seen above - the pleat width as originally contemplated,
has to be corrected by a fresh calculation.
b 4 cm x 2 = 8 cm (pleat size = material required per pleat)
8 cm x 18 = 144 cm (material required for all pleats size)
144 cm + 92 cm = 236 cm = 2.36 m (material required for all pleats size + width of pleated section)

Explanation: The material required for each pleat is (irrespective of the dimensions) twice the pleat depth. To the
material required for all the pleats is added the width of pleated section ( = sum of all the pleat widths);
The general rule: pattern width for pleated components = 2 x pleat depth x number of pleats + width of pleated
section
c 2.34 m : (0.90 m - 0.02 m) = 2.6... g 3 strips
15 cm x 3 = 45 cm
Explanation: If the pattern width is divided by the width of the material (less the seam allowances), one gets the
number of material strips required. The number of strips, if fractional, is always rounded off to the next higher integer,
as there can only be a whole number of strips and the material must suffice. In this and in the similar exercises
that follow, the pleat lengths include all necessary material allowances.
Example 2: A baby frock is to have a pleat-set at the bottom. The width of the bottom circumference is 50 cm. The
knife pleats (normal pleats) should have a depth of 2.5 cm. The seam allowance at the pleated section amounts
to 1 cm each on the left and on the right. (Fig 2)

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CITS : Apparel - Dress Making - Exercise 48