Pleating a Plaid

Why pick a plaid if I want a pleated skirt?  I don’t think I realized what I would be in for and not having directions certainly does not help!

My not so dainty slip stitching but it
seems to be doing the job

Once I cut out the skirt, only one pattern piece cut twice, the fun horror began.  Pinning the pleats….easy, matching the plaid not so hard.  Brain strain over how to get the pleats with the matched plaids to stay in place during sewing.  Basting think I.  Wrong, did not work for me.  After the steam started streaming out of my ears from the strain I determined I would slip stitch the two pleats together.  Great, I suck at slip stitching!  Fun times.  Though about 1/2 way through the second pleat I got to wondering…why do this.  Yes, I would like the plaids to match and I certainly don’t want my friends pointing and laughing at my mismatched plaids.  But, would slightly off plaid matching stop me from buying a similar ready-to-wear skirt.  Nope!  Not unless the mismatch was glaring.  So why put myself through this exercise?  I guess simply because I am making the skirt and want to do the best job possible.  I wonder if anyone else struggles which the high expectation you place on yourself when sewing versus not as stringent rules for RTW clothes?  I then had to stop thinking and just do because I knew I would not be happy if I did not ensure my plaids matched.

One side pleated and stitched together.
Not bad.  But now I notice one pleat is off
and that I should probable do it over.

Off I went slip stitching away, ripping out the slip stitching, and trying again.  I think it turned out ok.  Lets hope it holds in place during the actual sewing.