The Apron - Day 2

Today's goal was to get my apron pleated up and I managed to get it done too!

There are a couple of ways to create pleats in your fabric.  If the seamstress was very accomplished she could simply eyeball the distance between basting stitches... I am not that accomplished.  I need a tool to help me get perfectly even basting stitches.  The two most common options available are iron-on dots that can be found for purchase on-line or using a sheet of plastic canvas (used for 3-D needlepoint projects) to measure out the dots.  Since I happened to have a large sheet of plastic canvas in my stash of craft stuff, that is the option I used.

I aligned the long edge of the plastic canvas sheet with the basting row I put in yesterday (for my straight cutting line).  Using a #2 pencil, I made a dot in every third square across and down for a total of seven rows.  I plan to only smock 6 rows but it helps to have nice straight pleats to work on when smocking so having an extra row is helpful.  When I filled all the squares in the plastic canvas I lifted it and repositioned it further down the length of my apron.  It took four placements to cover the 60 inches of the fabric to be pleated.  Here is what a 9 inch section looks like fully marked...

I used a black quilting thread to make my basting stitches as it is a strong thread that resists breaking when gathered into the pleats and the high contrast in color helps with placing the smocking stitches later on.  Here is that same nine inches after basting...

And finally, here is what the whole 60 inches of fabric looks like after drawing up the basting stitches...

Next step is the make the smocking stitches.