Best Choices for Garment Pleating

For the Garment Pleating project, I’ve settled on the fabric choices for the three designs I’ll be testing.  But I’m having trouble deciding on the style of pleating to use with each individual garment.  Can you help me out?

I’ve included in each graphic;   the garment design, the fabric choices and the possible styles of pleating for that garment.  It’s worth noting that some garments are simply a loose fit while others are well over-sized.  The different styles of pleating will delivery either surface texture and only a small uptake in fabric volume, or a much greater uptake of fabric; up to 2-2.5 times for the Small Crush.

The pattern for this design has been cut as a loose but elegant fit on the bias grain.  So the pleating style could provide surface interest/texture but not much reduction in the size of the garment.  Which do you prefer?  Crinkle or Spiderweb?

This is an oversized garment if you cut the pattern on the full width of the cloth: 150cm.  In this case, the small crush pleating is suitable and will reduce the size of the garment.  Much like the Issey Miyake, Pleats Please method, you would fold the sleeves onto the body of the garment for pleating process.  You may get some interesting effects where the dominant line of the pleating opens out over the shoulder area.

If however, your fabric is narrow, you’ll end up with a loose fit tunic around AUSize: 12.  In this case, I’d recommend one of the previous pleating styles (Crinkle or Spiderweb) to create interest in the surface for the fabric.

This is definitely an oversized garment with plenty of fabric in the drape.  Your choice of pleating style could be either surface interest or a reduction in the size of the garment.  What do you think?  I’d love to hear your recommendations before I meet with the pleaters early this week.  🙂