Laying out pleats can be very tedious. This tool allows you to create the layouts that will make forming pleats much easier. Learn more about pleats.

Pleat Lines

There are three line colors below. The red lines are an outside fold (bring the wrong sides together), blue lines are an inside fold (bring the right sides together) and grey are not folded. Grey lines are used for alignment only.

First, you need to select two lines for the pleats. One should be the top of the pleats and the other the bottom.

There are four types of pleats you can make with this tool. We'll cover each one below.

Knife Pleat

Knife pleats comes off the starting point with the depth value, then in/out/neutral and distance (if entered). They will end with distance after the last neutral line. If there is no distance, spacing is the depth and pleats are one after another. In between, distance is added after the neutral line before the outside fold.

Select the Knife Pleat.

You can enter the Number of Pleats or you can enter a Pleat Depth. Either way, the program will calculate the layout for you.

If you want some spacing between pleats, enter a Distance Between value.

Accordion Pleat

An even number of accordion pleats ends with the outside folds on both ends of the lines, an odd number will have one in and one out on the ends. You want an odd number, if you are going to join the ends (such as a skirt).

Select the Accordion Pleat.

You can enter the Number of Pleats or you can enter a Pleat Depth. The program will calculate the layout for you.

Box Pleat

A box pleat consists of seven lines. 

Select the Box Pleat.

You can enter the Number of Pleats or you can enter a Pleat Depth. Either way, the program will calculate the layout for you.

If you want some spacing between pleats, enter a Distance Between value.

Inverted Box Pleat

A box pleat consists of seven lines. 

Select the Inverted Box Pleat.

You can enter the Number of Pleats or you can enter a Pleat Depth. Either way, the program will calculate the layout for you.

If you want some spacing between pleats, enter a Distance Between value.

Pleat Depth

If you are using Pleat Depth for calculations, the system will do all the math to come close to the desired depth. However, you can't have a partial pleat, so it will round when necessary.

The math:

Line Length / Depth * Number of Segments in that pleat type

This is then rounded to the pleat number. Then the depth value in the tool will be recalculated. This guarantees that your pleats are even across the entire length of your lines.

Pleat Points

Pleat points are shown in grey on the two pleat lines. They don't break the lines and changes to the lines will not change these points.

Pleats should be done at the end of the design process. If you have to change the lines or layout, you should delete the pleat set and redraw them.