Pleats and thank you

December 29, 2012 8:14 PM

The folks at International Pleating have been pleating stuff for four generations: silk, organza, Spandex, eco-fabrics, striped fabric, leather, metallic leather, retired kite-surfing kites, and more, in a variety of methods and techniques including Fortuny and mushroom pleating and that's-more-textured-than-pleated-really effects. When they're not pleating stuff, they blog about pleating — including good info about how to recognize a badly-pleated skirt, how to test your yardage for shrinkage, and a mindblowing level of detail about pleated bias circle skirts — and write free ebooks on topics like how to use machine pleating and cutting and calculating for pleated bias-cut skirts. And when they get bored, they pleat Doritos and potato-chip bags.
posted by Lexica (32 comments total)

This post looks very com-pleat. Good job.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:38 PM on December 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

AAAAAAaaaaaaarrrrhhhh, it will not load for me. I cannot believe how badly I want to learn how to recognize a poorly-pleated skirt.
posted by looli at 8:56 PM on December 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am unbelievably excited to discover that a pro-pleating house has a blog, even if it won't load for me. Seriously, excited enough that I'm excited to go wash dishes, because it'll probably load after I'm done.
posted by mollymayhem at 8:59 PM on December 29, 2012

cache of how to recognize a poorly pleated skirt.
posted by stavrogin at 9:10 PM on December 29, 2012

That "striped fabric" link is really cool.

(I'm also having trouble getting many of these pages to load.)
posted by marsha56 at 9:16 PM on December 29, 2012

holy shit garmentos are a world unto themselves. i might actually have used them to pleat a bunch of silk once. i wish we'd had a formula for calculating for the bias. i'm not sure how we figured it out but it took forever and it actually worked.

to me the most amazing thing about pleating houses is how old all their machinery is. like 19th century type old. you can look at the machines and see all the moving parts and understand what's being done and how. the sound too is super old school; ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk.

fuck Bloomberg for not doing more to preserve that part of town. the Garment District generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year but he's still letting it be carved up. and we're talking generations of specialized weirdos who've been locked into those blocks for forever.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 9:21 PM on December 29, 2012 [5 favorites]

It's not loading for me either. That sucks. I'm going to Google images for my pleating fix now.
posted by moxiequz at 9:23 PM on December 29, 2012

I think perhaps our enthusiasm has compleatly overwhelmed them. You should all go wash your dishes and come back later.
posted by looli at 9:27 PM on December 29, 2012

Shop the Garment District blog had a post about International Pleating a few months ago that serves as a nice introduction to the service.
posted by vespabelle at 10:08 PM on December 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

I have always wanted a hand crank smocker
Thanks for exciting sewing distraction sources
posted by chapps at 11:16 PM on December 29, 2012

As an amateur pub pleater of potato chip bags, I am humbled yet inspired.
posted by Erasmouse at 11:33 PM on December 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

The links would not work on my laptop, but work on my desk top.
posted by Cranberry at 11:39 PM on December 29, 2012

this one is just incredible. awesome post!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:15 AM on December 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

This is the kind of post that makes me love Metafilter. Top marks!
posted by cilantro at 2:53 AM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

fuck Bloomberg for not doing more to preserve that part of town. the Garment District generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year but he's still letting it be carved up. and we're talking generations of specialized weirdos who've been locked into those blocks for forever.


Have you pleated their case? Nah, Bloomberg probably won't respond to their pleats.
posted by vitabellosi at 5:53 AM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

to me the most amazing thing about pleating houses is how old all their machinery is. like 19th century type old. you can look at the machines and see all the moving parts and understand what's being done and how. the sound too is super old school; ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk.

This is so true! I once went to a similar pleating shop in San Francisco. It was in an old brick building and filled with these monstrous, thumping, steam-breathing machines. It was like stepping back into the nineteenth century.

I'm going to share this blog with my costumer friends. Great find!
posted by apricot at 6:17 AM on December 30, 2012

Thanks! This is awesome.
posted by Medieval Maven at 6:26 AM on December 30, 2012

The kilt factories my dad used to buy from had insane old pleating machines; big heavy clankety things. Pleating heavy worsted and getting the tartan sett to stay matched? No problem for these operators, and not a computer in sight.
posted by scruss at 6:31 AM on December 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

So their friends don't invite them over anymore, because they were tired of turning their back to get more drinks and then finding the chip bags, the napkins, the coffee table books, the lampshades, the rugs, the doilies, the sofa, the cat and the TV all pleated
posted by tel3path at 6:42 AM on December 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

And on top of that they still pleat innocent.
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:57 AM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone totally needs to turn Tom Friedman on to pleating companies. There must be a metaphor to socio-technologic-information transfer folded into the equation somewhere.
posted by sammyo at 7:39 AM on December 30, 2012

INTERNATIONAL PLEATING HAVE PLEATED THE WORLD
AND THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU
posted by tel3path at 7:55 AM on December 30, 2012

There's a plumber in my neighborhood, Martin Plumbing & Heating, and when I see one of their trucks go by, I think "Martin Humming & Pleating" and then I spend the next hour or so humming the "Martin Humming & Pleating" theme song. Hmmm hmm hmm....
posted by moonmilk at 8:17 AM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you like crazy pleats and have not seen the work of Roberto Capucci, prepare to be delighted. Not all of his work involves pleats, but when it does...! That exhibit noted in particular his salvaging and reusing of very old pleating machines as well.
posted by jetlagaddict at 9:26 AM on December 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

I love everything about this post. Thank you so much.
posted by KathrynT at 11:15 AM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

You said they pleated Doritos.

*Disappointed*
posted by glasseyes at 2:06 PM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: generations of specialized weirdos
posted by corvine at 3:10 PM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

They have an etsy shop.
posted by mollymayhem at 5:41 PM on December 30, 2012

This is so cool, thank you for posting it.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:01 PM on December 30, 2012

Their etsy shop says "a pleat lover's paradise" which of course now is stuck in my head as "Been folding most our lives, living in a pleater's paradise/Ironed Doritos once or twice pleating in a pleater's paradise..."
posted by rmless at 9:39 AM on December 31, 2012 [4 favorites]

This is the place where it is appropriate to say that pleated front men's pants need to stop being a thing forever because they are ghastly. Otherwise, please carry on pleating things, you crazy pleaters, you.
posted by mikoroshi at 12:47 PM on December 31, 2012

> they pleat Doritos and potato-chip bags.

Came here looking for pleated Doritos (moar like Dorpleatos, amirite?) and left disappointed.
posted by ostranenie at 5:40 PM on December 31, 2012