Half a tutorial on the Watteau pleat

It took me a bit longer than promised (life getting in the way there), but I finally made my little drawings. So now I can explain the construction of the Watteau pleat dress a little better. What I'll writing here is about making a 'latter-day Watteau pleat dress' like my own. The pleat is pretty much similar to the one on a historical dress, the rest of the dress however, is not.

That said, let's move on to this half tutorial of mine. I made my dress based on my personal sloper, but what I made was a dress with armhole princess seams which is fairly fitted through chest and waist. A dress with pockets in the front side pieces, obviously. You could insert the pleat at the back into any pattern which roughly suits that describtion (if it is shaped by darts, that would be fine too. The important things are a fitted top, no horizontal waist seam at the back and a shaped center back seam and having the full shoulder line on the same pattern piece makes drafting the pleat easier).

On you center back pattern piece, mark how far out on the shoulder you want the widest part of the pleat to be. At the back seam, draw a straight line from the neck down, as shown. All the lines for the pleat will be parallel to this one.

In this drawing, you can see the pleat in its full glory. The line at piece number 1 should be placed on the fold when cutting the fabric. The easiest way to go at drafting this monster is by using something like tracing paper. Place it on your normal pattern piece, along the line you've drawn. The piece between the waist of the dress and the line should be added to the pleat pattern piece, on the 'outside' (so mirroring it over the center back line).

Take care that the edge of the paper won't move away from the center back line and pull the rest to the line you marked at the shoulder. You are now making piece 8 in the drawing. This is the lowest layer of the pleat. Fold the paper back at the line and make a new line, about 4 cm from the one you came from. This is piece 7. Fold back again and go back half the width of piece 7, creating piece 6. Each line in the drawing is a fold, you have to fold 7 over 8, 6 over 7 and 5 over 6, then 4 is folded under 5, 3 under 4, 2 under 3 and 1 under 2.

The width of piece 5 should be the width of piece 8 minus the width of piece 7. 5 will be the part of the pleat best visible on the outside. It's the part I made in the printed fabric. Piece 4 should be the same with as 6, 3 the same as 7. These four folds create the distinctive double folded look of the Watteau pleat. With pleat 3, you should be back at center back. The exact width of pieces 1 and 2 is not important, but they should be the same, allowing for a basic pleat at the center.

When you're done folding the pleat, cut the tracing paper along the shoulder line of the original pattern piece. Or, if you prefer, make a small shoulder yoke like many historical dresses have. In any case, cut the pleat with the paper folded.

In fabric the pleat should be folded just like you did in paper. Just make sure you add the 'negative' bit from the original center back line to piece 8. For the dress itself, you have to use the original center back line. When sewing the back of the dress, stitch piece 8 to center back. Then, onto piece 8 stitch the straight vertical line for the pleat from the neck till a bit below the waist. Finally, stitch center back pieces to each other (catching the seam allowance of the pleat) until the end of the straight seam.

I hope you can make sense of my explaination. Don't hesitate to drop a comment if I'm not making sense, but please bear in mind that I'm only an amateur at this and English isn't my first (sewing) language. But if you want to make your own Watteau pleat dress, I'll be happy to help and I would love to see the result. Just leave a link in the comments! (of course, this applies to personal use, not commercial)

To make this tutorial a bit clearer, as requested by Cristina, I'm now adding this picture which shows how the pleats are stacked. Ignore all the vertical lines exept the 'piece between bodice and pleat' one, they're just there to make the picture understandable.

More on Watteau pleats

In the comments, someone asked about how to make a Watteau pleat. Actually, it's not that difficult. I started out studying pictures like the one in my first post about it. Trying to determine how it was built up and how far it was stitched down.

However, on my recent trip to the book store (ah, books and fabric, my two great weaknesses...) I found this great book.

In it were pictures like this one, which shows how the back of an orginal sack back dress was folded. I did mine the same way, before I found the book.

Essentially the pleat is completely straight, all its parts are the same width for their entire length. I'll have to make some little drawings to show you how to engineer that thing into a dress, but its about time I go to work. So more about that tomorrow.

Watteau pleat day dress

Finally, here they are, as promised: the pictures of my Watteau pleat dress. Please don't pay attention to the slightly weird poses and strained facial expressions. I never look well on self-timer. I took pictures from front, back and sides to really show off the different faces of this dress.

Seen from the front, it looks like a vaguely vintage inspired day dress. And of course, it has pockets...

From the side, you can really see the 'gap' between my back and the pleat. There is a bit of fabric there, reacting space between the slightly hollow back seam and the straight pleat.

And from the back you can see the Watteau pleat in all its glory. I know it would have been more historically correct to have the entire back of the dress in the same fabric (gowns of that era closed at the front, sometimes showing a contrasting or matching stomacher and petticoats there) but I ran out of the black and white printed fabric. I thought this would be the best way to deal with the fabric shortage, although it means that my pleat will not blend in with my skirt seamlessly like in the historical examples.

I am rather happy with this dress. It was a big experiment, but I think the end result looks good, and was suprisingly easy to make. But of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and for any of my sewing creations that means wearing it out. I haven't worn this one outdoors yet, and based on the reactions on my (much more 'normal') double polkadot dress, I may be in for a treat. I have shown the dress to a friend however. She liked it, even though she's not into 'unusual dressing' herself.

By the way, Watteau was a painter in the late 17th and early 18th century. The pleat is called after him because he painted a lot of ladies wearing the 'sackback gown' or 'robe a la francaise' fashionable at the time.

Inspiration at work

Ever since I've been making patterns, I have also had a keen interest in fashion history. Although I've done a lot of vaguely 1950's dresses so far, I can't say I really have a favorite period. I also love the really old stuff (one of these fine days, I'll try my hand at serious corset making again, this time making my own pattern as well).

Something I've always wanted to try is a dress with a Watteau pleat. A Watteau pleat is the straight pleat falling down from the shoulders which you'll find in certain Renaissance dresses. The kind of dress it features in is known as 'robe anglaise' and was essentially a loose garment worn over panniers and tight stays.

I, however, don't want to make a robe anglaise, I want to make a modern dress with a Watteau pleat. The intriguing thing about this pleat (not visible in the back view in the picture) is that it's separated from the bodice of the dress by seams (keeping the bodice tight and the top of the pleat sharply shaped), but flows down to become part of the skirt.

There's a piece of fabric in my stash which I've had earmarked for this dress for over a year. Now, the pattern is done, the muslin's been fitted, so it's going to become the Watteau pleat dress!