Thursday, August 23, 2012

Box Pleat vs Kick Pleat?

Oh, my poor blog!  So neglected this summer!  Somehow it's just been hard to think about sitting inside at the computer for a second longer than necessary.
So I've made myself a cup of coffee and here I am.

Everybody wants to know what the difference is between a kick pleat and a box pleat.  The difference is: which side you looking at.
The client for whom we made these treatments had a kitchen window, which needed a valance, and an alcove which needed just a slender topper.  The big check fabric lent itself perfectly to the two different applications.

She wanted a flat valance with contrast center and end pleats.  From the front, this is what I call a kick pleat.

But from the back, it's a box pleat.  It's kind of like how the back of a pinch pleat is.... an inverted pleat.  Same thing, opposite side.  I imagine terms are used differently between regions and generations, but this is what I learned in Home Ec in the 60s!

I kept the teeniest gap between the sections so the contrast could peek through.   This looks like a woven check, right?  Nope, it's printed!  By some miracle it stayed square enough to pull this off.

If the world were the right kind of place, window treatments would be made to fit fabric, and we would not have to manipulate fabric to fit windows.  Unfortunately, we have to make treatments to fit actual windows, so we have to do the best we can to blend pattern and space.  In MY ideal world, the window would have been 1" narrower so the kick pleats would end on the stripe, but!..... it is what it is.

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