How to Make a Butterfly Pleat Drape

How to Make a Butterfly Pleat Drape

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How to Make a Butterfly Pleat Drape

Butterfly pleats in the tops of drapes are designed to look just like the two wings of a butterfly, a two-pleat adaptation of the three-pleat classic pinch-pleat header design. The therapy is romantic and impressive but not particularly difficult to make yourself. If you’re truly daunted, or just pleasantly lazy, buy some invisible pleating tape and follow the directions for nearly immediate drapery pleating. If you’d rather make sturdier or custom-pleated butterfly wings, get out your tape measure, then start with two or three buckram-lined drapery panels, and put aside some time to revisit your basic math skills.

Lay out your drapery panels using the buckram-lined header uppermost and the wrong side of the fabric facing you. Mark off alternate space and pleat sections with dressmaker pins, starting and end with a space section. Measure each pleat section to be approximately 5 inches wide and each space section 4 inches broad.

Adjust the measurements slightly to fit the width of your drapery panel — attempt to get 10 to 12 pleat sections per panel and make sure that the measurements will be the same for both drapery panels. Notice that stationary side panel drapes are typically narrower than full drapes and may have fewer pleat sections.

Fold each pleat section in half lengthwise, wrong sides of the fabric together. Match the pins marking that section to get pleats. Crease the buckram header lining together with your fingers to keep the bend right and pin the bend together. You now have a folded pleat section about 2 1/2 inches broad.

Stitch a 4-inch seam — the depth of the buckram lining — and the line where the pins that marked the pleat and space sections meet. This seam makes a pleat section that is one bend, stitched together lengthwise and its edge. Repeat for every single pleat section. Your drapery header is currently a string of flat spaces and large, sewn-together folds.

Place the drape on your work surface so all the large pleats are sticking up. Push in the center of a pleat fold to make two folds — or equal pleats — and pinch them together, creasing the buckram.

Tack the pleats together in the base of the buckram header liner, through all layers of the fabric and buckram, using a needle and thread. Repeat for all the pleats sticking up on both drapery panels. You now have two pleats, or wings, pinched and tacked, in each pleat section. The double wings are flanked by flat spaces on each side. Separate the wings together with your fingers — the stiff buckram will maintain the shape.

Insert drapery hooks to the pleat seams on the back of the curtain header. Each pleat section has just one seam. Poke the sharp pin right through the drapery fabric and buckram but not all the way through — you do not want it to show on the opposite side of the drape.

Hang the drapes by sliding the curved side of the drapery hook to the pole hardware. Secure the drapes into the poles with a finish hook in the header on each side hem of a drapery panel. Adjust the butterfly pleats to fan out as broadly as you prefer at the very top.

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