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Is it ok to cheat and baste the bottom of the pleats closed? I'm doing 3x pleats and I hate to have them turned into ruffles!

[Heather]

When I want super controlled pleats, I tack each pleat to the underskirt, about 4-6" from the hem of the pleat (if it's tall.) I tack the inside fold, so that it is not noticable and allows freedom of movement to the outside fold. Most of the time, you can't even tell they are held in place.

But tell us more about the Vodka solution, please! Does it take away perspiration stains, odors???? Do tell!!!

It's something that costumers & wardrobe folks do - I know it's a pretty standard practice in the theatre no matter where you go. A 50/50 mixture of cheap vodka and water in a squirt bottle sprayed into the pits after the performance until ever-so-slightly damp theoretically helps kill the bacteria and heads off stinky pits in costumes that can't be washed or dry cleaned between shows. It definitely seems to work on mild odors and seems to work best if sprayed right after the costume comes off just make sure that it's not tightly packed on a costume rack and that there is some air around the garment so it can dry.

Do you ever watch "Mythbusters"? They did a show on vodka and if I remember they proved that it does help with odors.

Any alcohol would probably do but vodka doesn't have a really strong odor of it's own and is colorless.

And then the rest of the bottle gets stored in the costume shop for those times when only cheap liquor and a 30 foot distance will make a costume look good!

As to tidy pleats, I saw pictures of a period dress (1880's) that had a piece of twill tape tacked to every second pleat on the inside of the dress to keep the pleats in place.

hm... I am trying to imagine how the 3x and 2x pleats differ in how they look.

The side pleats (all facing one dirrection) don't really loook all that different from the outside. But the general idea is that the distance between the folded edges is twice as wide as the underfolded part. Where you really see a difference is in the Box pleats (alternating directions) 3x pleats are touching fold to fold, so it looks more like a solid piece with slits in it. 2x box pleats have a space between each fold, so you get a forward section/back section appearance to them

Thanks I thought that must be the difference but wasn't sure.

I just remembered that a few months ago I was at JCPennys and they had an awesome red wool suit skirt fully pleated with side pleats all the way around. I was curious and lifted up the hem to see how they kept all the pleats so neat and they had what looked like a piece of masking tape about two inches from the bottom edge keeping them together from behind. I couldn't figure out if you were supposed to remove it after purchase cause it looked like it would come off easily when worn.

The vodka will shine your silver too.My boss swears by the method.

one shot for the spoon and one shot for the shiner?

Hmmm...could start a new drink..."SPOON SHINE"!