Sleeve Pleat

I am always amazed at how many people ask about my sleeve pleat. It is one of my pet peeves that sleeves be wide enough on the backs of our quilted pieces to allow them to be hung with ease and not create a bulge at the top of the quilt when they are hung. By adding in a little pleat on the sleeve they will hang nice and flat on the wall. Here is an easy way to create a pleat in your sleeves.

Begin with a piece of fabric that is at least 1.5-2 inches longer than your squared up top width. Cut it at least 9-10 inches wide. Take this to your ironing surface and on each of the short ends, the width of the sleeve, fold up 1/2 inch and press, fold this in on itself again 1/2" and press. Top stitch the two folded ends down.

Fold your sleeve in half length wise, matching the top unsewn edge, and press well.

Fold the front top edge 1/2" past the top of the back edge and press again. This will create a second crease running along the whole width of the sleeve underneath the first crease.

Realign the two top edges even with each other and with a 1/4" seam allowance sew this to the squared up back side top edge of your guilt.

I also put my label on the sleeve before I sew it to my quilt. I print my labels on fused plain fabric with the fusible paper still on the fabric. I then run the paper backed fused fabric through the ink jet printer. I print all the information I want to include on the label and then sign it with a permanent marker. I then remove the paper and cut the labels out with a decorative rotary blade. I center this on the back of my sleeve and fuse it in place. Finally I top- stitch around the label.

I will now bind my quilt. Once the quilt is bound I will fold up the sleeve to the second crease mark and pin it to the quilt back and hand stitch along the second crease line to secure my sleeve to the back of the quilt. When a rod is inserted into the sleeve it will not rest on my quilt surface and when hung it will not pull the top away from the sleeve. This method is simple and easy. I hope you give it a try.