When I first tried to insert a kickpleat into a skirt, I couldn’t find a tutorial anywhere. I remember thinking “I can’t be the only one in the world trying to do this alteration!” It was frustrating. Luckily, I figured it out. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “kickpleat” it’s just inserting a piece of fabric into the split of a garment. Your garment will either be lined or unlined. Today’s tutorial is going to cover how to insert a kickpleat into a lined skirt…
Lined Skirt (Inside View)
Begin by measuring the length you need your fabric to be. How wide you will make it is completely optional. Typically, longer splits will need a wider piece of fabric to accommodate a person’s stride. This skirt is exactly 11 inches long so I’m going to cut my fabric at 11.5 so I can have room to hem the bottom. The width I’m using is 10 inches. (If you aren’t using a serger you may need to make it wider)
Now, what you want to do is cut out a triangle shape with a flat top. First, make a square so that you know how much area you have to work with.
Then find the middle of the top line and measure about 2 inches or less. This is the flat top of your triangle. You then slope both sides at a 45 ° angle toward the bottom.
At this point I ironed my triangular piece of fabric and serged all the ends. (I did wind up hemming both the bottom and the top pieces). The next step will be to pin the sides of triangular piece to the liner ends. Make sure not to pin the outer fabric.
***You won’t be able to see anything from the front side because it’s lined.***
Through the opening side of the split, pull the outer fabric away and then sew up that side. The other side does not have that casing-like opening so you will sew it on the edge of that split. (There is more than one way to do this step so feel free to attach however is pleasing to your eyes).
The Last step is to attach the top. The whole point is to make this act as a “pleat”. Take the top part and fold it to make a pleat. Pin it and sew.
That’s it! Now you have a nice kickpleat and plenty of extra walking room.
Hope this wasn’t too confusing. If your skirt isn’t lined check out this tutorial of adding a kickpleat without a liner. If you need additional help or have suggestions on how to add a kickpleat to a lined skirt comment below.
