Clarification on Basting the Pleats

[The Wizard of BC]

I think you are over thinking this.

Basting is sort of like pinning. It holds things in place while you work on it. That's it. Just tack things in place.

Green pleat is tacked to blue pleat.....Blue pleat tacked to purple pleat.

You are sewing through four layers each time. One pleat sewn to the one underneath it...stop....move to next pleat......repeat. Quick, down and dirty.

In your picture you are moving from green to blue to purple.

Start at the dot on the green pleat. Sew the green pleat to the blue pleat (two stitches)...move to blue pleat (long diagonal stitch)....sew blue pleat to purple pleat (two stitches)..... move to purple pleat (another long diagonal stitch)...... and so on.