Quote Originally Posted by way2fractious View Post
... or, where there are three full layers vertically from hip line to hem, but the visible panels are tapered (narrowed) toward the waist, causing small overlaps of the underpleats.

w2f
Ah - I tried that - with a good thick material those overlaps make strange little triangular bumps in the middle of each panel, which could be removed by the edges being trimmed off - but why not just keep things simple and leave the fabric whole?

I'm great advocate (and possibly exponent) of making things just complicated enough to get a good return for time spent, and I'd always advise the three smooth layers at the waist option, at least to start off with.

Though maybe look at the five layer option, where the inner folds are both the full width of the panel at the waist.

There is also the double half width option - where there are five layers of fabric but folded to make two half widths.

Just no lumpy overlaps.