Pleating advice

[Mipi]

Hi again!

I know, you're sick & tired of my questions, but...
Last night I cut my double width tartan into two pieces and put the chalk marks. I found out that one half of fabric is showing some strange behavior. Maybe it was packed on bolt this way, who knows? When I fold it on half (lenghtwise) and match the stripes of tartan it's not folded flat. Like it would be a bit skewed and wrinkled.

I hope this will be resolved during sewing?!?! Any suggestions or similar experiences?

[The Wizard of BC]

This is quite common for fabric that has been stored for a while. If the fabric was not carefully rolled and the stripes matched so that the warp and weft yarns are perpendicular (at 90 degrees from each other) then the fabric can be skewed as you have found.

It's not really a problem and will come out on it's own as your work with the fabric, but if it bothers you, it's real easy to fix. Simply fire up your steam iron and steam your fabric. Take care to fold in half aligning the stripes. shoot some steam into the fabric and gently work the wrinkles out with your hand. You can use a light ironing motion if you want but the heat from the steam alone should relax the fibers enough to make it lay down nicely.