How to Pleat with Single Crochet

I use pleating quite a bit in my designing.  Mostly because I prefer the clean look of it compared to a normal ruffle.  You can find lots of free and paid pleated patterns throughout my Ravelry shop.  (<----click there to go check them out), put at least 3 patterns in your cart ang get 75% off with code: ILIKE2PLEAT

But getting that one row worked to create the pleats can be challenging and confusing.  Here is a tutorial I put together on the basic method.  The number of stitches, or order of the pleating in the pattern you are working on may be slightly different on the stitch counts or directions.  But, hopefully this will give you a basic idea.  This is really just (in one crazy monkey's opinion), a more professional looking option than the traditional method of placing three stitches together in one stitch to gain a ruffle.  Creating pleats will always multiply your base row number of stitches by 3.

For the purposes of this tutorial we are going to build our pleats off a foundation of 8 single crochet stitches.  (This tutorial assumes you already understand how to chain and single crochet rows and rounds.)

The 1st and most important step is locating the BACK RIDGE of your single crochets.  The back ridge stitches can be tricky, and sometimes I drop down one size hook to get them worked more easily. We are going to utilize these loops as a row for stitches, as well as the front loops as a row, and the back loops as a row.  This will give us three places to work stitches off of one row.  In the photo below I placed pins in the hump that is the back ridge of the single crochet stitch.  In this photo I have just completed a row that read "CH 1, turn, 8 SC <8 ST>"  I've chained one and turned in preparation for my first pleat row which reads:

Row: CH 1, turn, SC 4 into the back ridges, turn SC 4 into the BLO, turn SC 8 into the FLO, turn, SC 4 into the BLOs, turn SC 4 into the back ridge <24 ST>

Now, let's break that down into steps and analyze it:

Row: CH 1, turn, SC 4 into the back ridges, turn SC 4 into the BLO, turn SC 8 into the FLO, turn, SC 4 into the BLOs, turn SC 4 into the back ridges <24 ST>

 CH 1, turn (See Photo Below)

SC 4 into the back ridges, (See Photo Below)Turn, Notice the needle showing the next loop we will be using to work (See Photo Below)SC 4 into the BLO, turn, notice the needle is showing the next loops we will work (See Photo Below)SC 8 into the FLO (See Photo Below)turn, SC 4 into the BLO (See Photo Below)turn, notice the needle marking the next loop we will work(See Photo Below) SC 4 into the back ridges <24 ST>  (See Photo Below)

Are you still with me?  Single crochet back and forth CH 1, 

and turn at the end of each row.  Repeat until desired length.  

You should now have a beautifully layered pleat that looks 

similar to this:

The back ridge stitches can be tricky, and sometimes I drop 

down one size hook to get them worked more easily.  But it is 

only ONE row and takes your project from great to EPIC.  

Enjoy adding pleating to your projects to make them just 

one step ahead of the rest!