[cybele727]

I share this b/c I think many of you will enjoy/agree.

You know how you get excited when you are coming to the end of the project and you think… almost done and it’s done???

And its shaping up beautifully, and then you flip the page for the instructions and there it is…

The OPTIONAL TIP. Which of course, isn’t optional at all. You grumble. Sure the tip is optional, like edge stitch those box pleats to make them retain their shape and so much easier to iron after washing.

You think, well, I certainly can’t skip this. It isn’t optional. I mean why sew Oliver and S, if you can’t get all these “optional” tips that make the end product oh so sophisticated and special. You think it will take you FOR-EHH-VERRRRRR and you begrudgingly do it, because it says so and you are going to be a better sewist, darn it!

Then you do it, and it didn’t take that long at all, and you wonder, why isn’t every pleat edge sewn for such beauty? Why doesn’t every instruction make you do this on every pattern in the world? Why wasn’t I doing this to every pleat in my home?

Yeah, that’s the Oliver and S way!

[Cellisttoo]

I loved the edge stitched pleats so much, I went back and edge stitched ALL of my daughter’s uniform skirts and jumpers- even the ready made ones. All 14 of them. Ha!

[Nicole]

Me too!

I even edge stitch the 2+2 skirt pleats.

[KarenK]

Oh my. Hopeless overachievers, the whole lot of you! 😉

I press them good and walk away.

[Cellisttoo]

I do it because it makes ironing sooooo much easier. Particularly on pleated skirts! When you are talking school uniforms which get worn every day, that is A LOT of ironing you can make easier with a few minutes of sewing.