top of page
Rite of Spring
Atlanta Ballet
2025
Pleating and stitching, Act 1.
Costume Designer: Abigail Dupree Polston
Production photos by: Shoccara Marcus
Right: Process photos
Costume design renderings by Abigail Dupree Polston.
First mockup of the act 1 women's costume. The pleats in the front and the back were stitched flat and then turned up in the middle to create a twisted effect.
First mockup of the act 1 women's costume.
Closeup of the back pleats.
I made pleat boards to for the long straight sections of pleats on the pants and the back of the bodice. I sandwiched the fabric in between the boards, then pressed it and let it cool under weights.
Once ironed in, I pinned the pleats along the side seams of the pants. I measured finished pleats to make sure the sides all came out consistantly.
I used painters tape to hold the back of the fabric, then removed the pins before stitching the pleats down.
Pleating the front of the women's tops. Because the the pleats on the front of the tops was curved and relatively short, we pinned them out by connecting dots from the pattern.
The women's bodice back. This is after I used a pleat board to iron in the pleats and stitched them down the center line.
I pinned the bodice back to the ironing board to hard press in the pleats, then marked the stitching lines with the back pattern piece.
Once the three lines of downward stitching were in place, I taped the back of the fabric to stabilize it for the upward twist lines, marked here by dots.
After finishing all the pleats, we stitched the fronts an backs onto a a souffle base, then seamed the base together.
Production photo.
Production photo.
Production photo.
bottom of page