in this sample I'm making the pleats 1/2 an inch in distance here's my sample fabric and a lot of times I like to just freehand my pleats I kind of like that look where it's not so perfect but for the sake of showing you the correct way to do this I'm going to measure the police I'm using a 12 inch ruler since my pleats are going to be 1/2 an inch I want them to also be 1/2 an inch in depth I'm going to be using short marks and long marks I'm going to make the one-inch mark to be my long mark and I'm going to make the half inch mark to be my short mark using my ruler I'm marking the short mark at the 1/2 inch mark and I'm using a long mark at the one inch mark I'm doing this with a pin but you want to use chalk something that will disappear in the fabric that won't make a permanent mark you want to make these marks all the way across your entire fabric and this is what fabric looks like once all the marks have been done now we're ready to start pleating to make your pleat you're going to take a long mark and you're going to match it up with the second short mark using a pin you want to secure the pleat so that it doesn't come loose and you'll just continue this process all the way across till you come to the end of your fabric so you complete this all the way across this process can also be done at the ironing board and I'm going to go ahead and press my pleats down now that your place will be impressed I like to hold my pleats down while I'm sewing and I use good old handy tape I'm going to take a piece of tape and I'm going to cut my tape in half because I want the tape to be narrower than my seam allowance so you'll take your tape and I'm going to just simply lay the tape on the top of my pleats to keep them in place and I'm going to take the other piece that I cut and put it on the bottom of my pleats now your project will be a lot longer than mine so you'll have to use more tape my tape measures about a quarter of an inch once I cut it so that will give me plenty of room to sew my five eighths inch seam allowance just below the tape I've stitched my pleats and as you see my stitch falls just up under the tape and now you'll just simply remove the tape and you're please stay perfectly aligned I like to leave the tape on the bottom of my project until I'm ready to hem it I hope this tip has been helpful and I hope you try it happy sewing