a promising conclusion........... and then the pleating begins

After a shaky week last week I entered my second week on costume store with a few reservations, however once I had examined my work against the shirt example I found i wasn't far behind at all. Sewing and over locking the side seams became natural and once Dexter had approved of the work, I became much happier. Once the garment had a good press from the iron, it started to resemble the shirt. my next problem I had to face was pleating the pie crust collar. Each pleat had to be identical, a 1mm out and it became obvious. I have spent the past 2 days trying to make the perfect collar, however it has so far taken me two attempts to try. My first collar attempt was rejected as the pleats were to large and needed to be shrunk by 1cm and the second attempt again was turned down as the pleats were not even. I have found that once again i was rushing and needed to slow down.  I spoke to Dexter about my concerns and he has agreed to allow me to finish off any parts of the shirt I don't get done in late night study due to still working on Battle for the Winds. So in reflection of this my task is to create the pleats however taking my time, I have learnt a lot about myself through this part of the project. I am always on the go and need to learn how to slow my pace down, quality not quantity. This evening i have started my measuring out each pleat and marking the distances using a pencil (this will be hidden by the collar stand). Tomorrow I shall use the industrial iron and pins to secure the pleats in place.