Pleat

Some folds take practice; the pleat takes thirty seconds. It is just two creases: fold the paper over in one direction, then fold it back the other way a little further along, and the paper snaps into a flat, Z-shaped zigzag that stands out cleanly from the page.

The pleat is one of the most basic folds there is, and it shows up far more often than you would expect - as skirt pleats, fins, or small decorative kinks on finished models. This two-step tutorial uses a rectangle, but the fold works on a square or any other shape you happen to be working with.

This is a very simple, basic fold.

STEP 1. This example uses a rectangle shaped sheet of paper but you can easily make this fold with a square or any other shape. Fold the paper to the side along the dotted line.

STEP 2. Fold the paper back the other way along the dotted line. Note that this new fold is a little bit to the left of the first fold you made.

The Completed Pleat. If you look at the shape of the fold from the side it kind of looks like a letter Z.