Drafting Part XI: Princess Seams and Dartlessness

Princess seams

are scrumptious.

Everything about them - the smoothness, the neatness, the snugness - I love. I especially love how they make the armscye so ungaping. When I first started sewing them as a teenager, I wanted to put them in every garment I made - bustiers, spaghetti strap sundresses, gowns, everything. It drove my mother crazy.

Drafting them from a regular french-dart sloper, though, was not as straightforwardly Let's-Slash-And-Pivot-The-Old-Dart as the drafting books say it is. There's a lot of fit-refining to do, even up to the shoulder seam. I took in so much almost everywhere that I eventually redrafted the whole thing from scratch again. Either I'd forgotten all I ever knew about princess seams and dart rotation, or I've lost some pounds (unlikely, given the vast amounts of snacking I've been doing this summer), or I don't know how to read drafting books. Or maybe I should just stop reading drafting books.


Anyway, the short term goal of all this was to produce this dress:
Pardon the multitude of creases - we took the photos after a whole day of running after children at a party and- yes, in this dress -playing basketball with them.
Weird expression on face - not sure why, but I do this a lot in photos.

I suspect my most current sloper - the one made in March - is already out of date. There is a lot of ease in weird places that I never noticed before. The scoop neckline required 4 pintucks/mini darts to lie flat - despite my being very, very careful in handling it. Shocking, what just a half inch of unwanted ease in the wrong place can look like.

The long term goal - apart from revisiting my teenhood princess seam obsession -is to sometime sew a winter coat. With top-stitching. Without horrible shoulder pads. I'll need to move the princess seam up to the shoulder. More fit-adjustments. Ho hum. Maybe next winter.

But wanted to introduce princess seams because they are supreme and every garment should have them of their streamlining effect. I mean, even wetsuits and leotards have them, so they must also be aerodynamic. Plus, because they are darts, depending on where they originate on the bodice, they can reduce fullness in particularly effective ways for different body shapes. When they open into the armscye, for instance, they minimize the humiliating, undergarment-revealing gaping sleeveless armholes that plague the more well-endowed among us. And make our waists look oh-so-much-tinier.

Am I making sense? Not really?
Hm, howzabout we do a mini-tutorial on darts?

This is a typical dart for a woman's front bodice.This kind of dart is called a Chest Dart, because that's the area it opens into. Its function is to enhance the bust area by reducing fullness in the hollow regions surrounding the bust - in this case, the side of the chest. Point A is the bust apex. If you remember from our sloper posts, we always plot the point of the dart a short distance away from the actual apex, to avoid over-conical-ness.

Sometimes, we see instead, this kind of dart:


This is called a Waist Dart, because it opens into the waist. It also shapes the bust but by reducing the fullness in the underbust area. When present in a full-body sloper or pattern, it connects to the waist dart in the bottom half (skirt or trousers). Many commercial patterns have this kind of dart.

At the risk of repeating what is in every single drafting book, I will share this sketch:
It shows some of the common positions of this front bodice bust-enhancing dart.

1 = Neckline Dart (sometimes spread out over the neckline, sorta like my 4 mini darts in the dress above)
2 = Shoulder Dart
3 = Another variation of the shoulder dart
4 = Armscye Dart
5 = French Dart (favored by more youthful figures with slenderer waists)
6 = Waist Dart
7 = Chest Dart opening into the center front.

Here's the point (pun unintended)- all these darts serve the same function - to enhance the bust area. In other words, you could use any one of those dart positions for your bust dart. Which one to choose depends on several factors, including:

• the kind of garment (jacket, gown, loose blouse, for instance)
• the print of the material - the dart will interrupt the print. Stripes are especially susceptible to this.
• the body shape of the person - the dart is usually positioned where it is most flattering. This often means where the body is most hollow.

The smaller/narrower the dart is, the neater the overall look. Sometimes a wide dart may be split into two darts so that each dart is narrower. Like this combination of Waist and Chest darts:

Or this combination of Waist and Shoulder Darts:

which is especially effective because of its symmetry. I see this a lot on jackets.

Now let's talk a little about commercial patterns, which I actually know practically nothing about (so, ooooo! this should be funny). Often, commercial patterns will come with one of these bust darts. When you try on a pattern, you might find that
(i) the bust apex is nowhere near yours
(ii) the dart is the wrong size, darn it

so you will spend some time shifting the bust apex point, and redrawing the dart and adjusting the armscye and waist and side seam. This is annoying but it is a necessary part of fitting a pattern, so it's all good.

Sometimes, you'll want to move the dart to a different position. Maybe you have a favorite pattern whose dart configurations you use without exception on every other pattern. Maybe your body shape is of the sort that favors certain dart positions for modesty and/or vanity. Maybe you're like me and want to make princess seams in everything. Nothing wrong with that.

So we do something called Slash And Rotate or Slash and Pivot:

In brief, it goes something like this (crude sketches below):

1. You extend the tip of the dart right to the bust apex.
2. You draw the new dart's position.
3. You cut open the new dart to almost the bust apex point.
4. You close the old dart by rotating the whole pattern about the bust apex.
5. You tape the old dart closed.
6. You redraw the side seam/armscye so that the lines are smooth and not pointy.
7. You admire your new dart and feel clever.

Then, if you are in the Princess Seam Fan Club, you will further

• slice right through the bust apex to separate the bodice into two pieces,
• smooth the edges of the pieces that form the dart and
• dance for joy at your superior and incomparably fabulous princess seam pattern.

Two points about princess seams:

1. This particular princess seam originates from the armscye but it can also originate elsewhere, like the shoulder (very common in coats) or shoulder point (very common in dressforms).
2. Princess seams are nicest in close-fitting garments. They must run directly over the bust apex or risk looking very daft. So either draft them from scratch or adapt a pattern with zero ease. I've discovered that some companies selling commercial slopers offer two styles - the standard two-dart sloper, and the princess seam sloper. I wonder if it is their interpretation of slopers-with-ease and slopers-without-ease, respectively.

And now that I've gone on and on about darts being supreme and the princess seam being the most streamlined of all fullness-reducing darting techniques, let's break the rules and embrace the other extreme - hellooooooo dartlessness!

Here is that bias-cut linen blouse -

actually being worn!


Look, ma -no darts!

The fit is in the bias drape of the fabric itself and a little bit of waist shaping in the side seams. Easy! And comfortable. And not huggy-clingy like knits. And not tentlike, like one might expect from dartlessness. But you'll need to start with either a sloper or a very snug bodice pattern with zero ease. And a good-weight fabric that hangs well and has a good amount of give along the bias, so nothing light like seersucker or quilting cotton or stuff like that. And good foundation garments, so there is actual definition to the bust under all that draping.

Well, that was a little deviation from drafting for children. I thought I'd slip this into our series as a follow up to that last post on drafting for boys, men and women. Incidentally, mum hasn't actually seen this princess seam dress yet - she'll probably roll about laughing, knowing that I've reverted to my bad old ways.

....must.... finish...... before..... apocalypse...........

........ one million months and counting..............

Unrelated, our garage door died yesterday. Half-up, half-down, stuck at a jaunty angle, it was quite the conversation starter among the neighbors. Also complete strangers. One of these complete strangers gave me the contact number of his garage guy. While waiting for our scheduled repair guy to turn up, we called him, and he came and did the job for a modest fee. We now have a working garage door, a safe haven from burglars and a new garage repair guy. This was what providence looked like this week.

Which thing in our house is going kaput next? Please not the sewing machine. I should start a new blog: The Malfunctional Family - Living Each Day, One Fewer Appliance At A Time.

Drafting Part X - What About The Boys?

And the men? And the women (who are actually doing the sewing)?

When I planned this drafting-for-children series, I knew it was going to look heavily skewed in favor of the girls. I also knew that there would be readers who'd ask if they could use all this stuff for boys. And, by extension, for men. And - because that's who most of us are - for women.

So here's the good news: yes to boys, yes to men, and - to a limited extent - yes to women. I made a lot of gender generalizations in order to write the next few paragraphs - so to my readers who are more familiar with quite different gender clothing styles, I beg your pardon. And in drawing out differences between boys and girls, and men and women, to explain why we draft their patterns they way we do, I chose to go with good ol' biology.

BOYS

If you remember, the slopers (front and back) we drafted were for children, with children's specific features in mind, like

• flat fronts i.e. the absence of front darts
• proportions unique to toddlers and young children including round tummies and large waist measurements

Bearing in mind that because prepubescent boys and girls are alike in their general body shape, girl slopers and boy slopers are therefore the same.

However, where girl slopers become girl patterns, the differences begin. For instance, in becoming a dress pattern, girl slopers take on new and interesting shapes that are quite unboyish, like A-lines, and fitted waists and flared skirts. So unless you are making kilts and such for your sons, nephews and grandsons, best to keep to the more traditional style of boys' clothing.

But let's get to the point already.

For boy patterns, here are some ways to adapt the basic child sloper:

• Retain the jewel neck and shoulder area for a good fit (you might like to add a little ease to the shoulder width).
• Add a little design ease to the chest circumference and draw vertical side seams.
• Cut off the sloper below the navel or even closer to the hip line.
  
• Add a basic stand collar or mandarin collar (i.e. just the stand)
  
• Add short sleeves or longer roll-up sleeves with or without cuffs.
• Add a front overlap button placket
• Add a back yoke

and you get the basic shirt pattern for a boy.

My main principle for adapting a sloper or pattern for a boy is ease. The contours of boys' bodies are never hugged, unless it is for a gym unitard or similar stage costume. So for a top (like a shirt or Tshirt) the side seams are straight, the hem is way below the waist and there is ample ease at the chest and even some in the shoulder width.

MEN

Older boys and men have a more developed muscleature than young boys, particularly in (for the upper body) the chest, shoulders, neck and back. This requires more precise fitting in those areas of men's slopers and custom patterns. Personal preference, vanity and fashion trends dictate the design of men's patterns, so that the whole idea of a custom fit is no longer limited to women. If you've ever had trouble buying a shirt for a guy because the arms were too long or the collar too small, you'll relate to this: even in men's clothes, one size does not fit all, nor is the S, M, L system of sizing necessarily sufficient. I know so many frustrated friends who are between "sizes", whatever "size" means! I'd love to sew shirts - and I don't mean the aloha-print billowy Target variety - for my husband someday, but whenever we discuss this, we both roll our eyes and guffaw - there is just no time to sew custom-fit stuff for all the people in our live whom we love, is there? So the poor man wears shirts whose sleeves could be a couple inches different and dreams of the perfect bermudas. Some day, dear, when the kids are in college and I am no longer scraping dried string cheese off the kitchen floor. Some day.


In spite of all that grousing, the same principles apply to men's slopers that apply to girls' and boys' - there is no bust and therefore there are no bust darts. Lose the back dart and remember that men's tops hardly ever see a back opening, so give lots of straight ease (unless you are tailoring a fitted blazer or business suit, which is another story altogether) and front openings. Or make them out of knit, call them T-shirts and pull them on over the head :)

WOMEN

The Back
Women are girls grown up. And since it is most significantly their fronts that grow up, their backs stay basically the same, except bigger. So the back sloper for women is drafted the same way as for girls. Women's waist-to-hip ratio is usually smaller than that for girls, so expect more slanty side seams or waist darts, or both.

The Front
Is, unfortunately, vastly different. I'll do a quick mini-tutorial on the bust dart in an upcoming post, I promise. It won't teach you to draft a women's sloper (that's a whole series in itself!) but it might help you adapt women's commercial patterns to fit you a little better.

The Lower Body
Good news - apart from being more curvy in general, women's lower bodies are also the same as girls'! At least in a drafting sense. So you can use our sloper tutorials to draft a skirt for you! Whoooooo!

A consideration:
As mentioned, the waist-to-hip ratio for women is smaller, so expect to need wider/deeper darts or more than one dart (will explain more in future post on darts) to take in the fullness at the waist. Mum and I use to exaggeratedly describe the waist ease by the number of chickens (or whatever arbitrary animal was funniest at the time) one could stuff into one's waistband. So we'd be in a store and try on a skirt or pair of jeans that clearly needed a deeper back waist dart and exclaim, "Three chickens! Who was this drafted for - a man?"

Little girls hardly ever need front waist darts in their skirts. Women, however, may need them if they have particularly wide hips or protruding abdomens. So draft in some front waist darts if you need to - there are probably many skirt-drafting tutorials out there on the internet to get you started.


Below is a cheat sheet showing how to adapt the lower body sloper for three very popular and classic skirt patterns.

1 The Pencil Skirt

follows the sloper almost exactly, except for the addition of a front waist dart. The side seam is let out by exactly the same amount at the waist, as the width of the dart, so that when the dart is sewn closed, the waist is the same size as before.The side seam continues below the hipline either vertically or (if you are superslim) slanted inwards slightly. You'll need to insert a zipper either at the center back or the side. And because it is such a snug fit, an open pleat (or some other kind of opening) at the back or front hem will help in walking!

2 The A-Line Skirt

is the easiest, most flattering pattern I know of - it draws the eye to the small waist, skims the curviest part of the lower body and has a high comfort level without the bunchiness of gathers at the waist. I like mine to sit just below my natural waist and I usually omit the front waist darts.

3 The Gathered Skirt

Since this usually begins as a rectangle, you can really make it without needing a fancy schmancy sloper. You only need your hip measurement, because the skirt needs to fit over the widest part of your lower body when you pull it on. But just for completeness, I've included it in the cheat sheet to show how it evolves from the sloper.

One last question I anticipate: What about pants? Girls wear pants, too! Yes, they do, but the trouser sloper is another different draft altogether. Maybe someday we'll work on it together!

Drafting Part IX: The Bottom Half

Hello again, drafting followers!

Apologies for the long break - after reviewing scheduled drafting topics, I decided to add a couple more in before Jen came back on again. Then I disappeared to sew actual clothes and organize a birthday party and make cardboard stuff. So easy (and enjoyable) to get sidetracked!

Anyway, here's where we are with our drafting series: we've finished the full body sloper (front and back) and sleeve block. Up to that point, we'd been talking featureless slopers and blocks, but with Jen's posts on different sleeves and necklines, we moved into "pattern" territory. Today we're going to work with the lower half, and create some basic templates for even more patterns.

I sketched these cheat sheets two nights ago, and included a garment idea with each adaptation. Many of these garment ideas border on costumey, but I'm going with them for two reasons. One, halloween is drawing nigh so it's a good time to use that sloper! Two, it is usually for costumes that I keep my sloper dimensions as is - otherwise I introduce so much design ease that the garment loses its custom fit and can be worn by half the children in our neighborhood.

A note: when a garment is fitting (i.e. has little or no ease), putting it on and taking it off will be tricky, if at all possible. We will need openings and fasteners, like button plackets, hooks or zippers. Sometimes we can get around this by using wide necklines and stretchy knits. Sometimes we need elastic. The point is that while there are ways to facilitate getting in and out of a garment, we have to first decide if said garment requires an opening or not. If it does, this must be drafted into the pattern/design from the beginning.

So here we go!


1 FLARING from the CHEST
One of the easiest patterns to make is the A-Line dress, or tent. It only has to fit from the chest upwards, below which it flares into a tent-like shape to accommodate almost any body shape. Without adding any ease, it is a regular A-Line dress; with ease in the chest and armscye, it adapts into a jumper or pinafore for layering over an inner shirt.

• Begin at the bottom of the armscye and flare out the side seam as shown. How slanty to make this side seam is personal preference - as long as it is flared enough to accommodate the hip (or protruding tummy in younger children), it will work.
• Add ease in the chest and armscye depth (none shown in picture) if you want it to fit more loosely at the armscye, as in the case of jumpers and pinafores.
• Extend the hem to meet the new side seam.
• Insert a button placket or zipper through the chest area to facilitate putting on and taking off, especially if you didn't add any ease in the chest area.

2 FLARING from the WAIST


Again, keep the bodice as is, and slant the side seam outwards from the waist, extending the bottom hem to meet the new side seam. This gives a dress with a gentle and flattering side flare to just the skirt region. Classic nurses' uniforms in the old days followed this style.

Here's another variation -you could also flare both the side seam and the center front seam as shown below.

When laid out on fabric, this new front pattern must now be cut out as two pieces and no longer cut on the center front fold as previously. It will also have a seam in the center front, and not just a fold. This gives a fuller, 4-gore skirt that flares symmetrically. It is a popular style for many costumes, including princess type dresses.


3 THE EMPIRE LINE

Also known in its shorter variation as The Babydoll.


The babydoll is a short dress that has its waist higher than the natural waist. It is fitted in the bodice through the chest region, below which the skirt begins.

Chop off the sloper at the chest area, and insert a skirt. This can be an A-Line skirt (trapezoid in shape - like Kate's Strawberry Shortcake suit), a gathered skirt (rectangle in shape, and gathered to fit the chest circumference) or circular or part-circular (donut or segment thereof).



4 CHOPPED AT THE WAIST

Two variations:

The first has no ease at the waist.
The sloper is chopped off at the waistline, and a separate skirt joined to it. Here are three- of many- common skirt variations -

• the gathered skirt (which can be made into multiple tiers),
  
• the circular (or part circular) skirt and
• the paneled/gored skirt.

The circumference of the skirt's waistline is the same as the circumference of the bodice's waistline, so they connect exactly.

As these designs are fitted to the waist, you'll need a zipper or button placket that extends through the waist and as possibly as low as the hip. For more instructions in the construction and dimensions of the skirts themselves, you might like to mosey over to my ancient summer skirts tutorials.

The second variation has ease in the waist.
Again, chop the sloper off at the waist, but (duh) add some ease to the waist.


A gathered skirt can be added to the bodice just as before, but the entire waist area - including the bodice - will be gathered. A popular version of this is in knit, with elastic sewn into the gathered waistline itself (serge directly over the elastic while stretching it!) so that it pops on and off over the head without needing a zipper.

This can also form the basis for overalls or bib-shorts, if a trouser pattern is added instead of a skirt.


5 THE DROP WAIST

The opposite of the empire line in that the skirt begins below the natural waist.

In this first variation, there is no ease added.
The sloper is chopped off below the natural waist and a skirt joined to the new waistline. This new waistline can be horizontal, assymetrical or V-shaped/curved. I used this adaptation for the Renaissance Festival costumes for the girls here.


The second variation has ease added to the waist, and then chopped off below the natural waist.
A simple skirt is then sewn to this new lower waistline. I like pleated skirts a lot, and this makes a cute school-uniform-style pinafore.

6 THE SKIRT

The simplest of all uses of the sloper, the bottom half itself has a fancy name - it's called The Skirt Block/The Skirt Sloper. This means it is a stand-alone sloper for just making skirts! Here are some examples of fitted (non-elasticized waists) skirts:

• Pencil skirt
• Wrap skirt
• A-Line skirt
• Flared panel skirt
• Drop-waist flared skirt

Some of these designs are deconstructed in those summer skirts tutorials mentioned earlier. Some good news: you can use the skirt block for yourself (i.e. yes, women!!!) too, so it's not only the kids that have all the fun. I'll mention this again in the next post where we take pity on the boys, men and women and invite them to our drafting party!

Tea Party

Emily turned six last weekend.

She had nine other little girls come over for a tea party
and we were blessed with incredible weather.
My mother-in-law very generously provided us with a
real tea set, to which we added real cloth napkins and
real (iced lemon) tea. We resisted the temptation to do
a dress-up tea party with boas and gowns and gloves
and hats because, at least in our home, Real Girls Use Glue
And Wield Baseball Bats And Run Around Fast.

Some photos and some links to the various things we did
at the party, for those of you who want to read more
about the various handmade things herein.


Food and friendship


Decorations


Crafting



Playing



Whacking



Looting



Tossing



Hunting



Celebrating



Collapsing


Fun.

We now return you to our (ir)regularly scheduled
program - Our Drafting Series!

Tea Party Behind The Scenes - Yard Trash Outdoor Pavilion

One last party project before the actual party post.
The raw materials this time were yard trash.

I'd wanted to make an outdoor pavilion tent for a long time and of course by the time I finally did it, summer was over. I experimented unsuccessfully with other materials for the frame earlier in the summer and finally the husband suggested I use the old edging we'd dug up around from our tree, that was lying around our backyard encrusted with dried dirt, housing spiders and looking completely decrepit.


Why not use a hula hoop like those indoor sheer, pretty above-the-daughter's bed canopy versions?

Well, because I wanted it huge. This one was about 5.5 feet in diameter.


Very easy to construct, really. I did it in about an hour, just before guests arrived at the party. Not kidding! Nothing like living dangerously.

What we used:

• Old Edging
• Disposable plastic tablecloths (54" x 108", cut into half lengthwise) - how many you need will depend on the size of your frame. We used 4 cut into 8 panels.
• Tarp - 6' x 6'
• Random garden stakes
• Nylon rope/gardening twine/whatever was in the garage
• Duck Tape

Ideally, you'd use whatever is already lying around rotting in your garage or garden shed (translation = free). But you could also buy everything in the above list from Home Depot or Lowe's or any hardware store. The edging we had is similar to this edging. We bought these disposable tablecloths from the party store but you could easily substitute those with tarps or old sheets and suchlike.

What we did:

1 Tape the ends of the edging together to make a circle the size you want. Our old edging was in three pieces, so I taped them together in three places.

2 Tie rope at six or eight regular intervals around the circumference, and tie the ends together in the middle so they suspend the frame from a single central point. The shorter the support cords are, the greater the tension in each cord, so make sure your rope is strong enough. Simple Physics, but also common sense.

3 Wrap the short end of each panel of tablecloth around the frame, between two adjacent ropes, and duck tape the ends down.

4 Climb a ladder and suspend the whole contraption from a suitable tree branch.

5 Lay the tarp underneath.

6 (If it is a blustery day like our party day), tuck the ends of the suspended tablecloth panels under the tarp and stake everything down. Hanging the tablecloth walls in individual panels cuts down on all that wind resistance but even then, the whole thing was at times catching the wind every which way like a sail.


See - easy!


We used ours mostly for decoration and as the Gift Unwrapping Tent. We had minimal outdoor decoration, since we were unsure of the weather until about 3 hours before the event.



And as long as the wind wasn't whipping it about,


it behaved itself nicely and turned out to be a decent focal point.


I didn't do this, because I knew I was going to tear it all down hours after the party, but you could really deck something like this out. Add flower garlands, birthday banners (which we sorta did) or streamers to camouflage the hideous support twine - loads of fun.