E.S.P. Dress Sew Along: A Week Late And Not About Pleats May 17 2016 5 Comments
Art history nerd joke mash up of Magritte and pleats for the header image. Apologies to the art sensitive!
Man! This "blog voice" thing is tricky! Last week's post really had an overwhelming "Wah wuh. Wah wah was wuh." feel to it. That's the teacher from Charlie Brown in case you couldn't tell. The teacher from Charlie Brown is not the voice we want so we'll keep working on it.
We said we were going to talk about pleats in this post but we lied. We're going to talk about cutting your pattern on the cross grain instead. Here we go!
Our fabric has stripes running perpendicular to the selvage (aka railroaded stripes). Cutting the pattern on the straight of grain would give us a horizontally striped dress. Our model said, "Um. Nope." to horizontal stripes, so we'll cut on the cross grain.
The biggest difference between the cross grain and the straight of grain is the cross grain has more "give" to it. You can see for yourself by pinching two points on the cross grain and stretching it slightly. Try it again of the straight of the grain and you should see a difference. The cross has more stretch; it should bounce back, as the "give" is due to the tension in the threads when it is woven. Threads has a very informative article on changing your grain direction for different design effects as well as a detailed article on how grain lines "behave".
You can see the difference between the two. The drape of the straight of grain is softer and falls closer to the dress from. The fabric draped on the cross grain holds a shape further out from the dress form. Some recommend increasing the circumference of your garment by an inch if you are cutting on the cross grain. It all boils down to personal preference and the specifics of your fabric and pattern. You might notice a garment cut on the cross grain feeling a bit constricting across the back and shoulders.
Our fabric has an unusually stable weave and there is actually not much difference between the cross and straight grain regarding "give" and drape. So for this project, cutting the bodice and skirt on the cross will have little affect to the drape and fit of the dress.
Ok. We're still figuring out how to pace things so we'll end it here this week. Next week, we'll talk about increasing the fullness of the skirt and how we gorilla pleat the skirt.
Cheers!
Comments
Decades of Style on June 21 2016 at 07:24PM
Hi Sibyl,
We hope we can help with the fitting issues. Is it gaping more at the front neckline or the back? You may be able to take in the bodice front where it meets with the sleeves, keeping the sleeve seam allowance the same, but take in the bodice piece equally on either side and then tapering off towards the armpit (you don’t want to take away too much fabric if the bust fits). Keep in mind, you will have to adjust the facing similarly as well. You can use the adjusted Bodice Front piece as a guide to adjusting the facing.
For the FBA, there is a video of it on the YouTube channel of Sewing Parts Online.com. Here is the address, though we don’t know if this comment section will let us make it a link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuaZZRiM-n4
Worst case you can copy and paste the address. Its a good video and they have several great tutorials for pattern fitting.
We hope this helps!
Sibyl Scott on June 16 2016 at 07:03AM
Recently purchased the E.S.P. pattern. Made it up—fits nicely except the neckline. It gapes pretty much—could take a good inch and a half to 2 inch dart to remedy it. Fits nicely through waist, back, and bust area. Any way to fix it prior to cutting out for another dress? Went together quite easily—could have made it in about a half day if I did not have other things to do. I have sewn for years, but never figured out how to do alterations to the pattern to make it fit just right. Tried to read through the FBA, but it didn’t help a lot—wish I had a video on it—I think I am a visual learner. Makes it difficult at times.
Thanks bunches
Sibyl (yes the same Sibyl_Scott on Instagram).
francesca on June 03 2016 at 06:22AM
Thanks for your reply. I received my patterns and am going to start muslinning the pants – and yes, in my country we speak Brit English and call them trousers:). Oh, I much prefer dresses and skirts too – but in the changeover times I love linen pants. Basically cos it starts out cool in the morning and then gets warmer and then cool again and bare legs are cold at times and tights are too much during the day….. I made a couple of pairs of Colette’s Juniper which have nice legs but don’t like the low waist in front and all the pockets and bits don’t sit well with linen. Also they’re made to fit properly through the crotch and I prefer the lower looser crotch ctyle… I bought the famous simplicity 3688 which seem OK – waistband and no pleats or pockets – but they’re cut going narrower in the leg and are not going to give that nice effect of your pants which is almost like palazzo pants. I thought of getting the 30s patterns you have but to convert an all in one will drive me crazy….
Re the sleeves – we like tech crazy! Really – most. People who buy your patterns are not the type to need a basic sew along – we love the hacks like the pleated skirt…. and more complex ones too!
Decades of Style on June 01 2016 at 12:06PM
Hi Francesca,
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. We’re looking at 3/4 sleeve hack, though there is quite a bit of altering to be done to lengthen (slash and spread) and then reduce the fullness of the original sleeve. Trying to make it a coherent sew along and not too technical crazy pants.
Speaking of pants, or the British “trousers”, we totally know what you mean about the vintage pants pattern and finding good a roomier pant. Its part of the reasons why we prefer to wear dresses and skirts! We’re so glad you like our Empire Waist pattern #4004. Its one of our most popular patterns!
francesca on May 19 2016 at 11:46AM
Gorgeous! Thanks for a great post. Don’t worry about finding your voice – I think you have :). Loved the art nerd bit…
I just left a comment on your instagram post full of spelling mistakes (blush) – sorry! – asking about possible sleeve hacks – pretty please….
And I have a request! So love your esp patterns – please consider some wide legged pants -I have tried so many patterns in my quest for a very early 40s pair, with wide legs and a slightly baggier fit than the empire waist trousers, that sit on the natural waist. I’m about to buy your empire waist pattern but will lower the waist and make them a bit big and prefer waistbands anyhow, I hate faced waists -, and from reading blogs know I’m not the only sewist who feels like this… I wish you would one day as I’ve had so much trouble with other vintage pattern reissues or styles – some terrible drafting there – and never have a problem with yours… pretty please…..