today's sewing
Aug. 22nd, 2008 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaI spent today at Wildwood, the home of the beautiful ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
madryn_1960. She, being the most wonderful person that she is, did much of the work assembling my new skirt for me. It is more than half way done, but we ran out of light, and decided that it would be better to take a break and return to it refreshed next week. She's asked me for the pattern, and having gone to the effort to draw it up in CorelDraw, I thought I'd share it here.
I approach all of my sewing projects the same way I do my period sewing--using basic rectangles and triangles and assembling them to the desired shape. This suits my naturally frugal nature, in that there is very little in the way of wasted fabric--most of it goes into the garment.
Some people like to make fairly large triangle gores for their skirts. I don't, for several reasons.
1) the wider the triangle, the wider/larger the bit that need be cut off of the bottom to make the hem curve properly 2)fabric stretches *very* differently with the grain than on the bias (at an angle from the weaving--true bias is 45 degrees from the weave, but any cut that isn't parallel with the weaving is said to be "cut on the bias").
2) The wider the triangle, the more likely some of the fabric on the edges will "droop" over time, giving an uneven hem even though it was cut evenly in the first place.
3) it is very, very easy to cut a rectangle into three triangles by marking the mid-point on one side and marking a straight line from there to the opposite corners. This gives one wide triangle with two bias-cut edges, and two half-triangles with one bias-cut and one straight-cut. Sewing these three together into a single triangle makes one triangle almost twice as wide as the rectangle from which it was cut, but because each segment is narrow no portion of it will have the above mentioned drooping problem.
So here is the cutting diagram I used for this skirt, and for the old favourite skirt which is worn to rags (I managed to patch it today while she worked on this project for me, so the old one is once again wearable!). Note: if you want a waist-band and pockets of the same material, you will need enough extra length from which to make them--subtract that length first, and then divide up the remaining into the rectangles and triangles for the skirt!)
This version makes use of a wide piece of fabric to make six rectangles and six sets of three triangles. The width of the rectangle is determined by measuring the widest part of my hips, dividing by six then adding back in enough seam allowance. The length is either my measurement from hip to just above the floor, or the length of the available fabric divided by three (whichever is smaller, since it isn't possible to make it longer than the length of the fabric!--indeed this time the skirt will be a bit shorter than I would have prefered to make it, about mid-calf, because that was how long the piece of fabric, which I had purchased cheaply as a "remnant" happened to be). Because it is a wide fabric, I put two rectangles and two sets of triangles across the fabric, adjusting the width of the triangles until they exactly fit the space available.
(Which is much easier than it sounds! Simply mark the two rectangles first, then divide the remaining space in half, then mark the mid-points of each half and run the diagonal line from there to the opposite corners.) I mark the curve of the hem at this point. I know how long the triangles are (the same as the length of the rectangle), so I simply measure from the point down the diagonal line, and mark the spot that corresponds to that length, then move the bottom end of the tape measure over a bit and make another mark (keeping the top end right on the point), repeating till I've got a dotted line which describes the full curve of the arc of the hem, then play connect the dots.
The nice thing about this pattern is the flexibility of it. If you have a narrow piece of fabric do only one set of rectangles and triangles per width, and use twice as much length to get the same number of triangles and rectangles. Or, if you have *really* narrow fabric, get even more length and take rectangles out of one chunk, triangles out of the next, and so on--whatever it takes to use up the full width without any waste and still give you reasonably proportioned triangles (see comments above as to why I think each triangle segment ought to be narrow). If the size of your fabric is vastly different you can use a different number of rectangles and sets of triangles--four, five, seven, whatever works for what you've got. I just happen to like the symmetry of six.
To assemble the skirt I first assemble the sets of triangles. The most important rule to remember if you want it to hang consistantly: Always sew a bias-cut to a straight cut. So, for each set of three sew the straight side of one of the half triangles to one side of the big triangle, then sew the straight side of the other triangle to the other side of the big triangle. Set that set aside and repeat for each of the other sets. Because the triangles are were all cut to be the same length, I take care to line the up at the hem and at the point, and adjust the length of the bias to fit the allotted space (bias cut fabric can stretch or pull in shorter than it was by an amazing amount!) I either finish each seam as I go, or I wait till it is all done, and then finish the seams--I use flat-felled finishing.
Once I've got a pile of assembles triangles I attach one to a rectangle (because both sides of the triangle are bias-cut, this means I'm obeying the above rule and attaching a bias to a straight). Then attach another to the next rectangle, taking care to make it in the same orientation as the first with respect to "inside" and "outside", "left side" and "right side", then repeat till I've got six rectangle-triangle combinations, with all of the triangles on the same side of their rectangles. Then I attach two of them together, add a third to one end, and repeat till they are all attached to one another. Then I sew shut the final seam.
Once that is all done I add a waist band (if needed doing some trimming where the points come into the waist), which I make out of the fabric I set aside before dividing up the rest into a skirt, or, sometimes out of some other fabric entirely. Then hem the skirt and it is done. I used to make my skirts to fit my waist, but since I have a very narrow waist compared to my hips and shoulders it was necessary to add some sort of opening and a way to close it. I've tried buttons, hooks and eyes, zippers, even velcro. In my experiance if there is a closure method that will be the first thing to wear out and will require some sort of repair or maintenance on a all-too-frequent basis. Therefore these days I make my "waist band" to fit my hips and don't put any sort of closure on the skirt at all. It isn't terribly graceful looking to wriggle my shoulders & bust through the opening, but once it is on it sits ever so comfortably around my hips and lower tummy. This explains why I use my hips as the basis for how wide to do the rectangles!
The only other complication I usually do is pockets. The easy way to do pockets is to simply add an external pocket. I've done this. The other option, which is more comfortable to use on a daily basis is to make pockets which sit inside the skirt and have a scoped opening on the outside. When doing this sort, I cut two pieces per pocket as wide as the rectangles of the skirt, and as long as I want the pockets to be, measuring from the seam where the waist-band attaches to the top of the skirt, curving the bottom to be a nice shape into which to put my hand (or whatever I wish to carry). I sew these together (finishing the seams with a French seam) and cut one of them shorter in front, using a nice, graceful curve that makes it easy to put my hand into it. I then cut a matching curve on one of the rectangles and attach the pocket to the rectangle along that curve, and then sew the rectangle/pocket combination to the skirt just as if it were a normal rectangle--though, since I generally do two of them, I have to take care to put them in the correct position in relation to one another! (with the six-triangle version described above, I put one plain rectangle in between two pocketed rectangles).
As fun as the day's sewing & visiting was, it did use up a big chunk of the day, and typing the above and making the drawings has used up a fair bit more, so now I guess I'd best do some uni work!
madryn_1960. She, being the most wonderful person that she is, did much of the work assembling my new skirt for me. It is more than half way done, but we ran out of light, and decided that it would be better to take a break and return to it refreshed next week. She's asked me for the pattern, and having gone to the effort to draw it up in CorelDraw, I thought I'd share it here.I approach all of my sewing projects the same way I do my period sewing--using basic rectangles and triangles and assembling them to the desired shape. This suits my naturally frugal nature, in that there is very little in the way of wasted fabric--most of it goes into the garment.
Some people like to make fairly large triangle gores for their skirts. I don't, for several reasons.
1) the wider the triangle, the wider/larger the bit that need be cut off of the bottom to make the hem curve properly 2)fabric stretches *very* differently with the grain than on the bias (at an angle from the weaving--true bias is 45 degrees from the weave, but any cut that isn't parallel with the weaving is said to be "cut on the bias").
2) The wider the triangle, the more likely some of the fabric on the edges will "droop" over time, giving an uneven hem even though it was cut evenly in the first place.
3) it is very, very easy to cut a rectangle into three triangles by marking the mid-point on one side and marking a straight line from there to the opposite corners. This gives one wide triangle with two bias-cut edges, and two half-triangles with one bias-cut and one straight-cut. Sewing these three together into a single triangle makes one triangle almost twice as wide as the rectangle from which it was cut, but because each segment is narrow no portion of it will have the above mentioned drooping problem.
So here is the cutting diagram I used for this skirt, and for the old favourite skirt which is worn to rags (I managed to patch it today while she worked on this project for me, so the old one is once again wearable!). Note: if you want a waist-band and pockets of the same material, you will need enough extra length from which to make them--subtract that length first, and then divide up the remaining into the rectangles and triangles for the skirt!)
This version makes use of a wide piece of fabric to make six rectangles and six sets of three triangles. The width of the rectangle is determined by measuring the widest part of my hips, dividing by six then adding back in enough seam allowance. The length is either my measurement from hip to just above the floor, or the length of the available fabric divided by three (whichever is smaller, since it isn't possible to make it longer than the length of the fabric!--indeed this time the skirt will be a bit shorter than I would have prefered to make it, about mid-calf, because that was how long the piece of fabric, which I had purchased cheaply as a "remnant" happened to be). Because it is a wide fabric, I put two rectangles and two sets of triangles across the fabric, adjusting the width of the triangles until they exactly fit the space available.
(Which is much easier than it sounds! Simply mark the two rectangles first, then divide the remaining space in half, then mark the mid-points of each half and run the diagonal line from there to the opposite corners.) I mark the curve of the hem at this point. I know how long the triangles are (the same as the length of the rectangle), so I simply measure from the point down the diagonal line, and mark the spot that corresponds to that length, then move the bottom end of the tape measure over a bit and make another mark (keeping the top end right on the point), repeating till I've got a dotted line which describes the full curve of the arc of the hem, then play connect the dots.
The nice thing about this pattern is the flexibility of it. If you have a narrow piece of fabric do only one set of rectangles and triangles per width, and use twice as much length to get the same number of triangles and rectangles. Or, if you have *really* narrow fabric, get even more length and take rectangles out of one chunk, triangles out of the next, and so on--whatever it takes to use up the full width without any waste and still give you reasonably proportioned triangles (see comments above as to why I think each triangle segment ought to be narrow). If the size of your fabric is vastly different you can use a different number of rectangles and sets of triangles--four, five, seven, whatever works for what you've got. I just happen to like the symmetry of six.
To assemble the skirt I first assemble the sets of triangles. The most important rule to remember if you want it to hang consistantly: Always sew a bias-cut to a straight cut. So, for each set of three sew the straight side of one of the half triangles to one side of the big triangle, then sew the straight side of the other triangle to the other side of the big triangle. Set that set aside and repeat for each of the other sets. Because the triangles are were all cut to be the same length, I take care to line the up at the hem and at the point, and adjust the length of the bias to fit the allotted space (bias cut fabric can stretch or pull in shorter than it was by an amazing amount!) I either finish each seam as I go, or I wait till it is all done, and then finish the seams--I use flat-felled finishing.
Once I've got a pile of assembles triangles I attach one to a rectangle (because both sides of the triangle are bias-cut, this means I'm obeying the above rule and attaching a bias to a straight). Then attach another to the next rectangle, taking care to make it in the same orientation as the first with respect to "inside" and "outside", "left side" and "right side", then repeat till I've got six rectangle-triangle combinations, with all of the triangles on the same side of their rectangles. Then I attach two of them together, add a third to one end, and repeat till they are all attached to one another. Then I sew shut the final seam.
Once that is all done I add a waist band (if needed doing some trimming where the points come into the waist), which I make out of the fabric I set aside before dividing up the rest into a skirt, or, sometimes out of some other fabric entirely. Then hem the skirt and it is done. I used to make my skirts to fit my waist, but since I have a very narrow waist compared to my hips and shoulders it was necessary to add some sort of opening and a way to close it. I've tried buttons, hooks and eyes, zippers, even velcro. In my experiance if there is a closure method that will be the first thing to wear out and will require some sort of repair or maintenance on a all-too-frequent basis. Therefore these days I make my "waist band" to fit my hips and don't put any sort of closure on the skirt at all. It isn't terribly graceful looking to wriggle my shoulders & bust through the opening, but once it is on it sits ever so comfortably around my hips and lower tummy. This explains why I use my hips as the basis for how wide to do the rectangles!
The only other complication I usually do is pockets. The easy way to do pockets is to simply add an external pocket. I've done this. The other option, which is more comfortable to use on a daily basis is to make pockets which sit inside the skirt and have a scoped opening on the outside. When doing this sort, I cut two pieces per pocket as wide as the rectangles of the skirt, and as long as I want the pockets to be, measuring from the seam where the waist-band attaches to the top of the skirt, curving the bottom to be a nice shape into which to put my hand (or whatever I wish to carry). I sew these together (finishing the seams with a French seam) and cut one of them shorter in front, using a nice, graceful curve that makes it easy to put my hand into it. I then cut a matching curve on one of the rectangles and attach the pocket to the rectangle along that curve, and then sew the rectangle/pocket combination to the skirt just as if it were a normal rectangle--though, since I generally do two of them, I have to take care to put them in the correct position in relation to one another! (with the six-triangle version described above, I put one plain rectangle in between two pocketed rectangles).
As fun as the day's sewing & visiting was, it did use up a big chunk of the day, and typing the above and making the drawings has used up a fair bit more, so now I guess I'd best do some uni work!