When bias met straight grain...
18 November 2008, 14:23I’m mostly finished with BWOF 09/2008 #114 (which, you’ll remember, is the spitting image of a Versace dress) which I’m making in navy blue silk with a square neckline. The silk is really lovely and drapes beautifully, and I love how it feels, too. I’m super pleased with how the whole dress is turning out, actually, but this morning I noticed the two front seam lines are doing a funny thing towards the hem:
I’m not sure how easy it is to see there, but the seam is sucking itself inwards at both places where the centre, straight-grain panel meets the outer, bias panels (I changed the grain of the outer panels to eliminate the centre seam at the top).
Here’s the tech drawing, with my new grain lines:
Edit: And because it’s difficult to see how far that bust dart brings the bottom onto the bias, I think maybe my manipulated pattern piece drawing might help to visualise, too:
Is this just a result of not letting the dress hang before sewing those long straight seams? Should I just unpick the problem areas, let it hang, and restitch, or is there something else at play here? Bias experts, lend me your ears!
tags: bwof, dress, knockoff, silk
Hi… so impressed with all your projects! I was wondering if you had to grade the BWOF dress, since it is petite. I want to make it, but will have to scale it up to regular sizing. Where did you make any alterations?
It is a fantastic color, can’t wait to see the finished result.
C
— caro Nov 18, 04:11 PM #
I don’t understand your new grain lines? It looks like the side panels are actually one piece of fabric? In which case that could be your problem.
Or is the dress now a regular princess seam dress?
— luckylibbet Nov 18, 04:50 PM #
Hmmmm. I bet it is the stretch factor. I think unstitching and hanging would help a bit. An interfacing would help the problem but it might hinder the flow of the dress too.
It’s beautiful so I hope you get it figured out. Did you try to steam it out?
— dawn Nov 18, 07:18 PM #
I’m not sure, but I think you may need to slightly off-grain the centre panel’s side seams at the bottom, ie taper outwards slightly. Of course, this might a) not be possible if you’re doing french seams and b) make the seam look wonky, because, well, it would be wonky…
I think that seems to be the thing though. Maybe. Does it pull more towards the centre panel or the side panels?
— anwen Nov 18, 09:35 PM #
Not a total expert but I’ve had some experience with bias. Changing a pattern to bias can completely change the garment’s fit. Bias clings on the body’s curves because it doesn’t have the grain to help hold it’s shape. It also makes the garment more stretchy. Garments made on the bias don’t always need zippers because of the extra give of the fabric. I think your best bet is to unpick it and let it hang, then resew it. You’ll have extra on the bottom I’m sure. My old dress and skirt patterns recommended several days of hanging—though the new patterns don’t say that. Perhaps people are too impatient to do it today. I hope this works out for you.
— JenL Nov 19, 06:47 AM #
Since it appears near the hem, it leads me to think that ripping & hanging it would help. I guess I’m wondering, tho’, why eliminating that center seam is cause for changing your grainline on the sides – they weren’t adjusted. I hesitate leaving this because I’m sure there’s an obvious answer. If I were going to eliminate the center seam, though, I would’ve just moved it to the fold of the fabric. ‘Course I haven’t looked at that pattern since it came out (will tonight, though)! Great learning post. It’s awesome to see photos of people thinking & working through the process (makes me feel better about the inordinate amount of time things seem to take me!). I’m anxious to see your finished dress, too! I’ll bet that color is gorgeous on you!
— Rachel S Nov 19, 09:50 PM #
I can’t offer any advice just encouragement—the dress looks fantastic!
— cindy Nov 20, 02:34 AM #
I do think that hanging the bias piece for at least a day would help.
Another thing you may want to do when you resew is slightly stretch the bias piece as you sew. Basically, your bias piece is stretching more than your lengthwise grain piece, which causes puckering in vertical seams. This can happen even when sewing two bias pieces together, because the bias pieces will stretch more than the thread stitching! So stretching the pieces as you sew can help minimize that.
— sarai Nov 20, 03:36 PM #