Okay my pretties, how would you fix this? Amanda Panda says:
I am making a bias cut dress out of a crepe backed polyester satin… and having tummy trouble. As you can see its got poof at the tummy. I can’t figure out what to do with it… I put bust darts in to help a bit, but no matter what I do it seems I can’t get rid of it.
Others are recommending she increase the hip girth. Somebody go save her. There’s a larger photo after the jump.
First I would ask if you have seen the dress on a fit model or the client if it is a custom piece? Dress forms have a rigid and defined shape that often a soft body does not. The real body seldom has a defined indentation at the actual waist and the breast is a bit flatter and softer than the form (bias garments are seldom worn with bras) and you may find the bias garment will look better on a body than on the form. Otherwise, I too would suggest enlarging the hip flareing so the garment drops lower on the body and in so doing will decrease the waist width by the bias pull around the body much like the little finger toys that you stick your fingers into but can’t pull them out. Also the back waist width might need to be decreased slightly to help fall into the waist hollow more.
Bubbling on the figure generally indicates that a bias garment requires width.
Nancy
March 25th, 2008
12:47 PM
I concur what Ken said, I’d want to see it on a real person to see how it fits. Most bias garments do not look right on a mannequin.
Now if the dress is on a person and it still does the poufy thing at the waist, but fits at the hip and at the shoulder, I would open the side seams, (if there are side seams) and alter the mid torso.
HTH’s
noel alvarez
March 25th, 2008
1:12 PM
I agree – you need to put this dress on a live person and make the adjustments on her. If her waist to hip ratio is as great as this form is (very curvy) you may need to stick in waist darts – which I hate to do on a bias cut dress – I prefer to incorporate an empire seam.
If you don’t want front waist darts, but you want the garment to be fitted – you’re going to get a little bit of “under the boob bag” because the fabric has to go somewhere – you can’t take it all out of the side seam (look at some bridal dresses that are cut on the bias and all one piece – there is a little extra fabric under the bust – it should look natural though, not too baggy).
In any event – play with the basted dress on your live model – adjust the bust dart and side seams – you’ll come to a happy medium.
By the way, I’m curious what the back is doing?
Kathleen
March 25th, 2008
2:21 PM
Wow. I’ve had totally different experiences with bias. While I have used bust darting to reduce some of the waist bagginess (and using a side panel as a stay), my solution has been to reduce the side seams in a specific way. I take out along the 4 areas where the X is drawn in here. In my experience, adding fullness to the hip seam line just makes the whole dress looser. I’ll also say that results varied according to different fabrics. I got better results with all of my test projects when I didn’t cut it the way books say to (back and front cut with grain opposing to each other).
Jan
March 25th, 2008
4:57 PM
You have drag lines; these point to the problem. As others have commented, you need width. Vertical translates to width; horizontal translates to length. Bias is always tricky. The reason you have a bubble is because the warp and weft are being stretched too much to fall freely. Release your seams and you will see your problem disappear.
p.s. Keep in mind that your warp threads and your weft threads will have different tensile strength.
Kate
March 25th, 2008
7:04 PM
About putting this dress on a live person, that’s probably excellent advice in general, but won’t help “Amanda Panda.”
Looking at the larger image on her website, this dress is meant to fit a toy/decorative miniature dress form. (Look at the second picture, it is standing on a tabletop next to a lamp.)
I would say that the length need to be shortened. Horizontally pinch out the amount of “poof” that will make it lay flat, then remove that from your pattern.
Penny
March 26th, 2008
12:59 AM
Yeah I noticed the same thing due to the size of the pin heads looking like ping pong balls… but non the less, the hip width looks too tight. Open up the side seams at the hip so that the bias can stretch into place for a smooth fit and increase your pattern hip width by this amount.
ken
March 26th, 2008
8:18 AM
I am falling off my chair at how funny we all are critiqueing the cutting and fitting techniques of bias when it was a miniature.
it seems to me that the point where the hip enlargement starts on the dress is way too low, thus creating bulges at it is forced to sit higher up. the flaring should start at a higher point, that’s all. if the dress is not in bias i recommand it is next time
Front is too long between shoulders and waist. The shoulders on dress form are too sloped for this pattern. If you want to see those wrinkles disappear, pull up the garment from the top and that will tell you how the shoulder needs to be adjusted and where the new bust point should be and neckline should be. This problem needs to be fixed from the top down. Sure it might be caused by the fabric relaxing but it’s still needs to fixed from the top.
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12 Responses to “Pattern puzzle: fix this”
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March 25th, 2008
11:47 AM
First I would ask if you have seen the dress on a fit model or the client if it is a custom piece? Dress forms have a rigid and defined shape that often a soft body does not. The real body seldom has a defined indentation at the actual waist and the breast is a bit flatter and softer than the form (bias garments are seldom worn with bras) and you may find the bias garment will look better on a body than on the form. Otherwise, I too would suggest enlarging the hip flareing so the garment drops lower on the body and in so doing will decrease the waist width by the bias pull around the body much like the little finger toys that you stick your fingers into but can’t pull them out. Also the back waist width might need to be decreased slightly to help fall into the waist hollow more.
March 25th, 2008
12:12 PM
Bubbling on the figure generally indicates that a bias garment requires width.
March 25th, 2008
12:47 PM
I concur what Ken said, I’d want to see it on a real person to see how it fits. Most bias garments do not look right on a mannequin.
Now if the dress is on a person and it still does the poufy thing at the waist, but fits at the hip and at the shoulder, I would open the side seams, (if there are side seams) and alter the mid torso.
HTH’s
March 25th, 2008
1:12 PM
I agree – you need to put this dress on a live person and make the adjustments on her. If her waist to hip ratio is as great as this form is (very curvy) you may need to stick in waist darts – which I hate to do on a bias cut dress – I prefer to incorporate an empire seam.
If you don’t want front waist darts, but you want the garment to be fitted – you’re going to get a little bit of “under the boob bag” because the fabric has to go somewhere – you can’t take it all out of the side seam (look at some bridal dresses that are cut on the bias and all one piece – there is a little extra fabric under the bust – it should look natural though, not too baggy).
In any event – play with the basted dress on your live model – adjust the bust dart and side seams – you’ll come to a happy medium.
By the way, I’m curious what the back is doing?
March 25th, 2008
2:21 PM
Wow. I’ve had totally different experiences with bias. While I have used bust darting to reduce some of the waist bagginess (and using a side panel as a stay), my solution has been to reduce the side seams in a specific way. I take out along the 4 areas where the X is drawn in here. In my experience, adding fullness to the hip seam line just makes the whole dress looser. I’ll also say that results varied according to different fabrics. I got better results with all of my test projects when I didn’t cut it the way books say to (back and front cut with grain opposing to each other).
March 25th, 2008
4:57 PM
You have drag lines; these point to the problem. As others have commented, you need width. Vertical translates to width; horizontal translates to length. Bias is always tricky. The reason you have a bubble is because the warp and weft are being stretched too much to fall freely. Release your seams and you will see your problem disappear.
p.s. Keep in mind that your warp threads and your weft threads will have different tensile strength.
March 25th, 2008
7:04 PM
About putting this dress on a live person, that’s probably excellent advice in general, but won’t help “Amanda Panda.”
Looking at the larger image on her website, this dress is meant to fit a toy/decorative miniature dress form. (Look at the second picture, it is standing on a tabletop next to a lamp.)
March 25th, 2008
8:13 PM
I would say that the length need to be shortened. Horizontally pinch out the amount of “poof” that will make it lay flat, then remove that from your pattern.
March 26th, 2008
12:59 AM
Yeah I noticed the same thing due to the size of the pin heads looking like ping pong balls… but non the less, the hip width looks too tight. Open up the side seams at the hip so that the bias can stretch into place for a smooth fit and increase your pattern hip width by this amount.
March 26th, 2008
8:18 AM
I am falling off my chair at how funny we all are critiqueing the cutting and fitting techniques of bias when it was a miniature.
March 26th, 2008
10:01 AM
it seems to me that the point where the hip enlargement starts on the dress is way too low, thus creating bulges at it is forced to sit higher up. the flaring should start at a higher point, that’s all. if the dress is not in bias i recommand it is next time
March 28th, 2008
1:30 PM
Front is too long between shoulders and waist. The shoulders on dress form are too sloped for this pattern. If you want to see those wrinkles disappear, pull up the garment from the top and that will tell you how the shoulder needs to be adjusted and where the new bust point should be and neckline should be. This problem needs to be fixed from the top down. Sure it might be caused by the fabric relaxing but it’s still needs to fixed from the top.