Comments on: Sewing Puzzle: skirt detail

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:14:49 +0000

I always had the idea of piping the top edge of this seam but it’d be hard to stick in there in that (darted, as Gigi said) seam. Plus, it’d also probably make someone’s hip look bigger but I liked the idea anyway.

By: Gigi

Gigi — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:06:52 +0000

I just made a blouse with a detail like this on the sleeve (vogue 8598). The skirt would be cut with a slash between the smooth high hip section and the full gathered section below it. Gathers are made and then the seam is sewn as a dart and clean-finished with a narrow 3-thread overlock. Really easy but not sure if it could be done efficiently in production or not.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:01:41 +0000

I have a vintage baby dress that has a detail like that. The fabric looked like it was slashed and then the bottom part was gathered and sewn back to the top part.

By: Rita Yussoupova

Rita Yussoupova — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:25:14 +0000

I also want to add that the sweep appears “flat” and narrower than the waist and hip. The skirt kind of has a barrel shape. Again I see this more of a pattern challenge.

By: Rita Yussoupova

Rita Yussoupova — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:21:05 +0000

I see this more as a pattern challenge rather than construction. There is so much shirr at neckline and Slv Opng but the AH seam appears flat and not hugely disproportionate. I think the Hip detail could be both Insert Pckt with shirred Opng or shirred hip “Yoke”. Both can be relatively easy executed construction wise. I think it will take a skilled patternmaker to create the pattern with such a “High/Low” shirr details.

By: Trudy

Trudy — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:58:58 +0000

There are 2 t-shirts by Chloe that use pretty much this design feature...http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/23116 and http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/23118...seems that the gathered area of the pattern is slashed/spead out in a fan formation (best way I can think of describing it after a long hard week, LOL!).

By: J C Sprowls

J C Sprowls — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:10:12 +0000

I’m gonna have to play with this, too. And, here I was planning a weekend of lawn work – thanks for the distraction!

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:30:18 +0000

I’m not sure if this helps with the constraints caused by the size of the sewing foot, but maybe this would work:
What if you first sewed up the side seams, then gathered the skirt onto the right side of a rectangle of bias-cut fabric, leaving the ends of the bias rectangle free (creating a little tail at the end of either seam). After that you could attach the right side of the top of the rectangle to the right side of the top slit on the skirt (raw edges matching). To create the piping, you’d sew the bottom seam to the top seam with topstitch ing, push the tails to the back of the skirt and topstitch the ends of the seams to secure it. It’d leave the tails on the inside of the skirt, but if the skirt were lined, they’d be hidden; or, you could fold them under and catch the ends in the topstitching for a clean finish.
Hope this makes sense – I’m writing this from a place with no fabric handy to make sure this technique actually works.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:28:00 +0000

an article describing a dress very similar to this in which the side detail was a large pocket that extended, I think, into the back. It was intended to hang open, and did, and looked very nice in a soft, mid weight goods

I had a jumper like this, bought it used, loved those big gathered gaping pockets. Made by a DE company, it had other problems (bad zip etc) but it was so cute I wore it anyway. It’s worn out; I saved it, thinking I’d write an article about it someday or show it to people (back before I had the blog).

Then Esther wrote:
I added some pictures of a sewn sample to further illustrate the sewing problem

Follow her link. In the entry she mentions there may be more to the pattern than she’s considered. Seeing her sample, I’d say there could be (in my opinion). I was thinking last night that this style, simple tho the cut may be, is one that would necessitate drafting from a fitting shell. Is that a hint enough?

I probably won’t get around to sampling it but the process outlined, is to:

1. Start with a single waist dart skirt block
2. Draw in your desired style line
3. Cut the lines of the dart legs
4. Cut along the desired style line
5. Pivot that dart closed.

Then add fullness (to say nothing of gathers on the bottom half of that hip style line) to make the fit blousier.

By: Esther

Esther — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:53:49 +0000

I added some pictures of a sewn sample to further illustrate the sewing problem on my blog Design Loft.