Empire Crinkle Rayon, the pattern

To make the pattern for my Blue crinkle Rayon Empire top, I started with:

• the PMB DRESS,
• Empire Waist (raised setting 3),
• Double-breasted closure (button size 0.5),
• Curved V-neck with a depth of 11.5”.

In retrospect, that neckline depth was probably a tad low for this neck shape, but I was trying to make the neckline seam meet the Empire seam. If I had chosen the STRAIGHT V-neck instead of the curved one, this depth would probably have been fine, but when you add in the curve,...well....I had to 'tack' the fronts together at the overlap to prevent exposure…and where I tacked them is probably ABOVE where the pattern was designed to overlap! I put on the top and overlapped the fronts as low as I could and still keep my bra covered and tacked it in that position. This DID pull on the fronts a bit…they were telling me they didn’t want to cross that high!...but I forced them to!

I did as before…I divided the single under-bust dart into 2 released tucks. To do this, I first rotated the dart out of the way. Then I placed a point on each side of the bust point, distance away equals .75”. I drew lines from each point to the waist seam. Then I rotated HALF of the bust dart to EACH of these lines.

Next I drew a circle around the bust point, r=-2.5”, then drew another one .25” away. This is because if I cut both lines off at the SAME circle, the lengths of the tuck’s legs don’t match. Making the medial leg longer compensates for the angle of the tucks.

I had just about finished when I realized I might want to shorten the front neck a bit and transfer that to the bust darts, so I did that last...you can barely see the difference in the last two patterns, but look at the empire seam near the CF...it angles upward slightly (you probably can't tell that the dart/tucks are slightly larger.

Oh, gosh! I forgot to explain that front armhole!

Well, as you may remember, I have been trying to discover my perfect armhole shape. I have found that by deliberately MISSHAPING the armhole with the AH SHAPE TOOL during drafting, then reshaping it manually, in PE, gives a better ah shape and sleeve.

I am doing 17 clicks down and 2 clicks to the Right….each click is 1/10th inch, and the tool is moving the F-notch.

Basically, I am creating an armhole with a LONGER seam length by making it more square, so that when I manually scoop the lower front, the sleeve will have adequate length to fit the new armhole.

Ok, to redraw the F-AH
I locate a point 1” ABOVE the F-notch, then draw an arc from there to the underarm point…this arc will scoop 0.375” below the original lower armhole curve.

Then I draw an arc from new point to the shoulder point, again, curving slightly inward…but this time, only 0.125”.

This creates a really good armhole shape. When you align the front and back patterns at shoulder seam, this armhole shape flows smoothly from back to front.

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Ok, so that sounds like a lot of changes….really, it isn’t all that much. Reshaping the F-armhole is critical, but the dart-to-tucks is just a design thing.

Of course, as mentioned before, I must add length below the bust dart….I did report this problem, but was told it couldn’t be fixed. However, PMB’s MIDRIFF style does appear to have the needed dart length…I don’t know why the EMPIRE style can’t (?). But I don’t write code…

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Ok, for the LOWER FRONT area, I eliminated the closure part (shown in pink) as I planned to cut this on the fold.

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And remember, I draft with 2” MORE hip ease than I need in order to get the sideseams correctly shaped, then I eliminate this extra from the front patterns.

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Because of this, I need to remove 1” of width from this lower front pattern.

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I selected the outer part (shown in aqua) and moved it over 1”…basically making the front dart much smaller. I decided that tiny dart wasn’t worth sewing, so I just rotated the front sideseam just a little to close that dart over…yes, this made the sideseams no longer EXACTLY identical F to B, but I figured it was close enough for this crinkle fabric which ‘gives’ so much.

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For the BACK, I compared the size of the waist dart in the lower part to the size of the darts in my TORSO/Blouse pattern, and again, this Empire dart is smaller.

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Because of this, I enlarged the dart by .25” on each side.

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Then, to make the waistline seam of the BODICE back match this now-shorter lower seam, I ROTATED the lower ah and SS (pink area) CW to remove 0.5” at the waist seam.

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The upper dart was sewn as drafted.

Now about those sleeves… I have read where people join the front and back at the underarm seam and cut this as one pattern piece. Sounds ok, right? Well… Notice that when you align the front and back at underarm points, there is a GAP created at the hem edge. Obviously you can’t rotate the pieces to align that underarm seam, as the hem would form a inverted V there…and that would not be good to sew.

So I tried it as shown…with the GAP in the pattern.

The sleeves were awful.

They were large…like circle sleeves, hunging flat against my side under the arm with no shape. The inside of the sleeve was VERY visible.

Yuk.

So I sewed a dart there where the underarm seam SHOULD be…this corrected the problem. In the future, I will NOT join my petal sleeve patterns!

Ok, that’s about it.

Empire Crinkle Rayon

Perhaps I should have titled this post, "The Incredible Shrinking Woman!"

But that is not really the case...it is more like 'the incredible growing blouse'!

I wanted to make another Empire surplice top, to verify that the measurement changes I made after making this one are exactly as desired. I had this crinkle rayon in my stash...it was found on the bargain table at my local Hancock Fabrics* last summer and purchased for $1 per yard or some outrageous $um like that.

*BTW, that local Hancock store, where I have been shopping all my life...even picking out the patterns and fabric for mother to sew my school clothes when I was a kid...BURNED to the ground early yesterday morning!

I just HATE that...it was convenient and close to both my mother's and sister's homes, and I could often find things there that were bargains...not crummy stuff, but decent fabric that had been marked down. Now the store is gone (suspected that garbage truck emptying their dumpster hit a gas line...slow leak caused fire in the night.) and I highly doubt it will be rebuilt. Bummer. Really. Bummer.



Crinkle rayon grows if you iron it. Plus, it grows during wear. So I was aware that this might not be the BEST fabric for evaluating fit. (duh) But I wanted to use it, so I did.

To stabilize the neck and armholes, I ironed on some stay tape. I used a bias tape for these areas...to go around the curves.

Not giving it much thought, I pulled on the tape slightly to barely shrink the neck edge, as I usually do (You can see how the neckline is slightly shorter than the pattern's neck area). HOWEVER, I had already taken a 'dart' from the pattern's neck edge and transfered it to the bust dart (contouring) to make the wrap-style bodice fit closer between the breasts, and I probably didn't need to do BOTH.

I also put stay tape across both FRONT shoulders, to stabilize. For this area, I used the straight tape. I did not put tape on the back shoulder, which is sewn to this stabilized front.

I use 3/8" seam allowances, which is the width of the tape.

As you can see, the Empire seam pulls UP just a bit as it approaches the center. Bummer! Oh well...next time.

When I finished sewing this top, it was huge, due to ironing and pressing!

So I grabbed my water bottle and sprayed the whole thing until saturated. Then I hung it to dry. When dry it had 'crinkled' right back into shape!

The image here shows the difference between the top with the crinkles in place (left) and in the 'relaxed' state after ironing.

Again, the left is how the topfits with the crinkles "fresh" and the right side is what it looks like if ironed.

The REAL fit is somewhere in between...the crinkles DO relax a bit during wear and give a little more ease, but nothing like when ironed.

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I used PMB's PETAL sleeve for the first time. The outer edge is probably a bit more rippled than it would be in other fabric, due to stretching out the crinkles with the narrow hem, but overall, I think I kinda like this sleeve.

However, when I was wearing it, BOTH my mother and my sister asked if I had made this top...they were not together. Both said it was because they had patterns with this petal sleeve. It made me wonder...is this sleeve rarely found in RTW? Is this a dead giveaway that the garment is 'homemade'? What do you think?

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I have been gradually reducing my shoulder widths, and I am wondering if I can reduce the BACK SHOULDER WIDTH a little more (?). This would narrow the back slightly, but put a bit more into the back of the sleeve, and perhaps make it hang better. Hmmm.

I'll give the pattern details next time!

Empire Surplice Top update

I have now worn my navy/floral Empire Surplice top a couple of times, and I must say, it is quite nice to wear! Too bad the fabric is not fine...it probably won't last long!

The armhole depth is NOT too low after all, as I had thought it was during construction. I DID finally remember WHY I had decided to lower the armholes: Because I reduced both front and back center lengths (to raise my waist), the armholes draft less-tall than they did before (when I was using a lower waist position). When the waist was located at a lower spot on my body (and thus, I had longer vertical measurements), I sometimes had to RAISE the armhole depth! But not anymore...now I must lower the AH depth to achieve just the right ah...but using the measurements which place the waist at this (higher) level puts the garment's waist shaping in a better spot on my body.

The front "skirt" portion does not expose skin, even when it blows open, due to the generous overlap. It also does not spread open when I sit.

The double-bust-dart/tuck thing worked out really well! I love that it provides shaping without being so form-fitting...I will do this again!

Before, I mentioned that, next time, I would reduce the center front length (CFL) and increase the center back length. WELL, it turns out, all I had to do was reduce the CFL (and front shoulder slope-FSS) and I could leave the CBL as it was. Reducing the front was enough to correct the placement of the front Empire seam (it was a little too low in the central area).

On the Navy top, I had used the Dart Override tool to reduce the size of the F-ah slightly, but now, after reducing the CFL and FSS, that won't be necessary!

I did decide to reduce the shoulder width measurements even more...I have been gradually making my shoulders more and more narrow. I am now using FSW=13.75" and BSW=15.5inches. I think this will really improve the shape of my armholes and sleeves, and provide increased arm mobility and comfort.

Empire-waist Surplice Blouse

I finally finished the Empire Surplice (crossover) top I mentioned before! As usual, it isn’t perfect…I need to shorten the center front length and lengthen the center back length by .25” for next time...but it is wearable.

The fabric I used was some drapey rayon challis that I purchased last year specifically for use in testing patterns. This dark color makes the style details hard to see in the pictures…I increased the brightness a bit, but it only helped a little.

The blue buttons were from my stash…actually, they originally came from my grandmother’s stash! I put one button/buttonhole on each side, just under the bust…two buttons total.

As mentioned previously, additional
length was needed on the pattern right there at the dart legs to smooth out the angle that forms when the dart is sewn. This extra length also helps the fabric conform to my body a little better, going over then under the bust, going all the way to the rib cage before falling vertically.


I had initially decided to just gather that bust dart, as I had done in my muslin (of septic paper). But in this drapey rayon, the gathers formed a poof of fabric BELOW my bust…not pretty! So I tried sewing two small darts then gathering the rest…nope, that was awful, too! So I went back to the computer, to play with the pattern to see what I should do.





I decided to divide the single bust dart into TWO bust darts. First, I rotated the bust dart out of the way…just as I had done previously to check the ‘flow’ of the waist seam.

Then, I located a point on each side of the bust dart, 0.75” away from BP. Next, I drew a line from each of these new points down to the place where the original bust dart meets the Empire waist seam. These two new lines form a ‘V’ shape under the bust. Then I rotated half the bust dart to each of these new slash lines. But I didn’t want to sew the darts all the way to the tips…I wanted the illusion of gathers…so I drew a circle around my original Bust Point, radius equals 2.5”, and only sewed the darts outside of the radius, basically converting them to tucks. I was pleased with this effect…not full under the bust yet still a ‘looser’ look.







The sleeves were another FUN adventure! I had wanted to see what happens when using a very low sleeve cap…I drafted with (-1.5”). But for some reason, I had also determined that I needed to lower my armhole depth 0.5” (I cannot remember why, but the ah depth was a bit low). These two settings combined to produce a really wide sleeve! The first insertion was comical. I ripped out the sleeve and trimmed the sleeve cap, then tried again…better but still no cigar. Eventually I got the sleeve recut to be acceptable, but due to the too-low armhole depth, my sleeve cap ‘trial’ was invalid…I still don’t know what is the lowest cap height setting I could use on my sleeve with the correct ah depth! But I did learn that I probably don’t need to lower the armhole depth after all…(duh).


I worked very hard to make the hem come out even, yet in wear, the overlap/underlap edges sag a bit and hang lower than the main hem. Bummer! I am hoping my interfacing might shrink in the wash and prevent this from happening in the future! Also, my neckline was fine BEFORE I understitched it, but after doing the understitching, the neck began to gap a bit! Again, let’s hope the interfacing shrinks and corrects for this! Ya know, that is usually NOT something I hope for! But on this blouse, shrinking interfacing might be a blessing!

Empire waist Blouse/dress

I'm still working on the Empire waist top I mentioned at the end of my last
post. I created the pattern using PMB, and have run into a few problems
that need to be corrected...specifically, the way the bust dart is 'trued'
when placed in the waist seam. The dart's fold line needs adequate length
so that when the dart is sewn and pressed to one side, the cut edge of the
fold line will reach the waist seam. This is not happening. No matter
whether I press the dart toward the side or toward the center, the fold line
area comes up short of reaching the seam.

I'll show you what I mean.


This is my PMB pattern as drafted. You can see there is not a large 'triangle' of fabric created below the dart at the waist seam.

The green line is the center fold line of the
dart. The dart legs are pink and blue.













If I rotate the side part of the pattern to superimpose the pink and blue
lines...as if sewing the dart...you can see that the green line does NOT
extend long enough to reach the lower, cut edge of the waist seam.























The green fold line is short by about an inch!
The numbers on this pattern represent the length of the dart's fold line (green) before I extended it to the cut edge and after extending.


But also, look at the SHAPE the waist seam takes after the dart is sewn.
It is like an inverted V...a ^ shape.
This is not right and is certainly not
desireable! That waist seam should be curved as a smooth line, more like the bold pink line I have added.








I pulled out one of my drafting books, Patternmaking for Fashion Design,
by Helen Joseph Armstrong. On page 429 of the Third Edition, she
shows how to 'true' the draft to prevent this problem.

I followed her directions for modifying the PMB draft.

Below is a 'before and after' view of this pattern...on the left-- as drafted,
and on the right-- after my corrections. Even if I planned to gather the
dart, instead of actually sewing it, the pattern would STILL need the extra
length at the dart legs to prevent the -^- shape, even though the fold-line
shortage becomes less of an issue.





Anyway, these changes should take care of the FRONT pattern.



But notice the changes HJA makes to the back pattern.

The upper back waist dart on my PMB Empire dress pattern (on the left here>>>) is always much shorter and narrower than the corresponding dart on my Torso/Blouse draft, and I have always wondered 'why'.

Also, the lower back dart...in the 'skirt' portion...on my PMB Empire dress is also much smaller than it would be on the Torso/Blouse draft. I sewed a muslin as drafted, but the back was loose and not very well fitted to my shape.

However, if I just pasted the darts from my Torso block onto this dress, there was a bit too much contouring back there, and it seemed....well, 'uneven'.

But once I saw this example in the Patternmaking book, I knew what the answer was!

I DID need to paste the larger TORSO dart onto the lower (skirt) portion of the PMB dress, but I did NOT want the larger Torso dart in the upper back part! No, I needed to keep the dart that drafts on the PMB back bodice, and then trim the side at waist (shown in PINK) to make the bodice seam match the width of the skirt portion! PMB doesn't do this (original side seam on bodice shown as bold green line)...it just makes the dart of the lower/skirt section as narrow as the dart in the back upper/bodice, so the seam lines will match in length.

I tested this on my septic-paper muslin and it seems to work nicely, so I am cutting 'real' fabric for a test Empire blouse!

Oh, you might be confused because I keep going back and forth between calling this an Empire blouse and an Empire DRESS. In PMB, if it has a waist seam, it is a DRESS, even if it is only blouse-length, so technically this is a 'dress' pattern. But I am making a blouse!

Today I venture into the world of blogging. Don't get too excited...I'm new at this! But hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon!

Today, I will finalize a pattern I am making to sew up another quick top. In the last several months, I have been tweaking measurements again, to 'force' a draft with mirrored sideseams. I have accomplished that now, and I think I am ready to make REAL clothes again! Yea!!!

I have an animal print crinkle rayon that Mom gave me, and I think I'll use that for this next top. I currently have it draped on my dress form, and it looks halfway decent...here is a picture. I just hope the top I end up with looks half as nice!