Continuing with the rose francaise construction notes, here is how I draped the front and attached the skirts.
Each front piece is one half width of taffeta. I used the selvage for the robing and skirt edges and pleated the robings on to the lining at the shoulders first. The robings are a 2.5 inch knife pleat. After the shoulders, I continued the pleat down the front of the lining, leaving a ¼ inch over hang, which I turned under later. I then pinned a dart from bust to waist, hiding it under the robing. The excess fabric was smoothed to the side seam and the arm holes and shoulder seams were trimmed to match the lining. I tried on the dress to check the fit of the dart and adjusted the side seam as necessary. The excess fabric was trimmed from the side seam to one inch above the waist, like the back pieces, and the full width of fabric was left for the side skirt.
Interior showing stitching for dart.
The side skirt pieces are one half-width of taffeta. The skirt pieces were sewn by machine and then pleated into two wide box pleats, which were stitched together at the top. These pleats meet at the center of the side seam and the top inch of the pleat is slipped between the lining and the taffeta. The pleats were then tacked to the taffeta and lining to support the weight of the fabric and to anchor the position of the pleats.
My original plan was to avoid a waist seam; however, when I tried the dress on, a large wrinkle natural formed at the waist because of the angle of my pocket hoops. I pinned the wrinkle into a tuck and stitched it down, helping the skirt to fall nicely over the hoops. If my hoops weren’t so horizontal, and had more of a slope, I think the dress would have worked without a waist seam.
Waist tuck and pleats.
Posted:
1/23/2012 3:47:00 PM by
Aubry | with
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