Stabilizing a V-Neck with Twill Tape

I've been moving right along on my version of Butterick 5814. One thing that's very important in a design like this is to stabilize the neckline. V-necklines are notorious for gaping. That's because the fabric is usually cut directly along the bias--the stretchiest part of the fabric. If it's not stabilized, the v-neck will continue to stretch over time. (Note: sometimes a design will have you cut the bodice piece so the v-neck is placed along the straight grain of the fabric, but it's more common that you'll see the straight grain at center front, which places the v-neck on the bias.)

You'll want to stabilize your neckline as soon as possible after cutting.

First, mark the neckline seamline with chalk (in other words, mark 5/8" in from the cut edge of the fabric). Here, I'm working on the right front bodice piece.

Next, cut a piece of 1/4" wide twill tape. Cut it 1/4" shorter than the length of the line you just marked.

Pin the twill tape at either end of your chalk line, just inside the seam allowance. (So the edge of your twill tape will butt up against your chalk line.) Because the twill tape is shorter than the chalk line, it will buckle up.

 Next, distribute the ease of the fabric into the twill tape by pinning all along it.

 Hand baste along the lower edge of the twill tape to keep it in place.

Repeat this process on the bodice left front, and both bodice back pieces. Then sew as usual! Though it looks a little ripply now, when the seam allowance is turned to the inside, the ripples will not show on your bodice. Do not trim down your twill tape when trimming seam allowances.

I did the same thing on the top of my raglan sleeves.

Now you have a neckline that won't stretch or gape!

P.S. I'll be taking the rest of the week off blogging in honor of Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a great holiday and weekend!

The B5814 Bodice Muslin!

Now may be the time to mention: Butterick 5814 is not a modest dress. (That's an understatement.) I don't wear a lot of really low-cut garments, so this muslin took some getting used to. I made sure to press under the seam allowances at the top, so I could really see the actual neckline, and then I showed Jeff the results.

Me: Is this too, um, revealing?
Jeff: Nope!

Men are so predicable sometimes.

But let's back up. I did have to make a couple adjustments to the muslin. When I first put it on, it looked like this. (Please excuse the cell phone photo.)

As you can see, the sleeves would not stay up at all. The fix for this took a couple steps. First, taking in the raglan sleeve seam on the front. See where it's pinned below?

On the pattern, I just shaved off 1/4" on that seam--on the bodice pieces and the front side of the sleeve. The revisions are in orange marker below.

The next adjustment I made was to add a seam to the top of the sleeve, so that I could curve it to fit my shoulder curve. See the red arrow in the photo below? That's how I want the top of my sleeve to curve.

This involved splitting the sleeve pattern piece into a front and back, drawing a new curved seamline, and then adding a seam allowance.

Here's how the new sleeve front piece looks.

When I pinned these changes on the muslin, the sleeves stayed up easily. Yay!

Other than that, I'm very happy with the fit.

I also checked the skirt measurements on the pattern tissue to make sure the amount of ease was correct for me.

I've also been working on a tutorial for adding a 3/4 length sleeve!

P.S. Several of you have been asking about the right bra to wear with this dress. In the photos I'm wearing a low-cut bra with wide-set straps, but they kept peeking out a bit. I would suggest either adding bra carriers to the sleeves, or wearing a strapless, waist-length bustier bra.

Butterick 5814: Construction and Fabric Details

As I mentioned yesterday, the construction of this dress is more complex than meets the eye. To give the bodice structure, it's boned along the darts and sides (on the lining). There's a waist stay (a grosgrain ribbon fitted snugly around the waist) to keep the bodice where it's supposed to be, and to support the weight of the skirt drape as well. Because the dress sits slightly off the shoulders, the waist stay also helps anchor the bodice so the sleeves don't slip off or ride up. The boning and the waist stay work together to these effects.

The pattern envelope calls for fabric for lining/underlining. What does that mean, you may ask? Great question. The bodice is lined traditionally. However, the skirt is underlined with lining fabric, meaning the fashion fabric and the lining fabric are hand basted together and treated as one. The underlining helps give body to the skirt pleats (underneath the drape), and also hides the hemming stitches. The fabric I used in the sample is a hot pink silk crepe-back satin, and it's almost impossible to hide hemming stitches without an underlining.

Speaking of fabric! The fabric used for this dress needs to have the right combination of drape and body. A draping fabric is important to accentuate the folds and drapes of the design. However, you don't want something too limp, as it will hang kind of sadly on the skirt drape. A crepe-back satin turned out to be perfect for the sample--drapey enough to showcase the design but beefy enough to make the skirt drape look full and dramatic.

The envelope calls for these fabrics: faille, crepe de chine, taffeta, and cotton damask. Butterick has experts who suggest the fabrics, and I trust them implicitly, but I admit I would have listed more fluid fabrics. Crepe de chine is in line with what I had in mind, as long as it has enough body for the skirt drape. Taffeta and faille are both more crisp than I had imagined. I don't think I've ever sewn with cotton damask, so I can't comment on that. If I had written the suggested fabrics, I think they would have been along these lines: crepe-back satin, 4-ply silk crepe, wool crepe, rayon crepe, lightweight wool gabardine. I hope I'm not being a jerk by contradicting the pattern envelope! As you know, these things can be very subjective. Butterick's fabric suggestions would certainly work; fabrics like faille and taffeta would just create a crisper look.

For my version, I'll be using a wool satin gabardine (like this one) for the fashion fabric and silk crepe de chine (like this) for the lining/underlining. The wool satin is a lovely deep wine/ruby color. It's fluid, but has a certain amount of body. But it's definitely not a crisp body, like taffeta.

As you're gathering supplies for this dress, I would recommend purchasing (I'm including links to some online suppliers I like as well):

• 1/4" twill tape for stabilizing the neckline (a fusible stay tape would work as well)
• Spiral steel boning (the envelope calls for plastic feather boning, but I prefer steel for its flexibility and strength). I keep a variety of lengths on hand, and cut them down to custom lengths. You'll also need boning tips for this purpose. Note: I cut my boning last night, and I ended up needing four 4" bones, and two 8-1/4" bones. This will vary by size however. I wear a size 14.
• 1/2" Boning casing
• Petersham ribbon for the waist stay, the rayon/cotton blends are more comfortable around the waist than poly grosgrain. 
• Hooks and eyes for the waist stay and the back zipper.
• A 20" zipper. I used invisible on the sample for a smooth look on the crepe, but a more vintage approach would be a regular zipper with a lapped application. The choice is yours!

Upcoming posts: I'll write about fitting my muslin this week. I'm also planning a tutorial on how to extend the raglan sleeves into 3/4 length for those who like a little more coverage!

Butterick 5814: The Draped Wiggle Dress

Now that my coat is finished, I'm embarking on a new project: sewing up my other new Butterick pattern for myself! (It's Butterick 5814, and it's currently on sale for $3.99 online.) While I don't quite have the stamina to do an official sew-along for this one, I will be doing a series of detailed posts on its fit and construction. Like I did with the coat pattern, I wanted to start with a post on the design and its inspiration.

From the beginning (when I proposed this design to Butterick), I've always called this "The Draped Wiggle Dress." When I think of the classic wiggle dress, I usually think of something in wool, with sleeves and a higher neck. (Like the one in my book!) But then there's also the cocktail-style wiggle dress, in a fancier fabric. The genesis for this one was the green dress Joan wears in a Mad Men poster.

I loved the side drape on the dress she wears here. From this point, I started looking at other designer dresses from the era, particularly the work of Peggy Wood. It was her use of little raglan sleeves and bodice draping that inspired by own bodice design. Here's an example of a typical Peggy Wood bodice:

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So now you can see how my own design was born; it's a mish-mash of a couple favorite styles.

It's certainly an interesting way to design. It's obviously nothing original, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its challenges. While working on a pattern like this, things constantly need to be tweaked and re-imagined. Taking cues from photos is one thing, but then the process of putting those details into an original pattern can be quite time-consuming and difficult.

Tomorrow I'll write about the construction of this dress. While it looks drapey and soft, it has a serious inner structure, including steel boning, underlining, and a grosgrain waist stay!