The Style Dictionary: Jabots

Jabots are a curious genre, closely related to the bow-tie blouse, but really a category of their own. These cascading collar ruffles are best known as Supreme Court wear, and indeed, they often recall the harsh black and white of a judge's robes. (It's pronounced ja-BO, if you're curious.)

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Jabots can be made two ways: by cutting a circular ruffle (which naturally creates that cascading effect) or by ruffling straight-grain strips of fabric and arranging them into rows on your blouse.

It's hard to find a fashion era that doesn't include a jabot blouse of some sort. Often the ruffles surrounded a neckline button placket, as on the lower right view of this Hollywood pattern.

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Interestingly, the jabot above appears to be a dickey of sorts that attaches to a regular placket blouse.

When I think of a jabot dress, I most often think of Peggy Olsen of Mad Men. This plaid dress is one of her regular office dresses, and looks very smart on her.

Jabots lasted well into the mod years, as shown here.

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And they're alive and well today! Have you noticed how all knit tops seem to have some sort of ruffly bib on the front?

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I think we may actually be due for a complete jabot recession, to be honest. Just yesterday, a straight male friend asked me, "What's with all the stuff on the front of blouses these days?"

Readers, are you ready for a break from the ruffle-front trend?

The Style Dictionary: Yokes

Welcome back to the Style Dictionary! In my intro to sewing class, I often find myself explaining the difference between skirt yokes and waistbands. So what better topic for a post?

Let's start out with the more common understanding of a yoke: a fitted pattern piece set into the shoulder and chest area of a bodice or men's shirt. This 60s housedress pattern lets you see the yoke lines clearly:

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You'll notice that the yoke has gathers below it, releasing fullness into the bust, a common feature on women's clothing. The etymology of the word yoke seems pretty clear; the common definition is "a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals (as oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together" or "a frame fitted to a person's shoulders to carry a load in two equal portion." Similarly, the yoke on a bodice or shirt is a frame that fits around a person's shoulders.

Yokes were very popular on women's clothing in the 40s, and were an uber-feminine detail on dresses, often accentuated with lace, gathers, and ruffles.

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In fact, Constance Talbot's 1947 book, The Complete Book of Sewing, lists a whopping 8 types of yokes: stitched-in yokes, overlaid yokes, transparent yokes, decorative yokes, scalloped or scrolled edge yokes, detachable yokes, bib yoke effects, and plastrons. Pastrons? Come again? Ah, "yokes worn on the outside of a garment and tied around the waist with a sash, tie, or belt."

Yokes are also quite common on men's shirt backs, and they often have a Western vibe.

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Now, yokes on skirts. Also called hip yokes, these are shaped pieces that are sewn to the top of a skirt. They extend down further than a waistband, and generally start at the natural waist.

They can be shaped, as in this 70s pattern.

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I've been seeing yokes a lot on contemporary skirt patterns, like this simple Vogue design.

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Yokes are generally constructed by seaming them into the bodice garment. Other times, they can be appliqued with topstitching, kind of like how one applies a patch pocket. Shirt yokes often have a self facing on the inside which finishes the seams nicely.

Yokes are a great design feature because they allow you to play with contrasting colors, sheers, laces, trims, or grain manipulation on stripes.

This dress yoke is trimmed in ric rac.

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This lovely blouse uses the yoke to set off beautiful hand embroidery.

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I love the playful use of stripes on the dress on the left below.

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This mod pattern is so great. I especially love the lace yoke and the contrast version with a bow. Adorable!

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Aren't yokes inspiring?

The Style Dictionary: Raglan Sleeves

"The raglan, from which these sleeves get their name, is a loose overcoat named after an English general."—The Complete Book of Sewing, 1949

Is it just me, or are sleeves fascinating? They have to fit such an odd assemblage of curves and angles: the arm is essentially a jointed cylinder that attaches to the torso by way of the shoulder, a body part that creates such an extreme curve that you have to shape fabric deftly around it by way of gathering, easing, and steaming. Raglan sleeves are just another way of maneuvering this territory. They're attached to a bodice by a seam that runs diagonally from the neckline to the underarm, rather than being set in at the shoulder. This pretty dress pattern shows the raglan lines very clearly.

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The raglan sleeve usually requires some sort of extra fitting seam at the top to make them curve over the shoulder. In the case of the pattern above, that's taken care of with a dart. Here's the pattern piece:

Instead of a dart, you may also see a raglan sleeve in two pieces, with a seam that runs down the outside of the arm. In which case, the pattern pieces would look like this:

I especially love the raglan-sleeve swing coats of the 50s and 60s. See how this one has a seam on the upper side of the arm rather than a shaping dart?

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Raglan sleeves are unusual in the way they're constructed in that everything is kept flat rather than applied in the round, as with a set-in sleeve. Usually, the underarm sleeve seam and the side seams of the garment are left open, until after the diagonal raglan lines have been stitched to the bodice. Then, the underarm sleeve seam and the bodice side seams are stitched in one continuous line.

Raglan sleeves can take all sorts of shapes and styles. On this 40s nightgown, they appear very soft and feminine.

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On these coats, they're a little more structured. You can actually buy raglan-shaped shoulder pads if you want some extra shaping in a tailored garment.

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Like any other sleeve, raglan sleeves can be long or short, loose or fitted. They're adorable in a cap sleeve like this recent Vogue pattern.

Interestingly, the raglan sleeve shows up in every decade of patterns I researched, never going completely out of style. I would guess this is because it's such a versatile look and can shift from sophisticated to sporty (baseball tees, anyone?).

The Style Dictionary: Gathers, Ruching, and Shirring

Ooh, here's a good question that came from a commenter. Have you ever noticed how the terms gathering, ruching, and shirring are often used interchangeably? Well, it's probably because there's a lot of overlap between these three methods. I'm going to talk about what I understand these techniques to be, but feel free to jump in with your own opinions in the comments, as always!

Gathering

This term refers to a length of fabric being drawn up into gathers and sewn into a shorter length of fabric. The best example of gathering in vintage style is a dirndl skirt, which is a rectangular pattern piece that is drawn up to fit into a smaller piece, like a waistband or bodice.

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I think of gathering as generally being on one side of a piece of fabric, and then releasing into fullness on the other side. Neckline gathers are another example.

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Gathers are made by using a long basting stitch and then drawing up the bobbin thread, or (my favorite method) using a wide zigzag over dental floss or a thin strand of string and then pulling the floss or string tight.

Ruching

Ruching is a gathered overlay. The fabric is gathered on two parallel sides and stitched to an underlay. It's often done in sheers, like chiffon.

Here's a bodice that has a ruched chiffon overlay.

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 This dress is ruched in the bust only, creating a shelf effect.

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This dress pattern has vertical ruching on the bust, horizontal ruching on the waist, and a gathered skirt. Oh my!

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Ruching is made by creating two or more parallel lines of gathering.

Shirring

Shirring is a gathering technique done with elastic thread, which creates a stretchy garment. Elastic thread is used in the bobbin, causing the fabric to gather up when stitched. Shirring is very common on the side panels on 50s swimsuits, rompers and sundresses a la Alfred Shaheen.

I love the form-fitting effect shirring has on this Shaheen romper.

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Isn't it awesome? One of my goals this summer is to finally try shirring to make a hot Shaheen-style bombshell dress.

There you have it: gathering, ruching, and shirring as I understand them. Please share your own definitions!

The Style Dictionary: Kimono Sleeves

I got an e-mail from a reader quite some time ago asking how I learned style terminology and whether there was a book that could point out the difference between a shift and a sheath, for instance. To be honest, I don't think I learned a lot of these terms until I got into vintage patterns. Vintage descriptions of clothing seem so much more detailed to me than our modern language. For a fun new feature, I thought I would do dedicated posts to various style terms. The posts will include examples from vintage patterns and vintage clothing. Let's jump in today with a simple but fascinating one: kimono sleeves!

Dior's "Ecarlate" Dress of 1955

Kimono sleeves are drafted in one with a bodice. They look very simple (and almost boxy) when you look at the pattern piece. But on the body, they create a lovely, soft effect.

Kimono sleeves are, in fact, modeled after the Japanese kimono and they gained popularity during World War II when Asian styles became more wide-spread. In the 1940s, kimono sleeves were still worn with shoulder pads, retaining that popular strong-shouldered look.

With the advent of Dior's New Look in 1947, with its softer silhouette, women favored more subtle shoulder pads--or none at all.

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As bodice styles became more fitted, designers would add an underarm gusset (a triangular pattern piece) to a kimono sleeve to keep a close fit while still retaining mobility for the wearer.

Underarm gusset

Pattern pieces for the style above

By the early 1960s, kimono sleeves were still in style, but bodices had gotten a little blousier, eliminating the need for gussets.

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There we have it, the amazing kimono sleeve! Please let me know if there are any particular entries you would like in this new series.