DRAPING DIGITAL JOURNAL #2 - COWLS

This exercise involved draping a variety of cowls on an industry-standard size 8 mannequin. This involved a lot of play and exploration, as cowls are intended to be more free-formed and  slightly arbitrary. 

The draping of cowls usually involves draping with the bias of the fabric, which helps the cowl to sit nicer and have a better drape due to the bias stretch.

Alexander Wang bias cowl blouse                Cowled halter neck silk bias gown

1930s inspired back cowl bias bridal gown

Here are some examples of front and back cowls on garments. As you can see, cowls can sit and look a variety of ways depending on the type of fabric used, the depth and width of the cowl, and the position on the body. You can create a deep, smooth cowl as shown in the third picture, or a more shallow and fuller looking cowl as in the first and second pictures.

To get the look you are trying to go for with a cowl, or with any type of draping, it is important to consider the appropriate fabric. Draping with a stiff fabric will allow for more structure, but you should also expect a rougher look to the finished cowl. Vice versa, draping with a lighter fabric will allow for smoother lines and a lot less structure.

SKIRT SIDE COWL - MUSLIN FABRIC

Here are some examples of what side cowls may look like. In the first picture, the folds of the cowl are concentrated at the side seam, while the second picture has the folds congregating closer towards the center front. In this draping exercise, I have tried both methods to create differing looks to the cowl.

We started this exercise with a square piece of fabric (muslin) that was folded on the bias, and the bias was marked along the fold with a dotted line.

Square down 18 cm from the bias grainline, and mark a line. Next, cut off the extra triangle corner. The point at the bias fold is labelled A. 4 cm up from the bottom is point C.

 Draw in a temporary hem length (38 cm in), though this length is very likely to change due to varying pleat/fold sizes.

Match the bias line to the side seam with the piece of fabric sitting approximately 4 cm above the waist. When continuing this drape, it is important to always refer back to the bias grainline to make sure that it is still somewhat aligned to the side seam. If it is off, it can still be okay, just that the garment may tend to shift more towards the side it is skewed towards.

I pinned point C to point A, making a sort of a pleat/fold on the front side of the body. For this exercise, all pleats were folded in towards the side seam.

To make the actual cowl, you need to pull at the excess fabric on the inside of the pleat so that it starts to curve and stand up slightly. You may not really be able to tell that it's working until do more pleats, as well as after you have done the opposite side of the cowls.

Here I have completed the front section of the drape. My pleats are decently large and I have placed them evenly apart, but the deeper the fold, the more exaggerated the cowl will later appear.

I mirrored what I did on the front side of the body to the back side of the body. As you can see, the ridges of the cowl have formed nicely and distinctively. The first cowl is one of the hardest to get, and usually is less prominent than the following cowls (don't worry if it doesn't show up well).

A difficult part about doing this exercise is the mirroring of the cowl lines to the back body. I wanted my folds to be nice and even, so that my cowls would drape symmetrically. Despite the muslin fabric being quite stiff and difficult to drape, it is possible to create origami-like cowls that stand up nicely.

Here's some experimentation with various side cowls. This design involved folding the first cowl layer towards the side seam, then folding the other cowl layers angled the opposite way towards the CF/CB instead to create opposing shapes.

Another experimentation with the cowl: this one isn't so much of a draped cowl as it is a pleated origami-like detail. Unlike traditional cowling, I did not pull out the excess fabric inside the folds to make the cowls have dimension. Instead, I flattened them to create these stark folds.

This side cowl experimentation has the folds angling in from CF/CB instead. I had to redo this cowl a few times before I got it to sit right because I underestimated how much depth each fold would need to achieve the look I wanted. It is important to keep in mind that in order to create very rich and distinct cowls, steep angling and a lot of fabric may be needed to achieve a voluminous look!

After I was satisfied with my cowl, I drew in the waist, CF, CB, and new hem line based on the lines marked on the mannequin. It is important to mark these lines correctly in order to be able to transfer this drape into new pattern pieces. Also, remember to mark the cowl's fold lines at the waist (on both sides of the fabric). It is also beneficial to draw in exactly how the cowl sits at its peak and in the depth so that it is easier to reproduce later on, especially if the way it drapes may need hand tacking to stay put (I didn't mark the cowl lines on this drape, but refer to the armhole drape below to see how I marked it).

SKIRT SIDE DRAPE - SATIN POLYESTER FABRIC

This drape starts off in the exact same way as the previous drape, just with a different fabric. This fabric was a lightweight polyester satin that was very silky, smooth, and slippery. This had a completely different feel to work with and definitely required a different mindset to handle than the muslin fabric.

I tried reproducing the first drape that I did in the muslin with this fabric, with the folds congregating towards the side seam:

It didn't quite turn out as expected for me, as I thought that it would look to be a smoother, flowier, and more graceful version of my muslin drape.  Personally, I found this drape more challenging than the one with the muslin. The fabric was overly slippery and unwilling to stay in the shape I wanted it to. Although many of my classmates appreciated this soft and slippery fabric, I developed a great dislike for it when the cowls I tried to carefully sculpt ended up looking mostly like melting chocolate.

Often, in order to create a more structured look with a drapey fabric like this, people will add inter-linings underneath the outer fabric to support the shape of the cowl.

Here I played with a side drape variation, where I used a combination of the origami folding, twisting, and pinning up the fabric to create bulges. The effect was pretty interesting and I feel that this type of design is definitely more suited for this fabric than trying to create a very dynamic cowl.

While the muslin was perhaps a smidgen too stiff to be versatile enough, this fabric was too quicksilver. I found a happy medium in the fabric we used next in the armhole drape...

ARMHOLE COWL - LINING FABRIC

Here are some examples of armhole cowls. The first cowl is quite extreme, featuring many little pleats that combine to create a voluminous underarm. The second cowl is a lot softer and free-flowing, resulting in a loose, deep cowl that is less likely to flatten or impede the wearer's arm.

I think that comfort or restriction of movement is important to consider when creating an underarm cowl. A cowl could easily deflate and look terrible once the wearer puts their arm down at their sides, so it is wiser to create something that doesn't only look good in photos when the model is posing with her arms up. It can also be very bulky and uncomfortable with a lot of excess fabric at the underarm.

This drape also starts off essentially in the same way as the skirt drapes, except this time I have squared down at 20 cm instead of at 18 cm to make a little more room in the waist for maneuvering with.

First, I pinned the bias to the side seam of the mannequin, and I've placed the waist edge of the fabric approximately 4 - 5 cm below the waistline.

I temporarily pinned the CF/CB edges of the fabric a little bit past the mannequin's CF/CB.

Then, I added an elastic ribbon around the waist of the mannequin to gather the bottom edge. Right now, there is a lot of fullness in the waist, but this can be manipulated out by adjusting the folds to create the cowling effect.

By folding in towards the body the top triangle of the fabric, I created a facing for the cowl, as well as used this to control the depth of the cowl.

In this initial attempt, I didn't fold the facing for the cowl in deep enough, making the armhole too high and the cowl isn't very deep at all. There is still a lot of excess gathering in the waist to be eliminated as well.

This is my second attempt, where I folded in the facing more and pulled the top edges of the fabric to a higher point so as to eliminate waist bulk and to further angle the folds. The pleats here are distributed more evenly and the cowls come to a soft, deep drape.

Here is a close-up of the waist, which now virtually has no more gathers and sits smoothly on the body.

After perfecting my cowl, I drew in the CF, CB, waist, and cowl fold lines (both sides). I also drew in where the cowl sits with dashed lines so that I can easily reproduce this cowl again by following the drape lines.

Here is what the pattern pieces for this armhole cowl looks like. It is ready to be transferred over to paper to make further adjustments!

CONCLUSION

What surprised me a lot was the huge difference that the fabric makes to the drape. I would've thought that an extremely drapey fabric like the second one I used would provide the best drape, but I enjoyed using the third fabric the most as it was soft yet wasn't overly slippery or flimsy.

As I draped the armhole cowl, I very much related the shape of it to how an armhole cowl is drafted with its facing. I greatly recall doing that draft in quarter scale patterns, and the way the upper edge of the fabric is folded in makes real sense to me as I visualized what the pattern looks like. Having this visual in mind also helped me to understand how the waist could possibly go from having so many gathers to lying smooth, as the drafted pattern is able to be dartless in the waist as well.