Digital Draping Journal #7 - Bias Play

DIGITAL DRAPING JOURNAL #7 - BIAS PLAY

This class we focused on bias draping techniques and how this affects the drape of the fabric.

MADELINE VIONNET:

Firstly, we explored the work of Madeline Vionnet, a French "dressmaker" who was at the peal of her fame in the 1920s-30s. She was famous for her body flattering designs that allowed for unrestricted movement of the body--a contrast to the corsetted, heavy, and restricting clothing that had previously been the trend. Vionnet was a master of fabric, movement, balance, and the sensuality of the body.

Particularly, Vionnet's use of the bias cut to achieve free-moving garments with ease of wearing and dressing is what makes her draping techniques worth studying.

Here are some examples of her work:

1936 evening dress, silk

1922 evening dress

1930s bias evening gown

EXERCISE:

Our in class exercise was to replicate a 1930s evening dress by Vionnet in half size using cotton muslin fabric.

Here is the dress we reproduced.

Here are the design lines of the dress to drape on the mannequin. I put in the measurements I used in green pen (full scale numbers).

These are the design lines I placed on my mannequin with draping tape. It is important to look at the proportions for the positions of the design lines to mark things properly for the most accurate reproduction. We compared measurements in class to find an average of measurements to go off of.

I prepared a muslin piece, being sure to mark the grain, cross grain, and bias lines in different colours. It is important to establish and keep all these markings so that this can later be transferred to a paper pattern.

Because we are draping on the bias, the bias line will be draped parallel to CF/CB. This is the front piece, making sure that the bias stays parallel while the intersection of the grains is pinned to the bust point. Smooth to CF and up the shoulder area.

Smooth across the waist and form the bust dart. The dart should be angled into the design line below on the back skirt piece.

Draw in the armhole, dart, CF, shoulder, necklines, etc. Make sure to also mark the bustline clearly. Trim off around the edges and leave approx. 1 cm.

Second piece of prepared fabric. This is to form the front stomach piece.

The bias line will be parallel to CF again, draw in design lines and mark CF/waist/hipelines. Trim off to be 1 cm surrounding the piece.

Back top piece muslin.

Put the bias parallel to CB, pin up and down CB, smooth the shoulder and back neck. The next part is a bit challenging: smooth the fabric across the back waist and make it as smooth as possible. Make this as flat as possible, but this drape will likely change depending on the actual fabric you will use for final garment (some fabrics drape better than others).

Side view of back piece drape.

The back skirt drape is a large piece: for this one, the cross grain is pinned to the side seam up and down. It is easier to do this part if you partially unpin the upper body so that you fold it up and it's out of the way (don't completely take it off though).

Draw in the top design line shape only, but then clip into the skirt below the front stomach panel to create a pivot point for creating fullness in the skirt.

Clip point close up.

Create clips along the back skirt seam to connect it to the body, create fullness in the back skirt as desired.

Here is the amount of fullness I added to my skirt. You can do more or less depending on how many clips you put into the seam.

Back view.

Here, I folded back down the upper body and pinned it to my skirt.

Folding down the front as well.

Draw in the design lines. Also, true the hem of the skirt by choosing a length, keep your scissors level with the table and hold it in one spot, rotate the fabric of the skirt around your scissors for an even cut.

Make a rectangular piece for the front skirt, but cut out a corner in a quarter circle shape so that fullness can be added.

Pin on and add fullness through clipping.

Final back view.

Final side view.

Final front view.

Back skirt muslin piece. Note here that the angles of the back skirt seam look very severe because of the clipping points I did to create fullness. This is normal so do not panic!

Back skirt transferred to paper pattern. Make sure to transfer grain, crossgrain, bias, and any bust/waist/hiplines.

Back muslin piece.

                                               

Back piece on paper. 

Front muslin piece.

Front on paper.

Front skirt.

Front stomach piece.

TWIST TOP:

This is another variation of the twist top, this time done in a knit fabric to achieve the best results and the flattest look. Compared to the other twist top, this design has no yokeline that it sews into. Instead, the two sides are looped into one another to create the twist intersection.

Here is an example of a long sleeved twist top that is similar to the one we created in class.

We started with a square fabric, folded in half and then cut lengthwise to create two long rectangle shapes.

At the halfway point of the first rectangular piece, tie a piece of string to gather it in. Then, pin the tied point at the CF/bustline intersection. Pin up the shoulder and across the bust to the armhole.

With the lower half of the fabric, loop it back and pin straight across the bustline.

Smooth the fabric down towards the waist. You will need to clip into the waist to make it sit smoothly there.

Draw in the waistline, side seams, armhole, and neckline.

Loop the second rectangle of fabric into the loop created by the first piece.

Note: do not loop the second piece into the string of the first piece, this is a mistake I made at first.

Smooth up the shoulder, and across the bustline.

Finish the bottom portion of this in the same way as the first side.

Here is what the finished drape looks like. Make sure all lines are drawn onto the fabric, then trim away the excess and leave about 1 cm all around.

Here is what the muslin pieces look like. Transfer this to a paper pattern after.

BUILT-UP NECKLINES: BATEAU NECKLINE:

I roughly followed the instructions in the textbook to drape this neckline, but with some changes to make the design more effective.

Here is an example of what a simple bateau neckline looks like on a dress. For the one I draped, it is built up higher into a collar-like extension, kind of like the 60s mod dresses/space themed wide-set collars.

Textbook visual and instructions.

Starting with a rectangular piece of fabric that extends about 4" about the neckline and 2" below the bustline, mark grain/cross grain. Pin grain to CF, crossgrain along bustline.

Smooth up from the bustline to the AH/shoulder point. As you can see, there will be excess that forms that needs to be formed into a dart as shown above. Pin the dart.

The dart is not meant to make the collar against the skin, but should sit a bit away from the neck. Take out approx. 1/3 of the dart amount.

Clip into the shoulder line near the neck to release some ease to form the shaping of the collar so that it stands away from the side neck.

Mark the muslin: armhole, shoulderline, dart.

Pin the back piece on same way as we did the front. There will be excess again but leave it for now.

The back shoulder also needs to be clipped to release some ease. Draw in the desired height for the neckline. Mines is approx. 3".

Trim off the excess fabric. Front view of neckline so far.

Back view. You can see the excess ease that makes the neckline look wavy. We will now work on removing this (textbook says to keep it, but it doesn't look good so needs to be removed).

Pin a small dart of the excess out until you have a smoother look: the neckline should sit firmly without being wavy, but also still sit away from the neck.

Note: It may be hard to find this balance of how much to take out but it really requires a lot of adjusting and playing.

Finished front view.

Finished back view.

Finished side view.

Front muslin pattern piece.

Back muslin pattern piece.

CONCLUSION:

For the Vionnet drape, I have a half sized and full sized garment for this previously in my high school class. I find it interesting how when I draped it now compared to before, my design lines did vary a bit in their placement, as well as the amount of fullness I added into my skirt. For my previous dress, I added the most fullness into my front skirt, while for this drape, I added most of the fullness in the back skirt. I think that this was because I wasn't as experienced in draping before, and I didn't know the technique of clipping and pivoting my fabric to get the fullness in.

I find it interesting to have a reference of this drape to keep in mind, and I know that despite how form-fitting this design is, with the appropriate fabric, it really does work to be made without a zipper as the bias stretch allows it to be pulled over the head. I also noticed that the design is very accommodating of movement, as the armholes are clear of sleeves and even the angles of the armholes allow for movement in the shoulder blades.