Cutting fabric from stripes into chevrons

The Battle of the "V"

An important detail of my dress is the signature "V" (Chevrons" on the bodice, underskirt, and sleeves of the dress. I was lucky enough to find a material with raised velvet stripes with a satin background.

Working

Problem: the stripes run straight down the middle of the fabric. I needed to change the fabric to be chevron-ed.

Making stripes into "V's" can be intimidating, but it really is simple when you know one basic trick. There is a downside, you need more fabric (about 2x) if you are going to chevron. It's the only way to do this with something like a dress...

The Fabric:

Take your striped fabric and lay it open.

Fold the bottom edge of the fabric to the right edge, so it makes a right triangle.

Cut off the angle.

Now you have a perfect angle for your chevron. No, It's not as easy as that... You can now cut out one half of your piece. I used the cut piece for the underskirt. It was large enough and saved me fabric.

In order to get the other side of the dress... You'll have to make a new angle. Here is the trick. When you fold the fabric on the other side of the material, you'll need to fold it in the opposite direction. Basically the fabric should look like a trapezoid when you are done.

You can use the cut angle for both sides and it will make a perfect chevron.

When things go wrong...

Okay what happens if you do the first fold and you mess up the second? You're staring at a piece of fabric that looks like a tired square and it won't work. Before you throw the fabric out or break into tears you can fix the problem.

Okay... when you have one side of the chevron cut, turn the cut fabric over and lay it atop the fabric to be cut. Match up the lines exactly and cut out the piece. When you seam the fabric together you will have a perfect chevron. It's not ideal, but it does fix the problem.

I repeated the process with my bodice front. Time for the sleeves...

Getting the Point:

Simplicity Pattern 2589 (The Tudor Gown) has the trumpet

sleeves, which does not match what I wanted for this dress. Time for some creative patterning. I found a similar sleeve to my design in Simplicity pattern 8192.

The sleeve has a good billow, and I can shape it if I need it narrowed later on. The problem once I found the sleeve I wanted was, I needed it also to be chevron-ed. To do this I folded the pattern in half. This time I went to the main fabric and used the angled cuts to create the sleeves.

Pattern Problem Solving:

Once finished with the center front, I cut the back and front sides of the fabric out of the orange silk. Both the striped fabric and the orange are thin materials. When you are using drapery fabric, you don't usually have to worry about boning showing through or the line of the bodice--the weight of the fabric will hold things together. However, with light fabrics you have a problem.

When wearing a fabric, the light fabric and buckle, fold, or worse bow making it look like one ripped seam and pounds of hidden fat will come rolling out toward the observer. In order to make sure my bodice holds as nicely as upholstery fabric, but gives the impression of light silk-- I have to bolster the fabric's weight.

I'll do this through the use of two extra cuts. The

first is a heavy weight interfacing. The second is a coating of pelon. The heavy interfacing feels a little like poster-board when you are cutting it.

This will give your fabric strength. The pelon will go between the interfacing and the light fabric. The Pelon will make your fabric smooth and hide any boning ridges that might come through the interfacing. It's a delightful tool. I use it making my hats.

Pelon: soft, fluffy, thin, and one side usually has glue to affix it to your fabric.

Heavy Interfacing: Thick interfacing, usually with a plastic protective coating. has a very visible glue side. Feels like a fabric version of poster board.

After looking at Simplicity Pattern 2589 there is one aspect I do not like. The Bodice is only semi-boned. Not my favorite plan. Boning adds rigidity to your dress and gives added support for the shape and line of the dress. Simplicyt Pattern 8881- has a fully lined bodice. It does this by sewing channels into two pieces of lining where you insert the boning. I've decided to do this with this particular dress. The process is simple enough, I simply cut two linings of all the pieces of the bodice.

Another issue that I have with this dress, is that the bodice is connected to the skirt. I'm not a big fan of this plan. First, it will make the dress a monster for travel. I like the bodice and the skirt being separate. Second, that means the underskirt is free. Given I have a very specific front panel, from my experience it will turn as I walk. So I'm adapting the dress. I cut a waist band out of the orange fabric. I made it large, as I did with the last dress, and cut some of the heavy interfacing to give it strength. I'll be connecting the underskirt and the over skirt together, and I'll make the bodice separate and connect it to the skirt with coat hooks.

I cut out the rest of the skirt and the underskirt out according to Simplicity pattern 2589.

I've decided to work with the coat later, so for now I'm done cutting. Next post; Sewing the chevrons and making a fully boned bodice from a partially boned bodice pattern.

Left to do: (Summary)

Sewing chevrons

Boning the bodice

Sewing the outer fabric of bodice.

Connecting the lining to the bodice

Finishing the edges.

Adding Sleeves

Underskirt

Overskirt

Cutting the Coat

Sewing the Coat

Embellishments

Hat

Here we go...

Oh, there's that pile of fabric...

The riding dress has been on the back burner for a while now. I have finally pulled it out of the corner, and the time is right to start on it. That said, I wouldn't say that I have time at this moment. I'm currently working a twelve hour day (I'm teaching night school to afford another renaissance trip.) But... I'm in the middle of a diet and when I get home, I need something to keep my mind out of the cupboard. Whenever I sew I forget to eat. It's perfect.

I'm planning on going to the Arizona Renaissance Fair in February, so my time line is a little bit shorter than thirty days. Let's get to work.

Once again I'm gathering supplies. The list is exactly the same as the Red Renaissance Dress from 2009 with a few additions:

I chose a fall pallet for this dress. I wanted golds and oranges, thus I'm referring to it as the Fall Dress. This is a warm weather dress. I chose specifically cool fabrics silks rather than heavier tapestries.

The majority of the fabric came from Walmart. I don't normally like their selection, but I had an interesting twist of fate. A woman had purchased a large amount of this leather-like fabric. She was returning it for some reason, and I bought it for half off. I believe it was three dollars a yard. Not bad.





I found a beautiful Orange silk at Joannes. I didn't mind buying something so fragile, since I am going to cover it with the coat in bad conditions. I want the dress to flow and move with me so a light silk seemed best. As I mentioned before I'm also adding a white and a yellow petticoat made from light lining fabric to add to the swish-i-ness (technical term) of the dress.

The off white and muted yellow striped fabric was the real boon to this undertaking. I found it at Walmart on the 50% off table. The stripes are a raised velor so it has a velvety feel. I couldn't ask for better.

Excerpt from Previous Blog June, 2009
"In case someone who does not normally make garb as a past time is reading this blog, I'll explain how much is required for this to happen:

On average the supplies needed for a renaissance dress are:

• At lease 7 yards of fabric for the gown itself. (That is a modest amount) Total each of my dresses have taken around 12-14 yards depending on the detail work required.
• 9-12 yards of plastic boning,
• 3 yards of fusible interfacing,
• Grommets and grommet pliers
• Hooks and eyes,
  
• Three sets of scissors (Heavy duty for cutting boning and wire, craft scissors for cutting paper and other non-fabric items, and my fabr ic scissors)
• Two seam rippers. One at the sewing machine, and one by the couch where I hole up when I make a major mistake.
• Bobbins, thread (black, white, and matching the color(s) of the gown.
• I have both the thin regular fabric pins, but I also buy the more heavy duty/ oddly cheaper thick long pins that work so well with drapery fabrics.
• Last but not least is the oddest item in my arsenal of dress making supplies: Three packages of Joann's Craft Essentials Silver Photo Hangers: I use them for my bodice lacings. I'll explain it in a later blog. It's quite innovative- (I don't know what I'll do when they stop selling these things.)

End of Excerpt

To this list I'm adding two things. I'll explain about this in my next post, but I'll need to strengthen the lighter fabrics in order for them to work well as a bodice. For this purpose I've added Pelon and Heavy Weight Interfacing.






I've also purchased a Bias tape maker. I don't really know if this will help, but if it works it will make finishing the bodice so much easier!!!!







In patterning this dress I've decided to use commercial patterns. I'm lazy... I don't mind stitching together different pieces of other peoples work to get what I want. I'll actually be using three different patterns to make this dress:

Simplicity 3782 for creating the riding coat

Simplicity 8192 (Fantasy Medieval Dress with good sleeves) for the sleeves of the dress

Simplicity 2589 (Tudor Dress) for the majority of the under dress.

I'll explain more as I go on... :) I will also explain how to work in parts of different patterns to get what you want rather than relying on the package. It should be a lot of fun!!!

Wish me luck!

Next Post:

Cutting out Chevrons from Striped Fabric.