Imitation Tweed Dress - Planning and shaping
I have started on my next project, another design from scratch. My inspiration is this tweed dress (details on extrapetite.com, follow the link).
I am trying to reproduce the texture by using reverse stockinette stitch. For the ridges around the waist band, I am going to experiment with a technique of my invention. And I am going to work the waist band in regular stockinette stitch. I haven't decided what to do about the faux leather trimmings. Maybe use contrasting yarn. For now, I am going to go with a standard ribbed neckline and ribbed sleeves. I am also going to go 3/4 sleeves on this dress. I have extra yarn that I am planning to use to make a matching bolero, which will have full length sleeves in case I need the extra warmth.
I am also experimenting with shaping, to improve the fit to my body type (the "Baby" type).
For those of you who are too young to remember or otherwise REALLY don't care for movie classics, Baby is the girl in the middle in the picture below (and this is from the movie "Dirty Dancing). If you compare Baby to the other girl (her name is Penny), you will notice that her bottom is lower compared to her waist, and far below her tummy.
It took me years to realize why clothes and patterns that follow the traditional hip shaping did not fit right. I usually have some extra fabric above my butt and at the hips. For our kind of body type, there are actually two "hip" measurements that are relevant. One around the widest of the bottom (yields the largest measurement) and one around the widest of the hips.
For Penny and the standard form, the two measurements line up and are the same. Not so for Baby or I. The "butt" measurement has to be taken lower down (Penny's hand is on Baby's hip).
When deciding on a size to buy, I take my "butt" measurement as the hip measurement since it is where my body is the widest, but I end up with extra fabric around the hips, since the clothe designers are expecting my butt to be further up.
I decided to see if I could get a better fit by taking this discrepancy into effect. In sewing, one uses darts for fabrics that are not as forgiving as knit fabric. Dart shaping is not used in knitting because the knit fabric supposedly stretches to fit the body. But extra fitting can't hurt, can it?
So my plan for shaping is the following, starting from the bottom hem of the dress. Increase up to my butt width, then decrease in the back down to my hip width, then decrease on the sides from my hips down to the waist.
I am trying to reproduce the texture by using reverse stockinette stitch. For the ridges around the waist band, I am going to experiment with a technique of my invention. And I am going to work the waist band in regular stockinette stitch. I haven't decided what to do about the faux leather trimmings. Maybe use contrasting yarn. For now, I am going to go with a standard ribbed neckline and ribbed sleeves. I am also going to go 3/4 sleeves on this dress. I have extra yarn that I am planning to use to make a matching bolero, which will have full length sleeves in case I need the extra warmth.
I am also experimenting with shaping, to improve the fit to my body type (the "Baby" type).
For those of you who are too young to remember or otherwise REALLY don't care for movie classics, Baby is the girl in the middle in the picture below (and this is from the movie "Dirty Dancing). If you compare Baby to the other girl (her name is Penny), you will notice that her bottom is lower compared to her waist, and far below her tummy.
It took me years to realize why clothes and patterns that follow the traditional hip shaping did not fit right. I usually have some extra fabric above my butt and at the hips. For our kind of body type, there are actually two "hip" measurements that are relevant. One around the widest of the bottom (yields the largest measurement) and one around the widest of the hips.
For Penny and the standard form, the two measurements line up and are the same. Not so for Baby or I. The "butt" measurement has to be taken lower down (Penny's hand is on Baby's hip).
When deciding on a size to buy, I take my "butt" measurement as the hip measurement since it is where my body is the widest, but I end up with extra fabric around the hips, since the clothe designers are expecting my butt to be further up.
I decided to see if I could get a better fit by taking this discrepancy into effect. In sewing, one uses darts for fabrics that are not as forgiving as knit fabric. Dart shaping is not used in knitting because the knit fabric supposedly stretches to fit the body. But extra fitting can't hurt, can it?
So my plan for shaping is the following, starting from the bottom hem of the dress. Increase up to my butt width, then decrease in the back down to my hip width, then decrease on the sides from my hips down to the waist.
Comments
Post a Comment