On Sun, 2 Apr 2006, Lorraine Herr wrote:
> I recently wrote you and Tasha personally with some fit questions
> which your most recent post here has answered beautifully ...
Sorry I haven't caught up on all my personal e-mail -- I'm way snowed
under. Quick notes to the list are easy to knock off, but your gores
question required a longer answer, so I hadn't gotten to it yet.
But since you have asked again on the list, I'll answer on the list,
picking up parts of your earlier message so I get it all.
> The only thing I still need some advice on is the shape of the front
> and rear gores. There seems to be some issues with bias to bias seams
> and the possibility of these stretching.
OK. First off, it seems that a lot of people have gotten the idea that
bias should ideally be placed next to straight grain. Some of this has no
doubt come from some comments made in various costume books about the
Greenland gowns, for example in the Museum of London book, which refers to
"some seams on the straight grain of the fabric and others on a partial
bias." It adds, "The justaposition of bias and straight edges would give
an elegant movement to the garment in wear."
There are several problems with using this as the basis of a "bias to
straight" rule. To begin with, it's not clear from the statement that the
author means bias meets straight on a single seam -- it sounds more like
the author is saying some seams are straight/straight and some are on a
slight slant ("partial bias") -- which makes sense given that the
narrowness of the panels in this dress mean that the slant is only about
15 degrees -- nowhere near true "bias." However, it is true that at least
some of the seams in this dress are slant-to-stright, for the simple
mathematical fact that of the 32 edges that meet in the 16 seams, 20 are
on the straight and 12 are on a slant. So not all of the seams can be
evenly matched. This does not mean, however, that it's desirable to mix
edges when you don't have to. The third problem, of course, is that this
is a dress from Greenland, and anyone who's heard me talk about this knows
that it doesn't have a whole lot of relevance for the construction of the
GFD.
So, let's drop the unsupported assumption that "medieval people preferred
to put bias against grain." As far as I'm concerned, there's ABSOLUTELY
NOTHING WRONG with putting bias to bias in the 14th and 15th centuries.
(This probably changed by the 16th c. and different needs involved in
skirt construction.) In fact I prefer to match grain angles, because I
want the two sides of the seam to drape equally. When you put slant
against straight, you run the risk of the slanted side sagging against the
seam -- very unattractive. And in the GFD, you can choose to place those
stretchable seams where you want the dress to mold over curves -- say,
over the sides of the waist and hips. Putting a straight grain there
prevents the fabric from stretching and adapting -- remember what I said
in the lecture about using stretch as a tool and not trying to prevent it.
Sure, some of the hem will sag. So let the dress hang overnight and try it
on, and mark the hem. And when you do, on your first pass, mark the saggy
bits a little long. Then cut it off and check it, and trim more only if
you need. Sometimes the weight of the fabric before the hem is cut
stretches the length out a bit, and you don't want it to spring back too
far once you've cut off the excess.
> I am curious as to whether the center front and rear gores are
> symmetrical or "right angle" shaped.
Remember that you want two gores in the center front, and two in the
center back. Add the gore to the panel, and then treat the resulting
piece as one large flared panel, as though the seam that attaches
gore-to-panel is now invisible. This leaves a single long seam down the
center front; you'll be putting eyelets down that front center, and some
of those eyelets will fall in the gore portion.
Your side gores can be singles or pairs. If you happen to create your
gores by folding a piece vertically and cutting a single
diagonal, you'll get one double-size isoceles triangle that's on the fold,
and two right triangles that are the remaining pieces. You can use the
right triangles as the center front gores and the isoceles triangle as a
side gore. Then repeat to create the two back gores and the larger single
gore for the other side.
Going back to your earlier note to me for anything I've missed so far (I'm
hoping you won't mind if I repeat this in public even though it came in a
private e-mail!):
> Re: the gores. Looking at some of the line drawings on some of the web
> sites, it looks as if the body pattern pieces flare out at the side
> seams to begin to produce the beautiful flared skirt. So,
> * Is there a gore that is INSET into that side seam in addition to
> the flared out front and back panels?
In my case, typically the gore is part of what creates that flared piece.
You can also flare the body piece if you like, but I like to put the
straight grain of the gore against the straight of the body panel, in
essence extending the fabric and maintaining the grain structure across
the seam. But I've done it lots of ways. In any case, the flare typically
starts in the body panel and shoots right off the edge of that panel,
which is where the gore takes over to supply more width to the piece.
And I think I've answered the rest of your questions already.
Hope this helps,
Robin
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