Draping on the Stand 0.4 – the Circle dress continues

My project at my draping class was a yoked circle dress.

I finally made up the pattern, and can’t believe how big it is. The two pattern pieces are laid on top of each other, in the picture below, the calico yokes are above, and my foot is there for scale. I had to join two pieces of paper together to make this pattern, which is clearly going to use a great deal of fabric.

Circular dress pattern
Circle dress pattern pieces

Just so you can appreciate the enormity of the pattern, here it is laid out with the side seams overlapping. I had to take the rug up for this picture. My 60″ tape measure is dwarfed by the pattern.

Full length circle dress pattern
Half of circle dress, with tape measure

As this pattern is just too big to cut from a single piece of fabric (unless it was sheeting or something), I decided to make a virtue out of necessity and carve it up into pieces that may make a nice colour blocked pattern. The original “Futuristic” dress on which my pattern is based, has joining seams to give interest. You can see the overstitching at the front waist to hip and knee to hem. I think the original is in a rust viscose with white overstitching and belt. I have therefore done something similar with my pattern. Instead of just doing the dress in one colour I thought of colour blocking which would reveal more of the shape when worn.

Mc Cardell Futuristic dress
Mc Cardell Futuristic dress

Linda Kinne, my draping tutor, mentioned that historically, wearing as much valuable fabric as you possibly could, was a sign of wealth. Think of the Tudors, for example, absolutely swathed in the stuff. And heavy woven, embroidered, encrusted stuff too.

Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves

I am not sure my dress is going to be wearable to be honest. But I am interested to follow it through, even if it is to have a laugh. I already feel completely swamped by all this paper. What will it feel like in fabric?

I bought 5m of navy and 2m of beige cotton lawn, and having laid out the ten pattern pieces,  I don’t have enough to make this dress! In the end I bought a further 2m of brownish beige and also used a smallish piece of white. God knows what it will look like but I have just finished the yoke. I will update you when I have sewn it all up.

6 Responses

  1. Mary Funt

    I would love to see how it turns out. I think you are right in choosing a very soft, drapey fabric. Anything crisp will fight with this design. Your color blocking idea sounds interesting.

  2. Stephanie

    I love that you’re following through even though you’re not sure how this will turn out. It does sound like an awful lot of fabric to actually wear, but maybe it will feel great. You don’t know until you try! (And you can certainly re-use the fabric for something else if you’re not crazy about it.)

  3. rosemary

    Well,I haven’t made my sloper yet, so kudos to you for following through on the draping process. It is fun to learn about different processes to design. An amazing amount of fabric.

  4. Anne

    Wow! My pattern pieces pale into insignificance (even though the others in the class thought they looked huge). I think it’s great that you’re following through with the idea, despite your doubts. Good luck.

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