Bias Theory With Flaming Skulls

I'm putting these illustrations at the front so I will see them right away.
Because this is also my sewing information storage bin.
And this is the summary of our Bias time.

Click on 'em to enbiggen.

Vogue Pattern Magazine's last issue is the source for the image on the lower left, with notations

This is worth a minute of your time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_and_weft

The warp is set on the loom and has to be straight and strong.

The weft is looped and threaded in different patterns inbetween the warp threads. It can be lighter, looser. Think of a jacquard weave, or a twill.

The thread/yarn/fiber is almost never the same weight and density as the warp.
If it's a crepe fabric, the weft is longer and curlier than the warp.

Your square grain won't stay square forever. 

Don't take my word for it? Marcy Tilton, from Threads 
https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2008/11/06/bias-101


"Center seam or not?
Depending on the fabric you select, you may want to add a seam at center front and center back so the garment will hang evenly. On modern wovens, lengthwise threads are stronger and more numerous than crosswise threads. When a full pattern piece is placed on the bias, the lengthwise grain will dominate one side of the garment, and the crossgrain, the other. Unless your fabric is stable, the two sides of the garment may hang differently, with one stretching more than the other, and you may get twisting, rippling, and an uncomfortable tug-of-war."

Fabric movement is exaggerated in cutting pieces on the bias. It starts moving from the second you put a blade to it.
To get the article to hang straight enough in the long run, you should have the fabric running in the same direction on all pieces. When you cut "with nap", that's what you're doing. 

Yes, I know: when you are using a fabric without a print or a directional weave, you can flip it around to get it to fit if you keep it ongrain. And given the lifespan of an article of memade clothing, it's entirely likely that it will hang straight and true. Crossgrain will be less stretchy than with grain, but generally, for most purposes, given enough exceptions to the 99% success rate you'll have......
it will eventually fail. Shrink to not fit. Not feel comfortable. If you're making a one use costume, this doesn't matter one bit. Honestly, I do have pieces that have lasted longer than I thought they would, that have ended up being binned because of this issue.
Maybe I should always sew for the long run.

This issue is exaggerated with bias cuts. 

https://youtu.be/8BGP68kq_Q0?t=242

Charles Kleibacker slides this idea right by when he's cutting the red fabric for the pants on a double layer. We don't want a crossgrain fold in the fabric when we're cutting on the bias, because then the back pants piece 1 will be heading up and back pants piece 2 will be heading down. This is easier to imagine with a directional print.

 You want the flaming skulls to be going in the same direction on the garment.

We either need a single layer cut or we need to cut the fabric to turn it to head the same direction to cut double layer.

I really should illustrate this with a flaming skull print.

Everything is better with flaming skulls

 I screwed up on this, and both front and back lean to the left. This is why I put the drawing at the top. I think about this stuff, I make notes about this stuff, and I forget. It is a novelty print of superhero valentines, so it's not going to last for years BUT it would be nicer to make sure it's entire lifetime was a superior one.

 I lay them out single layer. It's just easier and they are simple shapes.
I'm not crazy. Look at this photo from IthacaMaven's IG stories:
Two separate pattern pieces, yes, one grain up left, one up right.

This doesn't stop things from moving though.

This linen tank is growing at the lower right. Only a year old and probably twenty washes, hung to dry.

However, this split piece, center (and side) seam tank (novelty cotton, two years old, never put in the dryer either) is pretty stable.

It's something to consider when you're laying out your pattern.  Both of these tanks are extremely comfortable (unlike their straight grain pals of the same pattern). Not all prints will work as well with this layout.  Some will work better than you think (a bias plaid top is just as swell as it's bias plaid skirt sister). 

Charles Kleibacker // Bias Cuts, Book Reports, Videos

If we're going to talk about bias cuts and layout, we've got to talk about Charles Kleibacker.
 Obligatory wiki page link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kleibacker

This is a great three part series on YouTube with Kleibackerk, from 1979.

part one

https://youtu.be/v-M1ygDVWNE

part two

https://youtu.be/1ovNISEy0c0

and part three

which is laying out a pair of bias pants

https://youtu.be/8BGP68kq_Q0

from the credits: "The series "Think Couture with Charles Kleibacker" produced by the Iowa State University Extension Service. New York fashion designer Charles Kleibacker visits the campus of Iowa State to conduct a weeklong seminar to textiles and clothing students."  

Talking as it he works it through, dropping diamonds and daggers. He gives a great show, and while I'm going to pick out some moments to watch here, it's worth your while to watch the whole videos at some point.

One unusual feature: the inner leg dart on the back crotch seam on the pants in question
(specific time stamped video links referring and illustrating it). I've never seen anything like it, and I still haven't given it a try except as an alteration.

dart on lower back crotch seam

https://youtu.be/v-M1ygDVWNE?t=466

https://youtu.be/8BGP68kq_Q0?t=826

The thing to remember about Kleibacker is that he was always conscious of how much a garment cost to make in terms of yardage and time, and how it presented in a store on a client.  He goes fast when he needs to, and slow when it counts. I can hear his precise thinking in Kenneth King's videos, and I mean that as the ultimate compliment. Kleibacker was a teacher and a designer, but he was a businessman at every step.

 After watching the Kleibacker videos, I had a brainstorm and found this:

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1197564134&disposition=inline

starts with page 135 warp twist vs woof twist

specifically:

""How the garment hangs on the body, the cut, is paramount to a good bias design. In developing his designs in the fabric he was using, Charles Kleibacker noticed that there was a distinct difference between how the warp yarns behaved in bias as compared to how the weft yarns hung. In the weaving process, weft yarns are slightly looser in their position of the finished fabric than are the warp yarns which are held on the loom with greater tension. The tension of the yarns within the fabric affects the softness of the drape and the resultant balance of the bias hang. This is especially noticeable on asymmetrical bias designs where the pattern piece extends from one side of the body beyond the midpoint to the other side of the body. In explaining this concept, Charles likes to take a square piece of muslin or other fabric and hang it from one corner with the true bias on the center front of a dress form. The resultant folds formed by the draping fabric are not even from side to side because one side “hangs from the lengthwise grain, and the other falls from the crosswise grain.”13 (See figure 6.2.)""

""To overcome the differences in the hang, and to maintain a competitive price, Charles designed his garments with a center front seam. This ensured that no matter what kind of fabric he used for the garment, the godets formed by the drape of the bias were always equal one side to the other. It also allowed him to develop his ideas by draping only one half of a garment instead of needing to drape the entire garment. Because most ready-to-wear is patterned with the right and left sides exactly the same, when fitting and perfecting the new design, he would also only have to adjust one side and then simply transfer the adjustments to the other. ""

It's well worth reading the whole dissertation. Good illustrations make timely points. 
but the takeaway I want you to have is: a bias piece of fabric does not drape and grow the same way because the warp (the lengthwise grain) and the weft (the crosswise grain) are never ever ever equal to each other. One will give more one way than the other.

Which we will illustrate in the next post.
CLIFF HANGER!!!

Seamwork on YouTube

https://youtu.be/mkA4cX9vdx4

I am pretty sure this was the OH YASS, fist-pump moment.

I give Seamwork/Collette Patterns endless crap, but this is a great video. It's clear (they used two very different fabrics to illustrate) and concise. You do this in two passes, one for each armhole.

Bring your own popcorn.

And then I kept watching their channel.
We have a less than clear video on bias layouts
I can stop you right here and say: hey, go read this post next week:
(the one that isn't there yet but it will be)

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2019/07/bias-theory-would-look-better-with.html

However, let's say hello to the instigator of the next several blog posts

The problem starts here:
https://youtu.be/cjqqxM0H0iA?t=199

Each fabric has two biases.
She does not explain this.
But it's true. If you don't match the seams properly, the item will twist as it hangs out/gets worn

this is wrong

this is also wrong

It's important to get this right when you're laying out your pattern pieces.
And we are finally going to get to that next week.
I've been working on that post for about a year.

On the other hand, if you are up for a different approach to the subject, 
Paukshte Fashion Workshop is worth a look.

https://youtu.be/MuTCjRyDHpQ

I have to admit that I love this woman's slash pattern altering, as well as how she cuts out the pattern piece by folding the fabric. It's probably distorted, she didn't line up the selvage and the cut edge evenly,   she's using that fabric so inefficiently,  but DAMN she just gets to it. She eyeballs it and goes for it.

It's kind of the action film version of sewing. 

Gawd I'm looking forward to this movie

But the thing is: because it's on the bias, those little squiggles and snips will hang right out. It's an amazingly forgiving construction.

If it only stayed still.

And then I remembered I was going to watch the Charles Kleibacker videos.

But let's go to the tape with Charles Kleibacker

The next several blog posts continue this thinking. 

Stay tuned.

Stealing from Mrs Mole: bias sash for waistband

As ever, if you aren't reading Mrs Mole, at Fit for A Queen, you really aren't reading sewing blogs. She is inspirational to me. Many upsidethehead ideas have been sprung from reading her posts.

Like this one.

https://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/simple-sample/

photo Mrs Mole "Fit for a Queen" 

Isn't that a pretty thing? 

She added it to the dress; its the lining fabric with shiny bits.

(the epic story starts here: https://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com/2019/04/24/adding-and-adding/)

but I don't do bridal, you says.

Well...... 

Let's say you had a bodice where the print was matched across it, and a skirt where that print was never ever ever going to match up to the bodice, and that this was kinda hard to look at where the two parts meet up.

So let's add a bias sash "belt" to break that up / unite those parts.

You can even piece this sucker together out of the leftover bits from the build 

And you can put that motif object over the join.

A nicer transition, and I didn't have to find a belt that goes with it.

You could use a lot of techniques to gather that fabric - because you won't see the pattern, just the colors.

Or you had two fabrics that were complimentary but maybe not that complimentary to each other, and they met at the waist.

You could make a similar sash with pieces of both fabrics.

And we may see that sooner than we'd hoped....

(tbc as This is why I hate color blocking)

Hemming 2017 choir dresses I misuse a new tool

They're back. As much as I think I know them cold, I learn something new every year.

Note how the side seams flare out. They are double layered (taffeta with a chiffon overlayer) and the skirts are slightly flared on the side seams. Some more than others.

The tiniest hem on one of them. Literally just turning the serged edge over and sewing.

Not nearly enough. I take thread out. I put thread in.

Their nasty disposition has not changed. God, was I drunk when I did this last year?

No. It hung out for another year on the bias seam (to the right of the safety pin).

They keep sagging and growing. Seven, eight years of sagging.

I do alter those side seams as they come in. I straighten and even them out (the skirts were cut from different sized flats and mismatched when sewn together. There were 80 of them, so I can understand the mayhem potential).

Bias seams grow.

I'd like to thank the Understanding the  Bias/tAming the Bias class I took on Pattern Review years ago for helping me understand how to deal with this.

The seams on the sides that are on the bias will stretch out with time because there's no strong warp thread holding them up (the grey rectangle area will remain the same length.

You can hang them out until they reach maximum growth, and then hem.

Ideally, you match the angle of bias (an incorrect term, but I'm kinda skimming the topic for the moment) to itself so it grows out evenly. 

But let's say you're making a lot of dresses and you're doing it all on the flat. And let's say you miscounted the sizes you were cutting, so at the end, you're sewing different sizes together to get your quota.

A fair number of these dresses have skirt A and B sewn together, and are trimmed to the shorter hem.

The two different skirt sizes sewn together (and hemmed the same) will not have the same bias angle cut on the seams and will twist. The blue line on the right will twist more because it has a greater angle difference. And will never ever ever hang straight and make me curse and rue the day I took this job until I cut that seam open, recut the angle to attempt a match and try to true them up to each other. As big a pain as that can be, it has paid off over the years I've spent with them. 

After I've cut and resewn, the inch in seam length difference isn't unusual. That's been fighting to drop, stuck against the other seam. It had to go somewhere. So yes, one side will grow more than the other, but it will happen anyway and when it's done, it will stay done.

I've been hanging these to get the chiffon layer even. Not effective on an adult flat hanger.

Using this child display half-front torso hanger has helped. As creepy as it is, it's effective. These are dresses for ten year old girls, who range in height but mostly are 24/25" around with narrow shoulders.

As for chiffon, the poly is easy to burn while I'm taking out last year's creases and putting in new ones.

Steam it up, and weigh it down to set it with the tailor board. Man, it took me a couple years to use this technique, and I cannot recommend it enough.

I hem them up, I let them down. Like the tide. An 5 or 8" hem is not unusual.

And then there's the new toy.

The line is actually red, but shows up pink in all these photos. 

So we have a new tool to add

A new alteration is to bring that right (wearer's left) shoulder and sleeve forward (this is the after photo)

I reduce the seam allowance on the back of the armsceye

And I widen it at the front

Which does turn that sleeve to the front

It's not enough to match her shoulder's inward curve, but it is as much as I can carve out of the present seam allowances to allow it to be altered BACK at the end of the season.

Because we'll be reusing these dresses again next year I'm sure.

Unless we really aren't. No promises.

I'm 34 in, 13 to go. A little behind my own deadline, but well in front of the official one. This does not even touch the new iron (wore out the steam button on the old one) or the usual back to school hubbub. Someone may be an Eagle Scout this time next week. But why not run that down to the wire? 

Isn't that what we do here?

And pardon me, but HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

The first autumn not sewing costumes for anyone.

(cue the sad trombone).