How to get a neckline not to gape - the art of taping (Tutorial)

I promised Lauren I'd do a tutorial on taping because it was too hard to explain, but taping seams is the MOST amazingly useful technique for all kinds of outcomes:

• strapless necklines no longer gape on the side front or over the bust
• wide scoop or v neckline won't fall off the edge of the shoulder
• Watteau pleats won't pull the neckline down at the back of the neck
• faced waistbands won't stretch
• armholes won't gape at the bust level

etc. etc. Taping is a way of drawing in a seam, usually a faced or bagged in seam, so it sits closer to the body than it would otherwise do, and will STAY THERE. Without any puckers or funny gathery bits too.

In this post, I am using tape to stop the top of a strapless wedding dress from standing away from the bride's body, which is a common problem with strapless dresses. The taping helps the bodice to curve in more than the flat pieces would do otherwise, so they follow the curves of her bust.

You can tape seams that you've already sewn (like I am in this case) or if you are really canny, sew the tape into the seam as you go. Just ease stitch the seam first.

When to tape and when to adjust the pattern

 If you're making from scratch, you may need to adjust the pattern and there seem to be heaps of tutorials on that. But I know from experience that this can only get you so far in some situations because it is a flat adjustment. Taping allows you to introduce a little bit of 3D to the seam, which helps to cling and grip around the body's curvy bits, like busts and necklines.

What tape is tape?

Cotton tape is best, always straight woven not bias. Bias defeats the entire purpose. For curves such as armholes and necklines, use the narrow 1/4" kind and use the wider ones for strapless, off the shoulder and waistlines.

In the photos I am using the wider one which I think makes it easier to see.
 Now I apologise but I am left handed, all you North paws out there will have to think backwards!

Step 1: Open out the facing or lining to expose the seam allowance. In this case, the lining is organza so it's hard to see it, and the seam has piping set into it - works just as well with or without. Place one edge of the tape right up against the stitching line and pin it to the seam allowance.

Step 2: Gently but firmly lie the tape along the seam allowance, matching the top edge to the stitching of the seam, and pull it as taut as you can, letting the seam stay relaxed. The seam will be a little looser than the tape - only a tiny bit but that's all you need. Pin.

 Step 3: Keep doing this every 1.5" or so, easing the seam onto the tauter tape. It's hard to tell but the seam and dress are curving inward quite nicely even now.

  Finally, a section completed. The tape is at least an inch shorter than the original seam was, but there are no big folds in the seam - this is easing not gathering. 

 Step 4: Now using a double thread and smallish stitches, start to stitch the tape to the seam allowance hard up against the top edge, ensuring that the bodice seam stays fairly flat.

 The is the section sewn in, and the next section also.

 

With the lining folded back into place, you can't see any evidence of the tape except for a hint of a curve in the bodice.

 See how the bodice now curves almost as if it is molded onto cups. It's just taping that does it.

Nice curved bustline

You can tape without so much easing if you're just using the tape to stop a seam from stretching. Tape sewn onto the seam allowance (no easing required) of a puffed sleeve helps it to sit up, or sewn on the underside, to sit out.

It's one of those techniques that, once you get the hang of it, is useful for a range of finishing fixes.

For a watteau back, tape the whole neck edge, from waist at front right around to waist left. This reinforces the seam and helps it to bear the weight of the back without stretching.

Happy stitching!

No gaping on this bodice! :)



Sewspace

After a highly scientific study of UFPs (Un-Finished projects) and their behaviour, I have made a breakthrough discovery that I want to share with you all - Sewspace.
Sewspace is the state in which a sewist and her stuff exists. However, when a sewist's stash reaches a quantum state of balance with their UFPs, Sewspace destabilises. Research concludes that the only way to stabilise Sewspace is to either create more UFPs, sell a bunch of stash on trademe, ebay or Fabricabrac, or just buy more fabric. This last approach seems to be the most tested. 
Occasionally the theory is expounded that finishing UFPs will also achieve this, but as yet, the theory is completely untested.
If one buys and makes up fabric immediately, it generates an anti-UFP field which means that, nature abhorring a vacuum as it does, another UFP will magically complete itself, to restore the balance...unless, hmm, it means that a seemingly almost completed UFP turns out to be a write off. Hmm, and as this seems to be more true than not, clearly, we should NEVER make up a fabric recently purchased, as it may irrevocably destabilise the Sewspace time continuumuumuum.
Sewspace also explains why there is more fabric shoved into my cupboards than is physically possible, why it mysteriously either disappears entirely, or new pieces I have no recollection of acquiring appear. Likewise patterns, haberdashery and sewing-related gadgetry.
Do you have any further evidence to add to the study?
My thanks to Dr Ornata for her valuable insights and personalised research into the field of UFP behaviour. It is brave scientists like her that make it possible for sewists everywhere to get away with buying way more fabric than they can ever sew up in a lifetime, and then have fun justifying it! hehehe.

Charming Things I have spotted around Wellington

Every now and then I see an objet that jumps out from all the other gorgeous things in this prettiest of cities. For whatever reason - I find the connection of thought/mindset/preoccupation and what one notices quite interesting.

 Last weekend MrC and I had brunch at Floriditas, a gorgeous café on Cuba St. Everything about Floriditas is thought out to make being there a pleasure - the décor, the service and the FOOD. Our lady above sits on the end of the counter. Overtones of a chemise à la reine in her attire, which is what fascinated me about her.

 This is how they serve your boiled eggs at Floriditas - aren't Messrs Mallard and Reynard a delight! I did feel a little odd about bashing them over the head, but neither of them so much as flinched. And to see them in such harmony, unlike they would be in nature, and in a country where one of them has never caught on too, is also charming.

I saw this print on the wall of the Decorator Exchange in Kelburn - a charming little shop where you can buy second hand decorator objets - especially curtains. When Lady Kelburn decides that she is "bored with the Toile de Jouy in the Master Bedroom" after a whole three years and about $20k of Timney Fowler, her glorious soft furnishings may end up in this very shop. The print caught my eye as our dear American Duchess is plotting to take over the world of 18th C shoes, and it had such charming and amusing depictions of the most frivolous of footwear through the ages. The motto is, "Hurt not thy feet".
So, whether breakfasting, browsing or buying, there's always something divinely charming to see in Welly.
And now I hear there is a chance of spotting James Nesbitt or Richard Armitage; does it get any better??

Richard and James are both playing dwarves in the Hobbit movie. Thorin and Bifur respectively. Oh joy is mine to live in Wellywood!!

Past projects: The Chest

Back in 1999, I was partying (Like it was 1999), admittedly, but I was also working hard and this took me to Hamilton, where I lived alone for the first time ever. I loved it! And I had a whole flat to furnish too.
I needed storage, and I needed a coffee table, so I decided to buy a chest. After getting over the shock of the cost of a really nice one, I found an mdf one at Target in Auckland for about $40 (I think) and decided to decorate it myself.
I also decorated a chest of drawers but that is long gone. The chest however is still with us.

The pattern is inspired by a duvet set I had at the time, long since passed on. I used testpots of paint and some gold.
It was a fun project and as I didn't have a TV at the time, it was a nice activity for the evenings. I just love it and am proud of the paintwork, even if it is not entirely original.
Happy days!

Gift from a broad Abroad!

The glorious Pen, who is on the continent saving the world, found this for me in a market in Bavaria:

It is from handmade wool felt - and there are so many things to love about it! The colours of course. I love reds with reds. The glorious roses. It is soft and looks so pretty on my bed. It reminds me of Pen, being a big heart. It helps me to deal with missing her so much. And it has the cutest tag

A slice of wood with the bark still on! I love it!

I really am an undeserving wretch, but a very blessed one!

Rob's Wedding Dress

Rob is my bestie from a million years ago and ever since. We rode dinosaurs to school together. Our tastes are about as different as two women can have, and that's all part of the fun of it.
Actually our wedding dresses have a few things in common - I will have made both of them, both have high waists, split overskirts and are made of silk. That however is where the similarities end.
Rob is a beach bunny, and is getting married on her favourite beach. She wants something that will float and flutter to the max in the wind, but not fussy. I'm making it so it has to be silk - on my planet, wedding dresses are made of natural fibres as much as practical. I got 19 momme charmeuse, silk crepe chiffon and silk organza from the US, since such things are really hard to find here, let alone at a sensible price.
So, here are some pics:

A bad sketch of the dress, decided upon after toile fitting. Vertically ruched bodice with sash under it, under and over skirts.

Using the dummy as a 3-d aid to ruching the bodice. Ruching is cut on straight grain as in spite of getting 12 yards of 54 inch wide fabric, I am running close to the wind! The chiffon is very givey though, probably more than some fabrics on the bias so it works.

Silk organza, boned bodice underlining. I like to get just enough engineering into a summer wedding dress - it could be 35 degrees (Celsius) on the day so the less weight, the better. Silk organza has amazing structural integrity for its weight and makes excellent interlinings.

Using the quilting design wall to test out the over skirt fronts. Right first time! :)

The skirts tacked together along the tops, seen draped over the ironing board, very poshe. All in all, these bits and bobs of components don't really give much away do they! But that's the trouble with wedding dresses, they are kind of modular and all come together at the end in a rush.
Anyway darling Rob is over for this weekend to be fitted, hemmed and generally to finalise everything, giving me three weeks to complete the dress, which I will take over with me on the ferry two days before. We're taking the ferry so the sewing machine can come too, just in case.
More pics to come as it builds, and maybe a few structural technique shots, including the taping process, as this seems to interest at least one other blogger :)

Another gorgeous gift from a gorgeous woman

On Christmas eve, while at a carol service, I got a text from my fab friend Ann, who had 10 people on Christmas Day and no dessert, due to the elevator in her building breaking down. I believe their place is on the 7th floor and I totally understand the lack of desire to go to a supermarket on Christmas

Eve at all, let alone have to lug the resulting provender up all those stairs! So, I made her a pav and surprised her with it at the 11pm service.

And she in turn made me these gorgeous cards! Ann makes the most beautiful cards, she is famous for them. She uses found things, ends of things, and makes them into exquisite little works of art.

I cannot express how perfectly perfect it feels to trade made for made like this. So beyond price!

I have had an idea for these cards. Instead of writing in them, I'm going to insert a separate leaf held in by a ribbon. The recipient can then keep the inset if they want, and do the same for someone else. A reusable card, giving pleasure to many recipients. Whaddya think, does it have potential?