Hokuto Sumeragi - Mad Hatter #7

paper strip method to calculate circle skirts

Using the draping method for the bodice, I made a 1st version of the bodice's patterns. Then I traced them into my mock-up fabric, and cut them out. This bodice, besed loosely on an 18th century ladies jacket pattern, from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion, has two front pieces, two back pieces and two back side pieces. The shoulder seams aren't ont top of the shoulders, but lower in the back of the bodice. Once sewn, I just hand basted all the seams, I fitted and adjusted the pattern twice, until I was happy with the fit. Then I ripped the seams apart and transferred the changes to the pattern. Fortunately I only had to take in in some of the seams, so I can use this mock-up further.

Back in the 80's, when I started sewing, a friend taught me a clever way to pattern circle skirts, without having to do any complicated math. Measure your waist and then, use 1/2 or 1/4 of that measurement and trace it on an horizontal line on a big piece of paper. I decided upon a 1/2 circle skirt for the jacket, divided into 4 quarters, so: I added 1/4 of my waist measurement to the horizontal line. Then, measure the skirt's length, and add that measurement to a perpendicular vertical line. Trace a rectangle from those lines. Then, on the vertical axis, cut 2 or four slashes, leaving only 1 or 2 centimeters at the top, making 3 or 5 strips, it works better with an uneven number. The more strips you make, the more tracing points you'll have later. On the fabric, pin one of the outer strips, with the slash to the bottom, parallel to the fabric salvage or the fold, leaving a few centimeters, around 15 or more, at the top of the fabric. Pick up the last strip on the other side and rotate it to the desired angle, making sure the waist part is spread out in an even curve, and pin to the fabric. Then spread out the middle strips evenly, and pin them. With chalk or other tracing tool, trace the trapeze shape, joining the the bottom points on a curve. That's how I patterned my jacket's skirt.

+ I seldom do mock-ups, I like to live dangrously, but if I'm trying a new pattern style, and 18th century patterns are quite different from modern ones, I like to make a mock-up and fittings, so everything fits nicely.
- making mock-ups can be boring and a waste of fabric, if you don't have some cheap (or free) fabric laying around.

THE CUNNING PLAN
Use this bodice mock-up as my structural layer for the boning, cut the pattern in the fashion fabric.

[written in 28.11.2020]