Cutting and Draping the Lace Skirt

What construction techniques were used to make this dress?

Here's a slideshow showing the steps to build the lace skirt of the reproduction.

Mockup Fitting

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?
What would the dress have looked like in 3D? In motion?

We finally had a mockup fitting to try out the pattern of the enhanced size reproduction!

Here's a slideshow from the fitting.I'm trying out the slideshow feature from Flickr - if it doesn't show up, please try a different browser. Click on the arrow (play button) for it to start playing. You can also click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner for a fullscreen view - and then, to get out of it, press the "esc" key.

The fitting went amazingly well, with only a few minor alterations. I'm patting myself on the back for my draping!

Final Draping Step for Enhanced Size

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

I spent some time over the break working on the pattern and mock up at home.
Here's the last step of the draping for the enhanced size - the overskirt.

From Draping - Enhanced Size

From Draping - Enhanced Size

Completed Draping of Original Size

What would the dress have looked like in 3D?
What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

Today I finally finished the draping of the original size dress!




(click here if you have trouble viewing the slideshow)

Sketch of the Dress

What would the dress have looked like in 3D?
What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

Here's a sketch of the dress, used to diagram out some of the measurements as part of the patterning process.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

Lace Skirt Pattern - trueing up

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

It has taken a few draping sessions, but I think I've finally been able to true up the pieces for the lace skirt.



The pattern Emily made as a rub-off works extremely well. I just had to true up a few lines, straightening out the seams, waistline, and horizontal tuck. However, the process of trueing it up proved somewhat difficult - mainly because the skirt just wouldn't fit on the child-sized mannequin we were using! Our original wearer really was very petite. We had padded the hips of the child-sized mannequin slightly, but even after removing that padding, the mannequin was just too small. So, I switched back to the historic mannequin we used to mount the original dress (see these previous posts labeled with "size"). The mannequin doesn't really have proper shoulders, so I've piled on the shoulder pads to make the upper body a little more realistic, but now the lace skirt portion does seem to work properly.

There are some surprises here. The pattern pieces from the ruboff are rather asymmetrical, but when you get them back on a body they make sense again. I originally thought the horizontal tuck just below the waistline was an alteration to adjust the hem length, but now I see how it actually helps to shape the skirt over the hips.

Lace Skirt Pattern

Here's an overview of the entire process to get the pattern of the lace skirt layer.

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

On August 18, Emily Leimkuhler (VC '10) began working on patterning the lace skirt layer. She started by measuring the hem circumference. In the process, whereas I had thought that the lace skirt was in one piece with one seam, she found an additional seam very cleverly hidden in the design of the lace. The skirt is in 2 sections, one of which is 46" wide at the hem; the other is 18.5", for a total hem circumference of 64.5". The main seam is a French seam at the center back, but the other seam is very well hidden, with the two edges simply overlapped and stitched to carefully follow the pattern of the lace.

Next, she cut, pressed, and blocked a large piece of muslin to prepare to make a rub off of the lace skirt, especially showing the pattern of the beadwork.

She also began basting a "grainline" into the lace - identifying a vertical pattern in the lace and following it with a thread basting line. This will be used as a landmark point to pin the muslin over and rub off the beadwork design.

Emily's next day working on this was August 27th.
Here Emily was carefully placing muslin over a section of the lace skirt, and pinning it in place to be completely smooth. It was very delicate, time-consuming work.

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

Once the muslin was all in place, she was able to carefully run a piece of chalk over it, registering not only the design of the beaded lace underneath, but also the shape of the pattern piece, and placement of seams, for the lace skirt.

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

Once all the pieces were rubbed-off, we were able to lay out the flat pieces on the table and true them up, pinning them edge to edge at one of the seams.

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

As Emily's rub-off process couldn't easily reach up to the waistline of the dress, the upper edge at this stage was still somewhat unknown. We solved that by using the gridding technique to measure out the shape of the upper edge, including the horizontal tuck that falls just below the waistline (hidden by the overskirt). Emily drew some gridlines onto the muslin, along the waistline. Then we used landmarks in the embroidered lace (as noted in the rub-off), along with the threadlines Emily had previously basted into the lace, to delineate an axis that we could measure out from. As I worked with the original garment, measuring over and up from each landmark point the the next, Emily measured and marked each point on the muslin. The resulting pattern is remarkably accurate.

From Lace Skirt Rub-off

Shoulder Lace Pieces

Today we worked on the pattern of the shoulder lace pieces, which were easy to pattern by simple measurements, since they are essentially based off a rectangle, with angled ends as they attach to the bodice.

Translating into the enhanced size figure is trickier, though - if we were to use lace of the same width as the original (8.75" wide) then the fit over the bust falls differently, and doesn't come as close to meeting on the sides.

Taking into account the different proportions, it might be helpful to find a slightly wider lace - but if not, we just have to take this into account in terms of where the lines fall.

Starting to drape - original size

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

Now that we have an appropriately sized mannequin, we can start working on the original size pattern.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

Beginning to drape the original size pattern, with the reproduction size draping in the background.

The first piece to capture is the inner waistband. I thought it would be simple to measure out the placement of darts sewn into this grosgrain ribbon, and I had Emily and Lydia work on measuring that out. It turned out to be much harder than we thought, however, so after they left I took it on myself. The complication is that the darts are not on the straight grain of the ribbon, but at angles. The best solution was to use a modified rub-off technique, and shape a piece of muslin over it to find the exact placement of the darts.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

The darts at the side seams imply to me that the dress was made for a slightly larger size, but taken in for our smaller wearer.

The next pieces are the bodice lining pieces, front and back.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

If the top edge seems a little low on the bustline, it's because the proportions of our smaller mannequin are still a little off, since it started as a child's size. We're working not only off the mannequin, but also off of the measurements of the dress itself, which of course are more accurate than the mannequin shape.

Next, I had Lydia skip ahead a layer to measure the lace pieces that go over the shoulders.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

I also took a gentle rub-off of the lace inset piece at the top center front of the bodice. Then I took this shape to size up proportionately on my reproduction size.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

Meanwhile, Lydia took a rub-off of the shape of the decorative fabric-covered buckle on the back of the overskirt.

To end her workday, I had Lydia transfer some of our completed pattern pieces to paper, using a pounce wheel, pushpins, pencil, ruler, and French curve.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

Corset pattern

Today Liz LaBrocca '09 started working on the corset that will be worn under the dress.

We chose a 1911 corset from Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines to reproduce (figure 45, on page 86).
(Waugh, Norah. Corsets and Crinolines. New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1970.)

Liz traced the page onto a transparency, then placed it on an overhead projector to enlarge it.
By moving the projector and adjusting the focus, she was able to adjust the size, measuring key shapes to get them to the overall size desired. Then she traced each piece onto a piece of brown paper taped to the wall.

From Corset

From Corset

From Corset

Small Mannequin

What size person originally wore this dress?

As I've decided my patterning technique will need to include a good deal of draping, I need a better mannequin to drape on than the historic one we took the photos with. I have brought in a child's mannequin which I have shared with Vassar for several years. The proportions are not right at all, but with some padding it will be just fine.

Volunteer Lydia Palmiotti padded the mannequin up to the desired size: 34" bust, 21" waist, 36" hips, full front length 14", nape to waist 12.5". In fact, even this child's mannequin has a waist that is larger than the desired 21" for the original dress, so we will have to drape our pattern slightly larger, then size it back down as a flat pattern.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

Patterning Technique

Let's stop for a minute and talk about the choices for how to take a pattern from this dress.

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

There are essentially 4 different ways to figure that out.

1. Draping - looking at the lines and shapes of the original and trying to reproduce them by placing fabric on a mannequin of the same size
2. Tracing - laying a section of the garment out flat and tracing its shape onto paper or another fabric
3. Rub-off - placing fabric over each piece and rubbing chalk over it to find the placement of seams, etc.
4. Gridding - after basting thread lines into each piece to mark the grain of the fabric, measuring out from the lines to the seams, etc., (at regular intervals) to find the shape of each piece

Which one is best for this project? There's no right answer, so we're going to use all 4. Each part of the dress will be better served by a different technique. Accuracy is not the only concern. We need to think about which technique will be least invasive, to preserve the original object.

What are the pros and cons for each?

1. Draping - would be the least accurate for an exact reproduction, but would be the least invasive in terms of preserving the original object.
2. Tracing - a little more accurate, and not very invasive, but only will work with very flat, simple sections
3. Rub-off - middle of the road for accuracy, but the most invasive
4. Gridding - would be the most accurate for an exact reproduction, but somewhat invasive, and very time-consuming, requiring a great deal of concentration

First pattern piece

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

To end my session today, I wanted to capture at least one pattern piece. I decided to start with something really simple (or so I thought): the hem facing at the center front hem of the skirt, which creates a curved slit in the front. I thought this piece was a good candidate to be copied with the rub-off technique, as it was fairly small and flat, but with pronounced edges.

-I started by laying the dress front down,

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

carefully turning back the lace skirt layer,

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

and then turning back the back skirt lining to reveal the inside of the front skirt lining.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

-Then I began to stitch a basting line to follow the grain of the fabric. Many of the fabrics of this dress have become stretched and misshapen over the years, making it necessary to mark not only the lengthwise grain, but instead an axis that includes the crosswise grain as well. When doing this, they don't form the proper right angle they should, and need to be gently manipulated back into that right angle if the original pattern shape is to be found. I got out my magnifying lamp and settled in to find that grain.

From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

-It wasn't until I started to place these basting lines that I became aware of just how brittle the skirt lining is. Usually the basting does not present a danger to the garment if done delicately with a very fine needle. In this case, however, I found that the insertion of the needle was enough to make the silk shatter, resulting in a small vertical tear. I continued, but very carefully.
-Then I measured the overall size of the pattern piece and cut a piece of washed muslin several inches larger in both directions.
-I measured the placement of my thread basted axis, and marked lines in pencil on the muslin to indicate it.
-I gently placed my muslin over my hem facing, and pinned the pencil lines to the thread basting lines with a few very fine silk pins.
-Next I smoothed the muslin out to the edges of the hem facing piece, pinning them flat around the edges
-With chalk, I was able to rub over the seams and edges of the facing.
-With everything marked, I unpinned the muslin.
-Finally I trued up the lines on the muslin with a pencil, ruler, and French curve.

1 pattern piece completed! (out of 25)

Beginning to pattern

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?


From Research Process Part 1 - 1910's Franklin Simon gown

I started by making a list of all the different pattern pieces that would be needed to reproduce the gown, from the top down and outside in:

1. bodice shoulder lace pieces (2)
2. center front bodice lace inset
3. sleeve (2)
4. bodice band
4.5. net trim
5. front asymmetrical bodice overlay
5.5 net trim
6. back asymmetrical bodice overlay
6.5. seam binding on back overlay closure
7. front bodice chiffon lining (2)
8. back bodice chiffon lining (2)
9. front bodice lining
10. back bodice lining
11. grosgrain inner waistband
12. seam tape (2)
13. pleated sash
14. sash trim
15. back hanging piece
16. overskirt
17. lace skirt layer (main piece)
17.5. lace skirt layer (smaller piece)
18. back skirt lining (2)
19. front skirt lining
19.5. skirt placket
20. front skirt hem lining facing

As you can see, the more we work with the dress, the more we find things are not as they appeared at first glance. Where pattern pieces are labeled with a .5, they have been added in after we thought the list was done!

This brings us to a grand total of 25 pattern pieces.