It doesn't really it's not listening to gravity it's just it's got a mind of its own
Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel if you're new here i'm wendy and today in taking new steps on a sewing journey
We're gonna tackle
cowl necklines
So elegant so beautiful
so mysterious, how does it just fall.
Last year, I got this secondhand tank top and this second hand dress and both of them had cowl necklines
Which increased my bravery and desire to tackle this myself
There was an original plan to make my own cowl neckline bridesmaid dress for a wedding this year, but unfortunately due to miss rona
That wedding is postponed. However
sewing learning is not and to stack the learnings i'm going to take two methods of
fashion construction: pattern drafting versus draping. I'm gonna try to make two dresses one with each of these methods
I've bought these two really pretty fabrics. Check out the like super cool shimmer on this one
This is the inspo pick for the satin. This is the inspo pick for this stretch
Multi-color thing and we're going to start with method one pattern drafting our way to the cowl neckline
This is where we end up
This is where we start for like the umpteenth time
I got this bodice pattern from a class that I took in toronto, and it's fitted to me
however
I hear you. I see you in the comments everyone who's saying like i'm gonna need a lot more than this class
You took because you can't take that class right now
I understand. I'm actually super excited because in an upcoming video this month
I'm going to share some tactics on how to make one of these for yourself
Please stay tuned for it. But the methodology behind cowl pattern making is from your own bodice pattern
You need to cut a couple of slashes one that goes from the shoulder all the way to your bust line
You need one more that goes halfway along the shoulder to halfway between the bust and the neck hole
And then you need to cut one more in between those first two lines you slash all of those
Lose the neck hole piece and spread them out until they're perpendicular to the center fold
All of this gets redrawn and then you add the flap that'll get folded to the inside when you're wearing it as a cowl neckline
Consolidating your splashes more towards the bust is going to get you a lower cowl neckline
And bringing the slashes closer to the neck hole is going to get you a shallower tallow neckline
This got us our first draft and from here we can make any modifications as needed to get
Second third fourth. Hopefully not any more than that drafts.
Here we go with the pattern
The fabric has been folded along the bias
The pattern edge is aligned with the fold to create one symmetrical piece after cutting it out
I just add a line to remind myself where to fold and press the fabric and then similarly with the back folding along the bias
Using the fold as a line of symmetry and you've got your own back covered
self-love
This front piece and the back piece are gonna get sewn right sides together. Just uh along
One of the sides because i'm gonna leave the other side open to get in and out and try it on
Okay, so this first attempt has too much fabric in the cowl neck area also the sides
are a little bit loose like here's where it's supposed to go according to this pattern, but you can take it and like
Recut the armhole. It's closer to the desired outcome
than
Well the sunlight just changed a lot. Sorry to reduce the drape depth problem
We brought the armhole closer to the center edge while
Trying to maintain its size since my armhole is not the thing that needs to change
It's the amount of fabric in between my two armholes
Connecting that back to the rest of the pattern I transferred those adjustments to the fabric and then sewed one side together
Front to back to give it a try pinning this back to my dress straps to create this like fit hybrid thing
I was way happier with this neckline placement, so we felt ready to move on to the real
more expensive not at all intimidating fabric
First we drew the pattern with the rounded edge
Armhole, but then realized if we want to have a nice facing to it. We should really just draw the whole pattern
mirrored
Along that fold line. So instead
Here is the waist. We have the armhole
And then here's the mirror point armhole
Coming back down the side here again is the waist to get the length of the dress
You can measure or you can take some inspiration from those crime scenes chalk drawings and just lie down
I am still a scaredy cat. So I always give an extra five or so centimeters in case we accidentally go too short
You can always trim it later cut this all out and then find some other efficient way to fold the fabric
Along the bias again, so you can cut out the back this chalk drawing right here is copied from this pattern
Sorry, that's that excess you took off. And then I took the front that I already cut lined them up at the waist
And lay it all out because my goal is to match the front and the back on the skirt that way
if we need to adjust the width
They're being adjusted equally instead of creating some sort of like, I don't know unbalanced monster of a dress
Okay, it's time to bring in method two
I feel like this is the more visually familiar
Like sewing reality tv look when you see them all like busy working on their dress form
They're probably draping the downside of pattern drafting is it's all happening on a flat surface
When in reality clothes is worn on 3d beings that are subject to gravity
So draping kind of lets you accommodate for that reality. Hopefully that was a helpful description
Let's give it a try just like in the pattern drafting the fabric gets folded along the bias
But this time it's pressed ahead of cutting out the shape
You should have enough fabric folded over to cover your entire top front
But i'm demonstrating on this smaller piece of fabric so that it's easier to see
The steps and things you should be troubleshooting for
Once pressed you pin the fabric to the dress form and you just let that creased edge fall freely
Let her speak to you. Do you want a high neckline? Do you want to drop it low?
Do you want shoulder width drama? Do you want a nice narrow fold?
This is where the weight thickness stretch of your material will
uniquely play a part in your
Decision draping just lets you discover that in a way that pattern drafting cannot
The only thing to look out for is to make sure the folds are falling
Symmetrically right down the middle if you find it naturally rests to either side or that the folds start to veer off center
You can raise or lower the pins on one of the sides to kind of even it out or it is possible
You didn't press it exactly on the bias to begin with in which case you will probably need to repress this little sample piece
However, seems to have it just right. I'm, really sorry about this, but i'm pretty sure I did not turn on the microphone
Let me try to recap what was going on here
This is what julia has been busily pinning in the background while I was trying to work on the champagne dress
All of the draping is happening in the front just like I demonstrated on that smaller piece of fabric
She even added these pleats so that we would get even more dramatic folds
Because I was aiming for a relatively slim fit the fabric was then pulled back so that it would fully contour along the two sides
If we wanted the cowl drape in the back, we could have applied this exact same principle, but for now
All that's needed is to cut it free from the mannequin so that we have a shape that we can begin to sew with
a stitch needs to be done to hold this
fold in place as well as this pleat over here on the armholes and then
We can cut out a back piece and we sew together the sides just like on the champagne dress here is the pleat stitch
And then the back's now separate. There's no pleating here just on the front from here on out
The rest of the dress assembly was more or less the same for both dresses
So we're also going to sew one side of the knit dress together
Julia picked up this invisible zipper for the champagne dress
just needs to go from armpit to at least past your hip so that
It can take in all your curves. I don't have much to speak of but if you do all you are curves
These are the two straight edges that I need to attach the zipper to the side gets sewn
Here and this side gets sewn here and there's a step before that where you should switch to a zipper foot
It's not very invisible right now
I added this extra straight stitch that was even closer to the zipper teeth to help make the zipper truly invisible
I don't know how people are getting invisible zippers done in one shot. But I always end up doing this like extra little stitch
and in the same way
We had a nice matching zipper for the knit dress and we pinned that to the free side
And sewed it in it's time for straps. I cut this
three centimeter wide strip
We're just going to be folding this in half and i'm going to do a straight stitch right down the middle
This raw edge needs to be trimmed back. So
Here's how it looked before and here it is trimmed
julia, brought over a tube turner
The end is pinched
Oh no
Come on let's be friends i'm trying another technique
When all your typical tube turning tactics have failed you
Keep in mind the good old straw first step sew the whole two right sides together second step get a cord
That is long enough to go through your entire
Tube as well as a straw number three cut a small slit into the tube at one end
Tie the cord through that hole so that it's super secure then using some kind of weight or bobby pin
Drop the cord to the inside of the tube so that it pops out the bottom next
Put the cord through the straw get the straw up inside the tube and work it all the way until it's at the other end
This is obviously way easier with a straight straw once your straw is almost at the end
Pull on the core to start to drag the tube into the straw
Keep pulling on the cord as the straw forms this smooth rim
For the tube to flip around so that it doesn't get all caught and finally
Success I pray that it will be yours. Thankfully. It was mine or else honestly, this video would not exist
okay now for facing
Here's the extra little back pattern that I cut i'm gonna sew this to this flap here
after that
All of this is tucked in with the dress so I can sew everything right sides together along the entire
Top opening of the dress
Here's me trying to be a good girl and under stitch my facing which is pushing the raw fabric towards the inside layer
And adding a straight stitch so that none of the facing ever flips out into the real world
I inserted the straps by swimming up from the inside and sewing them into these folded corners
Unfortunately, the reality is i'm still really new to facing. I did not attach it to the zipper
So now i'm gate keeping myself from my own dress
To resolve this. I undid the side seam of the facing that was supposed to be with my zipper. I
Did a lot of mental gymnastics. I feel like I can't even explain what the heck just happened here
And I finally got the facing attached to the zipper which is attached to the outside of my dress
Which can now zip up smoothly. I'll try to put some good facing resources in the description for you
So both of us can learn a lot more about this
Anyways at this point i'm reaching like mental physical emotional exhaustion at the end of the day
So I just let my tank top help me decide how long and where the straps needed to be to attach on
My back to hide all those raw edges. I just fold the edge in once do a straight stitch
Then fold it in one more time do a second straight stitch. I love this method because it's so clean and so easy
And here are the finished looks for my two cowl neck dresses
There's still some things that I want to finesse on both of these dresses if I were to like really be nitpicky
The champagne one I think could be slimmed a bit at the top opening and then this one I ended up adding these
Darts to try to reduce the excess fabric here at this front armpit. Also i'm kind of digging the angular shape it creates
So that's the bonus now, you could migrate the leg slit you could drop the back
You could even put a cowl in the back
There will be plenty more photos on my instagram at with wendy
And if you post photos of your lovely kell necklines, don't forget to use hashtag
Madewithwendy so I can find it and shower love on it. If you've watched at least two of my videos at this point. Stop lurking
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