Curve of skirt hemline

So. My sewing teacher drafted a pattern for me for a 6-gore skirt, based on one I have and love. She curved the bottom hemline ever so slightly, which I understand--my first wadder about 35 years ago was when I remembered someone saying to tear across to make the fabric straight, and my front and back were uneven... I "get" how she did the measuring for cut-on waistband, etc., etc, but how is the amount of curvature figured for the hemline??? I just don't get the geometry...

--Heidi

Plattsburgh (UPstate) NY

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Reply to
hfw
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Dear Heidi,

The curve is measured from the vertical seam. All seams have to be perpendicular to get a straight edge. If you didn't curve the bottom, you'd end up with a "V" at each seam. To perfect the hemline, place a ruler's short edge along the vertical seam, with the long edge of the ruler aimed at the bottom of the skirt. You'll see that there is excess bottom under the long edge of the ruler. We call this squaring the seam. Simply remove this excess, and your seam is squared. By the way, if you don't have a ruler for sewing--I use a quilting ruler that is ruled off in 1/8-inch increments over its 18-inch length. They're really cheap, readily available, and take the place of T-squares and L-squares. I couldn't sew without one.

Teri

Reply to
gjones2938

Thanks, Teri, but I'm not sure I understand. I think you're talking about after the skirt is sewn, right? Is there a way to figure how much curve there should be at the bottom of the *pattern* piece, say for the gore of a 6-gore skirt, with each gore about 12" at the bottom? Or are you saying just cut, allow a bit extra, and then do the "squaring" after it's sewn?

--Heidi

Plattsburgh (UPstate) NY

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snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Reply to
hfw

Heidi,

It's based on a segment of a circle. From the waistline, if for instance your skirt is planned to be 30" long, your teacher would have measured down 30" at each side seam, centre front, and maybe in one or 2 other places, and then 'joined the dots' in a smooth line to get that curve at the bottom of the skirt.

Now, to get it perfect, once you've made the skirt you should check the hemline, and maybe have someone pin it up for you to get it all perfectly level (i.e to allow for any uneveness in the hips, distortion caused by the deriere etc..). However, you could hem as is and have a reasonable skirt - this is all RTW skirts are.

Sarah

Reply to
Sarah Dale

Dear Heidi,

No, it's done while drafting. Whenever the hem is wider than the hip, the hem has to be curved to be squared. To test this, cut two triangles out of a piece of paper, Have the base of the triangle shorter than the two sides. Now, butt the longer sides of the triangles together. They will form a point at the "hem." To get rid of this point, you align the short side of a ruler on one long side, as close to the "hem" as possible. Cut off what's below the long side of the ruler. There's no measuring to it==it just works to square the sides with the bottom.

Teri

Reply to
gjones2938

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