Dang, still don't see it at first sight, gotta train that a little. Don't worry, I'll write it down.
Beg your pardon, that was Olwyn Mary. See, I'm getting totally confused. Luckily I didn't mix up my reply to this ng with my booking confirmation for the motel in Christchurch. ;-)
Yes, I will, don't worry. What makes me worry is that I haven't been able to get through to the sewist. Phoned on Saturday and had her - hubby? on the line, telling me with a heavy Russian accent that she couldn't be reached until Monday. I'll try, though, and if folks expect sewists to do miracles within two weeks, she'll hopefully be able to get the stuff done by late Jan.
Anyway, I'll keep you all updated, including pics, after my honeymoon and relocation (that will be by mid-March or so...) Thanks to all of you, you may bet that I'll contact you before the horrible event is over. ;-))
o> to see what *you* think. In addition, if you are planning to
Quick test, using a plain shirt or blouse from your closet: Draw in the armscye (=military) princess seam lines on the shirt, using tailor's chalk. Take a quick photo.
Do the same thing, but draw in shoulder princess lines. Compare.
Or take a photo of yourself in the plain shirt; make two copies and draw in the seamlines. Compare.
Demi-princess is another possibility, particularly for apples (seam is to the center of what would be the princess panel of a military princess).
It's often easier to see the basic structure of a pattern in the line drawings that are on the back of the envelope, rather than the pretty pictures on the front. In fact, I'd be delighted if they moved the line drawings to the front and kept the wishful sketches for the back.
Here's a shoulder princess line drawing, though it's called a "french lining jacket" here:
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it's followed by an armscye (= military) princess, the first jacket under "variations of FrenchLining")
Well, applique'ing a lining-fabric patch of the suggested design on the inside of the pants might do it. Of course, the stitching is going to show on the outside even if you do it by hand, so to my mind, this is Not Acceptable, except maybe on black cycling shorts. And there, you'd put a patch on the outside.
So that leaves, as far as I know, underlining the crotch corners of the fronts and backs before sewing them together as the only option. Not terribly satisfactory, as it's impossible to match the grain of the reinforcement to the grain of the fashion fabric and still have the fold of the reinforcement on true grain. And having the two layers of the reinforcement match each other is more important than having them match the fashion fabric. And having the edge of the underlining be a smooth, thin fold over-rides everything else: a seam or a hem at this point would allow you to match all grains, but it would be sure to wear a line into the outer fabric.
Just checked DH's suits to see how they managed it: the older one has four triangles, as suggested above. These are folded along a thread, not on the bias.
The newer one appears to settle for an extra-wide seam allowance in the back, and has a full lining to below the knee in the front. The edge of this lining is a selvage, which suggests another possibility, if you have a good selvage. But selvages *must* be on the straight of grain, assuming that you don't pay a bobbin lacer very large sums to weave suitable patches, so this doesn't help with the grain-matching.
Aha! I knew a wide seam allowance couldn't be all. Upon turning the pants inside out, instead of peering in, I found that they have quarter-oval patches in the back, the same color as the fashion fabric and little, if at all, lighter in weight. The edges were *pinked*, then let go at that -- not even a line of straight stitching. There has been no fraying at all even though the fabric is an obvious synthetic. And it doesn't appear to have been hot-cut, either. Here at last is a way to match the grain. *And* cover a bit more territory than a triangle could. But I suspect they used a special fabric made just for this purpose; there aren't a lot of thin fabrics that don't fray.
So it will be triangles again for my next pair of wool pants -- but I'll make them the best shape and let the grain come out as it will; a big mismatch will be less trouble than a small one anyway. But it
*definitely* won't be china silk: my current wool pants haven't even been washed yet, and the "reinforcements" are in shreds. I can patch them, but I don't fancy using more china silk and haven't anything durable in black. Each of my silk scarves left trimmings that are plenty big enough to make patches, and some of them are fairly sturdy compared to cheap china silk -- but every last one is a color that would jar my back teeth when I look down inside the pants to see where to put my feet!
Hmm. I came pretty close to using every bit of the black satin -- a yard bought for pocket linings becomes pretty small when you try to get hem facings for a two-pants suit out of it too -- but there might be a square inch or two if I dig around in the box marked "silk scraps". Satin is a royal pain to handle, though. Maybe I should grit my back teeth and use one of the florals.
So that's why Marine uniforms use the "military" princess seam!
Looked really good on the marine who came to church in her uniform; I was impressed that princess seams were used front and back -- up until then, I'd seen the armscye princess used only in front, with a one-piece back pattern. One presumes that princess seams in the back provide room for movement, like the pleat in the back of a man's shirt.
That's the message I was trying to convey, Joy. My over-generous bosom makes my size 14 shoulders look narrow.
And that is why I am presently trying to perfect a bodice pattern in that style. Once I get it fitted PROPERLY, it should, I hope, widen the shoulders and somewhat de-emphasize the bustline. After that, it should be simple to ring the changes by altering neckline, collar and sleeves.
I was taught that one uses princess seams both front and back, or it's incorrect. I see the mismatch more commonly now, but it still looks awkward to me.
Not really... it's the same shaping as a darted back - there's no more movement if you don't put swing pleats in the seams.
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