ruching

What a cute top. It wouldn't be hard to do this, at all. Just stitch a piece of elastic under the fabric, while you stretch the fabric.

The hard part is rotating the dart into the center front, which is how you get the fullness there in the first place. Someone with more powers of description than I will have to give you this info!

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Glitterati) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I have many pieces of antique ruching tape. I also make ruching from soft ribbon. I use a stitch on my machine that is a stitched zig zag. It makes 4 or 5 stitches one direction and 5 stitches in the other direction.

Picture of ruching. This is formed in a flower but it cam also be sewed on stright or a curve.

Best way to see how this is done is to get yourself Metric Pattern Cutting by Winifred Aldrich. Shows exactly how to move the dart.

interesting! I always thought ruching was only a procedure done directly to a garment to make gathers. That rose is so pretty!

Thank you Kate, I've made a note of the book, and will look for it the next time I'm in chapters/indigo =)

Yup - looks to me like a bit of elastic sewn vertically, with the stitching hidden by the bow. I saw the same technique used horizontally inside skirts last year - very simple and quick to do, and gave an assymmetrical gathered effect that was very interesting. You could even do it on a rtw skirt with moderate fullness.

Or it could simply be thread - if you backstitch it at one end and use the thread doubled, you can easily sew a running stitch through, draw up and tie off at the other end - I do this all the time in shibori. You need strong thread, though, and it helps to wax it.

Do you need to rotate the dart? If using jersey, maybe not, but with a woven, I guess you would. I always think of the bust dart as like a slice out of a piece of pie - you just move the slice round to where you want it, but that's easier to draw than to explain...

:) Trish

You were right, and so was the other person. There are two different types of "ruching".

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

would it look something like this? or is the "slice of pie" =D facing the other way?

=)

No, the elastic's one straight line down the CF from the centre of the V neckline.

It is, but I'll try. :-)

You need to start with a basic T-shirt pattern with a bust dart that ends in the side seam. This is going to be a problem because most T-shirt patterns don't have a dart. So we'll start with adding a dart, which is in itself a Good Thing for anyone over a B cup.

To be really accurate you need to cut off the seam allowances before you start adding and moving darts, but knit fabrics are pretty forgiving so you can ignore that.

Make up a regular T-shirt pattern, adding a couple of inches to the length. Sew everything, but baste the side seams. Try it on. See how the hem rises at the CF? That's caused by the detour the fabric has to take over your bosom, magnificent or otherwise. Figure out how big the difference is between the CF and the side seam (by eye, or using a ruler held horizontally). That's the width of dart you need at the side seam. Write it down and call it W.

Mark your bust point, label it P.

Take the T-shirt off and open up the side seams. Draw a line at right angles to the CF, passing through the bust point and ending at the side seam. Where that line touches the side seam is the top of your bust dart. Label it A.

Mark a point on the line between P and B, 1/2" away from P. That's the end of the dart. (You don't end the dart right at the bust point.)

Now, mark a point on the side seam, W amount below A. That's the bottom of the dart.

Transfer the markings to the other side, baste both darts, baste both side seams, try it on. You should have a darted T-shirt that doesn't rise at CF or have wrinkles radiating from your bust to the armhole or side seam. Decide on the finished length you want and mark that. Copy your original pattern for the T-shirt front and transfer the markings you've just made onto the copy.

Now, you need to swing the dart into the CF.

Copy your pattern for the darted T-shirt front. Draw a line from just below the neckline at CF to the bust point and cut along that line. Draw another line from the bust point to the bottom of the dart, and cut along that, too. Now close the dart by moving the bottom leg so that it lies over the top leg, pivoting at the bust point. A wedge will open up from the CF to the bust point. That's your new dart. Tape the old dart shut.

If you were going for a smooth look you'd sew the new dart closed. For ruching, you cut a piece of elastic and stretch it before you sew it to the CF from just above the dart to just below it.

You can transfer the bust dart to anywhere using this technique, which is called slash and pivot IIRC.

This is the best I can do without diagrams and I apologise to visual learners who can't understand.

HTH

Sally

Interesting. I made DGD a top a couple years back with this gathering. Pattern called for a short bit of elastic stitched inside the front; exactly the same look. Jean M.