A look into the uses of bias, how standard patterns can be adapted with bias, and how these could potentially apply to the world of drag.
Tim O'Sullivan (2020).Pattern Cutting Essentials: The Cowl Back[Online image]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CEJguzVAQgl/
Last year we were fortunate enough to attend a pattern cutting seminar with Creative Pattern Cutter Tim O'Sullivan, whose area of expertise is working with bias. Tim took us through the process of bias draping a dress in just under an hour. I found the whole process really interesting, but was unsure how I'd relate this to my own subject of interest.
In this module, we looked at bias again, and this time had a go at it ourselves. After a few attempts at draping I decided to try adapting a pattern instead, and found the "Bias Tube" dress by Dennis Chunman Lo. He explains the concept of it as follows:
Most clothes we wear today have vertical seams, the majority of which are cut on the straight grain. Garments cut on the bias also tend to have vertical seams, but because the fabric gives and then bounces back under the tension of the machine foot when the seams are sewn, these seams tend to be wavy. The concept of the Bias Tube is to engineer a garment on the bias, without wavy seams. To do this, the seams of the garment are diagonal, or spiral, but are sewn on the straight grain. The garment itself works on the bias grain and therefore has a slight stretch and tendency to cling to the body
Lo, D. (2011).Pattern cutting. Laurence King.
I began by taking a regular front and back panel block (above) and cutting these at 45° (below). I used a standard size 10 with no alterations, except to take out shaping in the middle - the front and back need to be completely straight at the sides so that they can sit next to each other.
All that remains is to add seam allowances and cut out and sew. As using bias gives so much more stretch, no closure is needed on the garment and it simply slides over the mannequin's body.
Given there was so much stretch in the garment, I decided to try it on the male mannequin, to see if I could get it past the shoulders.
I was surprised to find it fit, with no difficulty. As this is a ladies size 10, this was unexpected. It occurred to me that perhaps other ladies patterns could be used in this manner - moving the grain line 45° so that you keep the shape but get more stretch.
REFLECTIONS
Before starting this module, I had written-off the use of bias for my needs, as I didn't see how I could apply it. It seemed almost too dainty and elegant. Tim O'Sullivan had mentioned in his talk that wearing bias cut dresses meant being very careful in your choice of underwear, or wearing no underwear at all. Given all the paraphernalia under a drag performer's dress, I had assumed that the two were incompatible.
This exercise has helped me see that bias could have uses beyond slinky dresses and that, in my case, the function of bias outweighs the benefits of form. I think I could take this forward by experimenting with different fabric weights and pattern shapes.
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