Getting ballgowns to hang smoothly?

[Chris Stratton]

No matter how many times I try, I just can't get a simple single-layer stretch fabric ballroom dress to hang quite right. I redraw the patterns over and over, but I never seem to be able to design out the last few wrinkles, typically horizontal ones in mid torso. These dissapear quite nicely if you pull the skirt down, but in this age of sleek no-feathers designs there really isn't very much weight in a thin lycra dress.

On idea would be to make the dress with a built in bodysuit (which would also solve another occasional problem with lightweight fabrics). But even there, you can only attach the bodysuit so far down, before it would start to distort the overdress. Ballroom couture designers can tack layers together anywhere they like with confidence that the stones will distract attention from stitching, but a syllabus or lightly stoned dress shows all changes in texture.

Another idea would be to have an underdress of several layers, but again it seems like that while whatever is supporting the underdress would drape nicely, the top layer would still be free to wrinkle.

Short of innumerable lead fishing weights, what's the solution to this? Perfect design making minimal use of the fabric stretch?

One thing I am realizing might work would be some of the heavier (as in weigh more) fabrics that still have a soft hand... used some really nice stuff alleged to be supplex for a circle skirt last week, but couldn't find anything quite like that in a brighter, more visible color for this project. I guess slinky might also work?

 

[Joe]

Darts!

 

[randomMysh]

Couldn't you make the top a leotard that snaps beneath and then attach the skirt to that? That way the tension of the fabric stretched from shoulders to crotch should make it lay flat.
Also, if you're using a 4-way stretch fabric, make sure that the direction of most stretch is across the body, not along.
Other than that, I'd have to see it to figure out what the problem is, if I'm even able to figure it out at all. I'm pretty sure you're way more advanced at dressmaking than I am!
Generally built-in underwear is a good thing because otherwise it might show, especially if the dress is made of thin fabric. And in general, the fewer things one has to put on before the competition, the better! :roll:

 

[Chris Stratton]

My dilemma with a built in body suit is how far down the body to attach the layers together. One of the reasons for going for a one piece dress rather than a seperate skirt and leotard is to avoid having any obvious break at a the waistline. I'm very worried about topstitching layers of stretch fabric together in the waist area in a way that won't pucker, at least until I can get a better sewing machine.

In terms of visibility, I get the sense it's possible to buy underwear with much thinner leg elastic than would be possible on anything I could make right now. With an actual circle skirt this isn't much of an issue, but with the contemporary sleek look that flares from lower it can be. That is something that an underskirt would help with though.

On the bright side, the fabric-shop-floor grime washed off the free outside-of-roll extra yard, and between that and the lower flare resulting in narrower than expected pattern pieces, it looks like there's just enough to try again.

 

[Laura]

Hummm, interesting.

One thing I'm thinking of is that perhaps the dress is cut too tight? Sometimes when lycra makes horizontal wrinkles it's because it's being stretched too tightly across the body.

Another idea is that perhaps there's something off with how you're sewing the panels together -- perhaps one panel is stretching more than one it is being sewn to when you put them together. This can happen with serged seams because of the differential feed on a serger.

I've made a number of dresses sans bodysuit because I'm lazy. I had this problem on the first dress I made, but not since. For me that time the problem was because I was using stretch velvet and the panels would slip and creep funny as I sewed them together. It ended up that the center back panel had gotten stretched to be longer than the ones it was attached to.

 

[randomMysh]

Hmmmm....I never dealt with smooth dresses that closely, so I'm out of ideas. Maybe you could get your hands on a pro-made dress, maybe at a vendor at a comp or something, and see how did they solve those problems...

 

[chachagirlie]

I think Laura has nailed the problem...perhaps the garment is too tight where you have the horizontal creases.

Two things have helped me with costume/dress design...cutting on the bias and using tissue paper to sew seams.