Elementary school math class throwback time! If you take one step backward for every two steps forward, how much longer will it take to walk to your destination than if you just walked normally (assuming the same pace and stride)?
Answer: Pleats.
Also, three time longer, which is why adding basic knife or box pleats will reduce your yardage to 1/3 of the original length. This may be news to no one but me, but it's a handy visualization while I illustrate Intaglio's sewing instructions. There comes a time in almost every sewing project when the
directions call for you to do some kind of foldy, fiddly thing and I
have to take a moment to try to wrap my mind around the geometry of it,
before giving in, forging ahead as per instructions in spite of the
doubts, and by some strange sewing alchemy a bound buttonhole
emerges. Well, the joke is on me, because now I'm the one making the
instructions. It isn't enough to pinch pleats into place, now I have to
understand how they work well enough to draw them. And the form that understanding is taking at the moment involves lurching around looking like an escapee from the Ministry of Silly Walks.
The Intaglio dress itself has actually come together fairly smoothly, other than the initial surprise fabric shortage. I'll be posting about it soon, as well as starting the second one.
Reclaiming beautiful historic sewing patterns from daunting sources.
No comments:
Post a Comment