- When I look at a pattern, I like to imagine changes that can be made to it.

On today's show we'll do some simple pattern work.

When working with patterns, small changes create big results.

A collar treatment, princess seams and asymmetrical fronts give us many options.

When we're building a collection of pattern modifications these three adjustments are great tools to have in our tool chest.

All today on Fit 2 Stitch.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Pendelton, Vogue Fabrics, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, OC Sewing, Mike Gunther Industries, and Sew Steady.

- So this means I'm really happy, and this means perspective.

So we're gonna take a happy perspective on blouses, and we're gonna change them up to where you will shop and you will see a blouse you love and you won't say anymore, "I've gotta find that pattern, "I'll never find that pattern," because you can do some simple things to make this blouse pattern into something completely different.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna focus on the shawl collar.

Our basic blouse, we fitted it, this is just a good old muslin, and I wanna look over and see exactly what a shawl collar is.

So, both have collars, both look like collars, they're collars.

But the way I tell the difference is I look to the center back.

And a shawl collar has a center back seam.

Notice a regular collar, it's called a full roll collar, is one piece, it does not have a center back seam.

So that's your telltale sign that it's a shawl collar.

Now what that means is if I hold this up, what you see is that the collar, even the back part of a collar, is all a part of the front of the blouse, or jacket, it could be either way.

So what we know about shawl collars is they were started in the early 1900s.

They were done as a less formal way of dress, but keep in mind that we can do them very simply with our blouse because we already have a collar.

And when we take our collar and we learn a few rules that should be in our little tool chest about what to do with this collar, we're gonna make it really simple.

So, and for those of you who have sewn all these years, and when you learn how to do this you're just gonna say oh my gosh, and I bought a whole new pattern just for that.

I'm gonna fold the collar in half, because again you only use half of that collar.

It goes to center back and then it repeats, you put it on the fold or not, it doesn't matter.

But every collar piece generally is marked with a shoulder seam.

And obviously with center front, center front is the middle of that button hole.

So that's where I'm gonna place it on my front, my blouse front.

And I'm gonna put a piece of paper under there just so you can kinda see the two points that I'm gonna connect.

The collar to the blouse, or the shoulder seam, which is again marked.

I'm gonna overlap seam allowances, and then I'm gonna pivot it so that the middle of that button hole comes right up center front.

And that's it.

That's the placement of my shawl collar.

This portion of the collar will automatically match the back because it was made for that blouse.

The fun part of all of this is, is the styling of the shawl collar is all what happens out here.

All of this out here.

So what I wanna do is kinda show you a couple shawl collars.

They're both, we know them to be shawl collars because we can look at the tissue and we can see that the back collar is attached to the front.

The minute we know that we know there's a center back seam, and that's what the shawl collar is.

I can put those together, I can line up the front, and you can see all this crazy styling.

This is all styling.

So when you go and you see a shawl collar and you say, "Gee, I just really like that, "I wanna do that," close it up, and try to imagine where center front is.

And you go straight up, and then you'll know how far past it came to the other side, or to be honest, you could lay it down and just trace the shawl collar if you had it at home.

If it's at the store it's a little harder, obviously, to do that.

But let me show you that there are some variations in shawl collars.

I'm gonna just put this one on the table so that you can see.

The back of this collar is narrow.

So if I lay it out, what you can see is it doesn't fold over itself, it just comes over.

So that's just all in the styling again.

I'll just simply fold this in half, but still put the same two points where they belong, so that the shawl that goes out here will have a faced seam but it actually won't fold over itself.

So, so many variations are possible as long as you know how those two place.

And then what I wanna know is when I connect the two, that all of this portion out here is completely decorative.

It's styling, it's the choice I want, and I get to do anything I want.

All right, so we're gonna leave that, we're gonna leave these different shapings, because the other thing that I hear a lot of is women will say to me, "I just don't know how to sew it.

"How do you sew it?"

So we're gonna sew it.

Here's my shawl collar, I've cut it.

And then I've got my back piece.

And what I've done is I've put a pin at center back so that I understand the relationships and where they're going to work together.

So let's go to the sewing machine.

All right, the very first thing I do on a shawl collar is I'm going to make that center back seam I talked about.

So there's my blouse front.

I would typically sew my darts on all those kinda things.

We're not gonna do that just now, we're just gonna sew the center back seam but I want you to see the parts.

The shoulder seam, there's what sews to the neckline, and this is of course that center back seam.

So I'm gonna put that together and I'm going to go ahead and stitch all the way through.

Then what a lot of people don't know about a shawl collar is you actually, and I think it's what makes people nervous.

You actually clip before you sew.

So again, let's go back to logic, and what we're gonna realize is that there's seam allowance here because it sews to the neck edge, and there's seam allowance here because it sews to the collar.

And when those two seam, this sews to the shoulder.

When those two seam allowances come together, they'll bind up one another.

So what I'm gonna do, and I've got both layers here, is I'm gonna make an angular cut, three eighths of an inch, because that's what my seam allowance is, and I'm gonna make that cut right to release that seam allowance.

Now you can see that I can sew, I'm able to sew that completely flat, and that's when I'm going to bring in my back piece.

Also when you sew, and it's also why I put a pin at center back, because that's where I want the seam to align to.

Also when you sew with a shawl collar you need to have the front on top so you can pivot, and I'm gonna show you how.

You can pivot exactly at that mark and you'll make sure that it's nice and accurate.

So I'm just gonna put a couple pins here.

When you're pinning you'll wanna make sure that this pivot point is right there where you go from the shoulder seam to the neck edge.

So it's really easy to do.

It's one of those if you know how kinda things.

Then this portion right here completely comes around my center back.

It just gives me a chance to see that hey I'm going in the right direction.

I'm gonna open the seam up because that's how I would recommend you sew it.

And I'm gonna put that pin right there at that seam.

If the first half of this is not lined up don't keep going.

Stop and figure out what you're doing wrong and then come back, so that by the time you come over here you can see that that again is where the opening should be.

It'll kinda form like a little diamond, where that cut is open, you have to cut before you sew, and I think that just makes a lot of women crazy.

But, it's just fine.

And then I'm going to come over here and end at the shoulder seam.

Okay so let's sew that.

Again, we're gonna sew it from, the front has to be on top, and we're just gonna sew it as one continuous seam, just remembering that we are gonna pivot when we get to that cut point.

All right, and this is great for close ups because you'll really be able to see where I'm pivoting.

We're gonna sew along, we're gonna come right to that pivot point.

All right, right there is where I'm able to leave that needle down and change directions.

Get all your fabric underneath there, get it going a different way.

And I'm able to just continue right along.

Heading over to slit number two.

I am gonna show you another little trick with shawl collars that I think is always good to remember.

I'm sorry, let me just get this out of the way.

And you're gonna line this other section up and continue on.

Again you can see right there I'm stopping at the slit.

Leave your needle down.

Woops.

And then go ahead and line up the shoulder seam.

So you can see that second time I kinda missed the mark.

And when I cut this out I cut one side a little shorter than the other because I wanna show you something.

And I think it's something I love about shawl collars.

Notice that when I pivoted I didn't catch any fabric.

But on this side you can see that it looks like it's completely perfect, even though you all saw that I was a stitch or so off.

I cut one side shorter than the other so we would come up a little bit short.

You'll never see it when you finish.

And I think one thing I love about shawl collars is perfection is overrated.

You just don't need them to be perfect.

But also, because you have a faced seam, when this folds over that shawl collar, it completely covers that seam and you'll not even ever see that seam.

So be gentle on yourself, don't, you know, make it major, and just do it, and in the doing you'll just get better and better.

Okay.

So we are good with shawl collars.

I wanna take a look at something that was created years ago.

Let's take a look at the mannequins.

And recognize that what we learned was a princess seam.

And the whole reason a princess seam was created was so that we could take the same fit, we have a bust start and a waist start, and we could create a look that actually didn't have physical darts stitched.

Although we all know that the darts are in the seam now, and when the darts are by definition included in the seam line, it's called a princess seam.

So again, by definition, the bust start is moved up to the shoulder or the arm hole or the neck line, and it's included into a seam that goes into the bottom half of the garment, which we know to be called the waist, the waist dart.

But again, the whole beauty of this now is I can have different fabrics, and this is a perfect example of using a princess seam to the best capacity it can be.

It's because I've used one fabric here and darker on the side.

And so what you see is she's just lost a few pounds because the sides of her completely disappear and the color pops in the center.

So that basic blouse, again, if you notice the collar is all done the same.

Everything's the same.

The sleeve, I didn't change anything except I took those darts and created a princess seam.

And that's what we're gonna do next.

Because, again, as I'm shopping and I have this great base blouse, you see a beautiful blouse out there and it's a princess seam, I can go to the same blouse, I don't have to do any change of fitting.

All I have to do is move those darts.

So let's just learn the rules of moving them.

I'm going to do my blouse front and blouse back.

I would not suggest ever that you do a princess seam in the front and not do it in the back.

I've seen it, I've seen it in retail, I've not seen it on high end.

And it's simply because it's a mismatch of pattern.

Whoever was doing the pattern, it's just not a match.

And when you do 'em, if you're gonna do a princess seam to the shoulder, it should be princess seam to the shoulder in the front and the back.

And I've put a little notch there because that's where I'm going to make my princess seam.

You can make a princess seam to the arm hole.

Again, by definition, a princess seam is when the bust start is moved to the upper portion of the bodice.

It's either the arm hole, the shoulder, the neckline, or even center front.

So keep in mind that it doesn't matter where I do them.

I have found that for most women, that shoulder is gonna be your best place, and the reason being is because it gives you such a nice long dart that if it's a large dart and we're dealing with D cup, then it gives me a much more, you know, if we talk engineering and you go from shoulder to bust point, you've got a nice long space for that dart to be very gradual, as opposed to the side seam is a much shorter space.

So those angles are gonna be tighter and sharper.

Sometimes my fabric just isn't gonna lay as nicely than when it's coming from the shoulder.

So I'm gonna pick the shoulder, easy to do, I'm gonna make two cuts.

Pick the point that you want the princess seam to go.

In fact actually, what I'm gonna do first is draw my line.

And I'm just gonna draw a line and most of you, you're gonna wanna use a French curve.

Just draw your line from point A to point B. I don't have a curve here, I'm just gonna kind of eye ball all those years of experience and just bring it right into the dart.

So that's gonna come right into here.

Just know that what we have is the bust point, and then our rules tell us we have a bust circle.

We learned all about that, but just as a reminder, that bust circle is just a three inch radius and that goes all the way around that bust point.

By rules, fitting darts, which is what these two puppies are, they have to be in that bust circle.

They already are, you're not gonna mess that up, so you don't really have to worry about that.

I just wanna mention it.

So now I've got one point, which is my bust point.

I'm gonna cut both of these darts to but not through the bust point.

So that cut goes all the way there.

This cut here, one cut is where the dart is.

One cut is where the dart is going.

I close up the dart, the whole dart, just like you were sewing it.

You're gonna close it up.

I'm gonna tape it closed.

And guess what, that is step one in my princess seam.

Then all I'm gonna do is continue down and I'm gonna go to both sides of these darts.

Now remember and keep clear what is a cut line and what's a stitch line.

That's actually a stitch line, and that's a stitch line.

So when you go to make that transition, I'm actually going to take away the seam allowance.

The reason being is because once I've finished with this I'm gonna add seam allowance to that whole entire piece.

And again, the goal is to move these darts without making a, changing the fit, without making any fit changes at all.

So that once I sew these two pieces together, this is gonna be the exact same thing as what this is, except it allows me now to number one, not have to stitch the darts, it allows me to sub different fabrics in the center, and create those vertical lines.

And what we know about vertical lines, doesn't get any better.

All right?

We know that.

So now let's go to the back because what I wanna do is make sure that when I create the princess seam in the back I've done it the same place as in the front.

In the back, I don't actually have a dart at the shoulder in my blouse pattern.

So really what that means is I don't have to worry about it.

All I'm gonna do is cut these apart.

Again, I'm gonna draw a line from my same mark, 'cause when I sew them together I want these portions to make sure that they match together.

So again I'm gonna cut.

I'm gonna go to my dart lines, but remember I'm gonna get rid of that seam allowance so that when I put them together I make sure that I'm restoring the fit.

It is really important and it's why we spent that series doing fit.

I think all of us will agree, it's just not fun to spend all of our time making something, using beautiful fabric, doing a beautiful sewing job, and then we put it on and we're not happy with how it looks.

And so that process of going through and making sure your pattern works is really important before.

We know for many of us, if this dart isn't right, when we move it up here it doesn't make it right, it's still gonna be wrong.

Moving it doesn't change the fit.

But that will give you the styling change you want, and that way when you go shopping and you see those great ideas and you see that wrap or you see that princess seam you're ready to go.

All right, so what I wanna kinda get home to you, we're gonna take another look at these mannequins a little bit, is that wraps and princess seams and shawl collars a lot of times are all merged together.

So if you understand that each one is a separate function, I can have one without the other, I can pull them all together if I want, and of course what we know Diane von Furstenberg did a beautiful job of combining them all together and made a substantial amount of money.

This is the wrap, and the wrap as we know it is what we call asymmetric.

And asymmetric is simply when we take one side, we infringe and add to the other side onto it, and then we use that side twice.

So let me just clarify, and I'm gonna kinda unwrap this and peak inside a little bit.

If you notice, and again, I imagine where center front is on my blouse, probably comes in somewhere straight in there.

So notice on this, I've gone past center front, only with the bottom portion, this still is left exactly like it is, I haven't made any changes.

But what I've done is I've used the larger size twice, so that this side wraps under, this side wraps over, and ties.

We haven't changed the back at all.

But also what we noticed is we created the princess seam first and then we did the wrap.

There's no fashion rule that says I have to do that.

As far as what tools I use out of my tool chest, it's completely up to me.

Again, the advantage of having these princess seams is if I wanna paint on fabric, I can do that, if I wanna use a fabric that's darker on the side, I can do that.

And we know, as sewers, a lot of times we buy a fabric 'cause we're madly in love with it, but we just didn't have enough yardage.

And so woops, we can mix and match our fabrics to kinda give us what we want.

And we can really get a great end result.

So let's look at that asymmetric front, and recognize that we'll wanna do that.

And a couple episodes from now we'll actually do an asymmetric collar.

And you'll really see where once you understand that asymmetric is just adding on you'll really be able to kinda be free.

All right, so with the asymmetric I'm not changing the sleeve, I'm not changing the collar, I'm not changing the back, I'm only changing my two front pieces.

And what I'm going to do is I actually cut two front pieces, and I'm just gonna put those together.

So I'm gonna use the back side of one and the front side of another.

And I'm gonna line up center fronts.

So that's really important to do, again because if I don't I'm changing the size.

So let's put that there, and I don't know if you can see it but I've got center and front superimposed right on top of each other.

And this is where the fun begins because I can do just about anything I want.

My points are, I'm gonna go from this point right here, and I'm going to go over onto the other side.

A couple rules.

You can't go past the dart.

Because the dart is where the body changes angles and directions, I'll wanna stay inside the dart.

That dart is gonna be about three inches on each side of center front.

So asymmetric is usually no more than two to three inches over to the opposite side.

But I can take it from here, I can do anything I want, going over to the other side.

And then when I cut it apart, I'm going to use the larger size twice.

One will wrap to the inside, one will wrap to the outside.

Years ago there was what we called a faux wrap, and it actually used the two sides, a smaller side and a larger side, and they would just stitch 'em together.

It didn't last long because so many women just thought it was kinda fake.

So this wrap, easy, asymmetric wrap, same thing.

We call it wrap so many times but it really is just an asymmetric front that's done that way.

And I just wanna show you a couple little great examples of asymmetric.

We see it here.

The top portion now is wrapped over to the side and then brought back down.

Your rules are kinda, all you wanna do is figure out where's center front, and where I need to go from there.

I love this example of an asymmetric because you recognize that all these little tools are just kinda layered on top of each other.

So this time we went way over to the shoulder and just came down, and then I was free to go crazy on the fringe and do whatever differences I wanted to here.

And then remember I talked about that tank top.

And that tank top is just such a cute little value.

It's the shopping that will give you ideas.

So once you have those ideas you're free to just look and have fun, and I think that's the beauty, again, of shopping.

Remember, our new perspective that we have on shopping now.

'Cause I don't know about you but I love this and I know how to do it, it's just lapped here and then over here.

I just wouldn't come up with it.

I wouldn't think of that.

And then of course the two different colors layered on top.

I had duplicated this tank.

This tank was hundreds and hundreds of dollars and I thought I could just do that in just no time at all.

So those great tools you have.

We've got our shawl collar, we've got our princess seam, and we've got our asymmetric fronts.

And again, you won't always see 'em together but when you see a garment that you like and recognize, just dissect it, pull it apart, and figure out what it is you wanna put onto your base blouse and you're good to go.

She's an artist whose work appears in many homes across the nation.

Next time she joins us to share some of her best kept secrets for painting on fabric.

She makes it easy, fun, and she is certain we can all become fiber artists.

Next time on Fit 2 Stitch.

(melodic piano music) - [Announcer] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Pendelton, Vogue Fabrics, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, OC Sewing, Mike Gunther Industries, and Sew Steady.

To order a four DVD set of Fit 2 Stitch series eight, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.