In my previous post, Mama Mia: Here I go Again, I described the “barrel” skirt detailed in Betty Kirke’s book, Madeleine Vionnet. I have since come to think of it as the “golden skirt” because of its relationship to the golden ratio… but that’s for another post.

Anyway, I showed how to draft the pattern pieces for the front and back of the hip yoke. I have included it here again since I changed the length of the yoke from 8 to 6.25 inches. I will also share how to draft the pattern pieces for the rest of the skirt. Below is an illustration of all the pattern pieces for the skirt (pattern 18). See Betty Kirke’s book, Madeleine Vionnet for better details.

The skirt is composed of a waistband (cut on the bias), a front hip yoke that is 3 quadrants of a circle, a back hip yoke that is 2 quadrants of a circle, a barrel shaped center panel with a circular cut-out, and two side panels that have a semi-circle shape. When the front and back yokes are sewn together they form a spiral. When the barrel and side panels are sewn together they form a full circle skirt. The skirt is then attached to the hip yoke. Because many areas of the skirt will fall on true bias, the fabric will need to be managed and seam lines trued because of stretching that will occur during the construction. In order to draft the pattern pieces, it is necessary to calculate the radii of several different sized circles. Here are the calculations for drafting the pattern pieces. I apologize for my rough drawings.

Take Measurements

• Take your waist measurement. I used 26 inches.
• Take your waist to floor length measurement, or your preferred skirt length plus a little extra for hem seam allowance. I used 41 inches total.
• Determine preferred length of hip yoke. I used 6.25 inches.
• Gather supplies. You will need a large square sheet of pattern tracing or drafting paper, or several pieces taped together that is at least the length and width of the waist to floor measurement, and another two to three pieces of paper to draft the front and back hip yokes and waistband. You will also need a ruler, measuring tape and pencil.
• You are now ready to begin calculations and draft the pattern pieces.

Back Yoke

Calculations:

Determining radius of Circle B (Back waist of yoke). Circumference of Circle B is the waist measurement, which is 26 for me. Plug your measurements (in red) into the formula to determine the correct radius for you.

B = 2πr 
26 = (6.283)r 26/6.283 = r 
4 = r 

Determining radius of circumference of back yoke hem (D)

r = 4 + length of yoke 
r = 4 + 6.25 
r = 10.25

Back Yoke Drafting instructions:

1. Draw a vertical line and then a horizontal line perpendicular to it
2. Measure out to the right from the center of these intersected lines the distance of the radius for the back yoke (4 inches).
3. Measure out to the left from the center point the distance of the radius (4 inches).
4. Keep plotting this distance from the center point until you have a semi-circle.
5. Connect the dots. Label this line B.
6. From this new curved line, plot the distance from you waist to your hip line (6.25 inches). Connect the dots of this curved line. Label it D.
7. Label E and F (side seams of yoke) as shown.
8. Mark grain line direction as shown (parallel to CB)
9. Add seam allowances at all the edges. I used one inch.

Front yoke

In my previous post, I explained the front yoke is three quadrants of circle and therefore the radius for cutting out the waist for the front is different than the back.

Calculations:

Determining circumference of Circle C (Front yoke waist): Front + Back = Circumf. of Circle B (waist measurement)

3/4*C + 1/2*B = 26 
3/4*C +13 = 26 
3/4*C = 13 
C = 13*4/3 C = 17.33

Determining radius of Circle C (Front yoke waist). Circumference of Circle C is 17.33.

C = 2πr
17.33 = (6.283)r 
2.75 = r  

Determining radius of circumference of front yoke hem (G):

r = 2.75 + length of yoke 
r = 2.75 + 6.25 
r = 9

Front Yoke Drafting instructions:

1. Draw a vertical line and then a horizontal line perpendicular to it.
2. Measure out to the right from the center of these intersected lines the distance of the radius for the back yoke (2.75 inches)
3. Measure out to the left from the center point the distance of the radius (2.75 inches)
4. Measure down from the center point the distance of the radius (2.75).
5. Keep plotting this distance from the center point until you have a three quadrants of a circle.
6. Connect the dots. Label this line C.
7. From this new curved line, plot the distance from you waist to your hip line (6.25 inches). Connect the dots of this curved line. Label it G.
8. Label E and F (side seams of yoke) as shown.
9. Mark grain line direction (parallel to side seam E).
10. Add seam allowances at all the edges. I used one inch.

Waistband

Draft waistband by drawing a rectangle 3.5 inches wide and the length of your waist measurement. Add seam allowance. The waistband will be cut on the true bias. The finished waistband will be folded in half and shaped to conform to the the spiral shaped yoke.

Barrel and Side Panels

Note, for the pattern pieces above, they represent a full pattern piece with seam allowance. For the Barrel and Side Panels below, you are only drafting one quadrant (one-forth) of the circular skirt and without seam allowances. You can either make full pattern pieces with paper, or from muslin, which I suggest. You will need to add seam allowances and fold the muslin before cutting. If you do a muslin first, then you can use the muslin as your pattern pieces and therefore cut your fashion fabric in a single layer.

Calculations:

Determining circular cut-out for barrel pattern piece (or just measure yoke hem D and G with measuring tape).

D = 1/2*2πr  
D = 1/2*(6.283)(10.25)  
D = 32.2  

G = 3/4*2πr 
G = 3/4*(6.283)(9) 
G = 42.41 

D + G = 32.2 +42.41 
D + G = 75 

Determining radius for circle cut-out of barrel. Use measurement or calculation above.

r = 75/2π 
r = 75/6.283 
r = 12

Barrel and Side Panel Drafting instructions:

1. Draw a vertical line and then a horizontal line perpendicular to it,or use a square piece of paper.
2. Measure out to the right from the center of these intersected lines the distance of the radius of the waist circumference (4 inches) plus the desired length of the skirt, waist to floor (41 inches), for a total 45 inches.
3. Measure down from the center point the 45 inches
4. Keep plotting this distance from the center point until you have one quadrant of a circle.
5. Connect the dots. Label it hem.
6. From the center point, plot the radius for the circular cut-out (12 inches). Connect the dots of this curved line. Label it D&G.
7. Add seam allowance to D&G (one inch)
8. Draw a perpendicular line from D&G to the hem (highlighted in light green). Cut the pattern along this line to create the pattern pieces for the barrel and side panels. The cut line represents the seam line where these pieces will be joined.
9. Add seam allowance to the side panel and seam allowance to the barrel along this cut edge (one inch).
10. Draw the grainline direction line for the pattern pieces (parallel to CF and CB)

Cutting the fabric

To cut the side panel in muslin, fold fabric along the crosswise grain and lay pattern piece along the fold as indicated on the pattern. Repeat again for the other side panel.

To cut the barrel in muslin, fold the fabric in half (selvedge to selvedge). Then fold again along the crosswise fold. Lay pattern piece so that the top of the pattern meets the crosswise fold line and the left side of the pattern meets the lengthwise fold line. Cut the circle out along the seam allowance line (1 inch from D&G seam line) you made in step 7 above. This is the apex of the circle. When you unfold the fabric, you should have a large rectangle with a circle cut out in the middle.

For all other pattern pieces cut fabric in a single layer paying attention to grainline direction. Be sure to mark the muslin and fashion fabric with thread or other method all seam lines and important points such as side seams, CF and CB.

Construction details:

Fabric choice for the fashion fabric will effect the level of difficulty in constructing the skirt. I selected a silk charmeuse. Vionnet used a velvet. Silk charmeuse, with its high twist yarns, has more “drag” on the bias and stretches a lot more than cotton muslin. Cotton and velvet definitely have more “lift” when sewn on the bias. I still achieved the look I wanted, but it is a different look than the original garment. Drag reveals and skims the form underneath, while lift conceals it. You just need to be aware of how your fabric will behave on the bias and the style of the skirt you want. I used approximately 6 yards of 54 inch wide fabric, however this may be different for others based on height and waist circumference. You may need to measure your pattern pieces.

Stay stitch by machine all curved edges (waist of yoke, hem of yoke, cut-out of barrel).

Be sure to press after each machine sewn seam. I do a sandwich press to meld the seams, then open seam on wrong side and press with point of iron only. I then press the seam from the right side using a press cloth (silk organza) and the tip of the iron only. I do not use steam. For curved areas a pressing ham is needed.

YOKE: Sew the Front and Back yokes together along F. Leave E open for preferred closure. Pin the waist of the yoke to a dress form so that it can relax and stretch. You may have to clip the seam allowance at the waist to the stay stitching. You will need to weight the hem of the yoke (I used grommet tape, but later learned it was not enough weight). The weight of the skirt will really pull on and stretch the yoke. You could baste the muslin of the barrel and side panels to the yoke in fashion fabric. Let hang for at least 72 hours (I let my yoke hang about a week).

After you have let the yoke hang, you will need to measure the distance using a tape measure from the waist seam line to the yoke hemline to make sure it is the same length (recall I used 6.25). It will likely have stretched in certain areas (i.e. along true bias). As you can see below, my fabric stretched by more than an inch. While still on the dress form, mark the new yoke hem line with pins.

Remove from the dress form and thread trace this new seam line. You do not need to adjust or remark the seamline of the circular cut-out of the barrel, just the yoke hem.

You can reinforce the seam of the hem of the yoke with horsehair (which Vionnet did), or shaped organza strips. It definitely accentuates the yoke and gives it more volume. I used shaped organza strips and it worked fine. But, I later removed for personal style preference. I decided I did not want the added volume.

Prepare side seam E of the yoke for your preferred closure. I supported it with organza selvedge strips and did small snaps for the closure. You could also use petersham ribbon to support the closure.

WAISTBAND: Fold waistband in half. Stretch press with steam iron. After stretching, measure and mark seam line on waistband working from folded edge for more accuracy. You can reinforce waistband with self fabric or silk organza cut on true bias. Attach waistband with pins to yoke. You will really need to steam press and shape the bias waistband to the waist opening. This takes a little time and patience. It is similar to how you would shape a bias bound armhole or curved neckline, except the bias strip is much wider. Once you are happy with the way the waistband folds over and meets the waist opening of the yoke without any twists in fabric, baste and stitch permanently (I used a hand fell stitch). Add hooks or snaps for waistband closure, or even a zipper if you prefer.

BARREL: Match the hem of the yoke (convex curve) to the concave curve of the barrel. You will likely need to notch the concave curve of the barrel in order to match the seams together. Notch as needed and pin together. Then baste by hand. This will take a little time. Make sure there are no puckers. Sew slowly and carefully by machine.

SIDE PANELS: Pin side panels to barrel sides (baste by hand if prefer), sew permanently by machine.

Almost there.

HEM: For the hem, you will need to hang on a dress form for a couple of days. After some hang-time, measure evenly all the way around the skirt the preferred measurement from the floor, mark with pins.

You will then remove from the dress form, finish marking the necessary adjustment by connecting the pin marks with chalk or erasable pen. Then carefully cut this excess off the skirt. Put skirt back on dress form and check that the hem is even. If looks good then you can sew the hem permanently using either a narrow hem finish, picot edge finish or face with purchased bias tape, or self-made bias strips. I used a poly crepe bias tape as the hem circumference is almost 8 yards. I did sew the hem by hand because I wanted to control the amount of tension on the bias sections of the skirt and not have any twists or puckers. After some careful pressing of the hem (without steam), I finally finished! Mama Mia!