Hi Everyone! In Part 4 we wrap up the topic with a fun tutorial showing how to use pleats combined with stripes to create a beautiful sunburst effect! Shari is joining us to demonstrate this technique. Follow along and the try it on your own! 

Stripes are a naturally bold design element that can be manipulated with dramatic effect. This week, we are going to show you how you can actually bend stripes in a fabric by sunburst pleating a circle skirt. The illusion of bending the stripes doesn't require pleating, but the pleating gives a more dramatic effect.

This method will work with just about any circle skirt pattern. I will be demonstrating on three variations from the larougetdelisle catalog. Keepers Dolly Duds 1950s Circle Swirl pattern has a wide circle skirt that is gathered into the waistline of the dress for added fullness. Forever 18 Inches Not! For Knits Circle Skirt has a fitted waistline. Sew Urban's Handkerchief Skirt is a circle skirt where the hemline is cut in a square. Many of you just picked up a copy of the Handkerchief Skirt pattern on Freebie Friday a few weeks ago, try it our on that pattern to see how easy this project can be!

  

Materials:

• Fabric and Notions from your patterns Materials List
• A piece of thin cardboard, like from the back of a notebook or cereal box
• Ruler
• Fine line permanent marker
• Pushpin
• Freezer paper, enough to cover the entire skirt when laid flat
• Scissors
• Iron
• Fabric starch – Use your preferred commercial starch or homemade version to lightly starch your skirt fabric. Here are the recipes for my two favorite homemade starches for this project:

Here's a breakdown of the entire process as well:
Step 1: Assemble you circle skirt, following the pattern instructions. This includes any hemming, stay-stitching, gathering stitches, or facings that can be done
before attaching the skirting to the bodice or waistband. One edge needs to be left open as this makes it easier to pleat. For the handkerchief skirt, I needed to add a cut line at the back of the skirt.

Step 2: For nice crisp pleats that hold their shape, it is important to treat your fabric with fabric starch. Dip or spray your circle skirt thoroughly with your preferred fabric starch. Lay the skirt flat on a towel, smoothing out as many wrinkles as possible. Allow it to air dry.

Step 3: While your skirt it drying, make your Sunburst Pleating Template. Measure the diameter of your skirt and cut a piece of freezer paper large enough to cover the entire skirt. If the freezer paper isn't wide enough, you can fuse pieces of freezer paper together by overlapping the pieced edges of the freezer paper plastic side down by about 1/2” and pressing with a hot iron. Do not use steam. Do not use tape as the tape will melt during the pleating process.

Step 4: Measure the diameter of your skirt to find the radius (½ the diameter) and cut a 3/4” wide strip of cardboard that is at least 1” longer than the radius to make a scriber.

Step 5: Use a push pin to poke a hole about 1/2” from one end of the scriber, this will be the pivot point.

Step 6: Measuring from the pivot point, mark your scriber at 3/4” 2”, 7”, and the length of the radius of your skirt. Use a thumbtack to poke a hole through each
mark.

Step 7: You will be using the thumbtack to hold the scriber in place at the pivot
point while you work, so be sure your working surface is protected with a cutting mat or a thin piece of cardboard. With the paper side facing up, tape the corners of your freezer paper to your working surface.

Step 8: Push the thumbtack through the pivot point and position it on the freezer paper where you want the center of your template to be. Starting with the outermost hole on the scriber, poke the tip of a fine tip permanent marker through the hole. Holding the thumbtack firmly, draw the first circle. Repeat for the holes at the 7” and 2” marks.

Step 9: Line up a ruler with the center of the circle and use a permanent marker to draw a diameter line. This line will mark the center front and center back of your template.

Step 10: Position the thumbtack in the pivot point of the scriber where the diameter line intersects the 7” circle. Use the marker in the 3/4” hole to mark the position on the circle. Move the thumbtack to the mark you just made and make another mark. Continue this process until you reach the other side of the diameter line. With this many lines, small human errors can add up so that the last section ends up being a little small. This is a minor issue that can be remedied by splitting the difference with the previous mark.

Step 11: Draw diameter lines through each mark by lining up the marks with the center of the circle.

Step 12: Cut out your template out along the outer and inner circle lines and the center back line.

Step 13: Once your skirt is dry, lay it right side up and lightly press to smooth out any wrinkles. With the plastic side down, center the template over the skirt, aligning the center front . Press with a hot iron to adhere the template to the skirt. This template can be reused, but if the bottom edge is longer than the skirt, trim off the excess paper along the hemline so that the paper doesn't get fused together when pressing the pleats. Extra freezer paper at the waistline and back edges can be left as they usually don't pose a problem.

Step 14: Fan fold the skirt along the marked lines, pressing as you go. Once you have fan folded the entire skirt, take the time to press both the front and back to set the creases of the pleats. When you are finished pressing, fold the skirt up and set aside for at least 15 minutes to cool and set.

Step 15: Carefully peel away the template. If necessary, do some touch-up pressing to sharpen the creases.

Step 16: Follow the instructions to finish your skirt or dress.

In this video, we will take a look at some of the things to consider when creating a project using striped fabric. It’s a good idea to plan ahead, thinking about the placement of your pattern pieces on the stripes before you cut into the fabric. Follow along as we look at:

• The symmetry of the stripe. Is it balanced or unbalanced? 
• Placing your pattern on the stripe for optimal design impact.
• Comparing a stripe to a directional print. 
• Working with the stripe "repeat."
• Determining the proper grain for a woven and printed stripe fabric.
• Playing with stripes, placing pockets and other pieces for dramatic effect.

As you can see, choosing a striped fabric for your next project opens up so many opportunities to create something unique! You can take a basic pattern design and really add your own personality or twist to the overall look just by using a striped fabric and adding a bit of creative stripe placement. 

Here are several examples of "Playing With Stripes"

The Mitered Maxi Skirt is designed with stripes in mind. The grainlines on the pattern pieces are positioned to line up with the stripe to create the mitered effect. The waistband is cut with the stripes going horizontally across the waist for additional contrast. This pattern is designed for knit fabric and can work with a variety of stripe widths as well as a balanced or unbalanced stripe. Easy-Peasy!

The Energy Dress (shown in the video) showcases stripes on the sleeves and the skirt. Choose your fabric and have fun with the placement or direction of the stripe. Pay special attention to the pattern repeat or direction of the stripe pattern; you may need to flip the fabric in the opposite direction to get things to line up properly. Go even further mixing in the coordinating E=dk2 pattern design too! This pattern is designed to work with a woven fabric and a narrower stripe, 3/8" width or less.

The Swimsuit Cover-Up featured in our free tutorial is a simple project but has maximum effect because of the striped fabrics used in the design. By choosing to place the pattern pieces vertically and horizontally, the design elements really pop! The tiny pocket isn't lost because it has been cut with the stripes going in the opposite direction of the dress front. This design works best with a knit fabric and a variety of stripe widths. The example is a 3/8" width balanced stripe.

The Versatility Dress is a darling design to begin with, and Karen has taken it to the next level with her Playing with Stripes pattern hack! This is a great example of the thought process involved in using stripes to highlight the design lines of the garment. By placing the bodice side pieces on a different direction than the center front, the princess seam element really stands out! The added band around the bottom of the skirt really brings it all together! The pattern can be sewn in a knit or a woven fabric; but for this type of project, I'd recommend a woven stripe! 

Neckline Impact! Striped fabrics provide an opportunity for maximum impact when you place the neck-binding or sleeve bindings on the diagonal or opposite direction from the main body. These examples pictured below demonstrate this on a variety of different pattern designs including the t-shirt variations, v-neck tee, and the All Girls on Deck top.

Now it's your turn! We challenge you to choose a striped fabric and create some impact with your next design project. Maybe it's a simple swimsuit coverup, a basic tee, or a new dress; the choice is yours! Be sure to share your project with us in the SWC FB group or add them to the larougetdelisle Inspiration gallery for all to see!

In Part Two we go a bit deeper as we look at Sewing With Striped Fabrics. In this post we will talk about how-to determine the proper scale of the stripe, how-to cut out the pattern pieces so the stripes are aligned, and how-to sew the seam so the stripes stay lined up perfectly!

First let's take a look at how-to determine the proper scale of the striped fabric. There are two things to consider when choosing the stripe. The scale of the doll as well as the scale of the stripe pattern or repeat.

Follow along in this video to see how I determine the appropriate scale:

To sum things up, I recommend using the dolls fingers to determine the scale. Compare the scale of your own finger (or check out these examples on my Pinterest board) to a stripe and scale that down to the dolls finger and the choice of striped fabric.

Some striped fabrics can work for a variety of doll sizes. Usually that would be a very narrow stripe, less than 1/4-inch for a single stripe. If the stripe pattern has a repeat, then you might just use one section for a smaller doll, like a Barbie, but use a repeating pattern for a larger doll, like American Girl.

The pattern showcased in this first video are listed here in order of appearance:

UK Holiday (3/4 Sleeve Top Variation), First Impressions, V-neck Tee, AGAT & Barbie T-shirts, Ruffle Jacket, Siblies T-shirt, Slouch Cardigan and Tee, More tees, UK Holiday Top (Original), Polo Shirt, Playsuit Skirt (pattern hack), Culotte Jumpsuits (on dolls), Pink Stripe Swim Cover-up (pattern hack), Hoodie Dress, Long Winter Coat, Sandy Lane Maxi Dress, Union Suit, Drawstring Pants (hack of Shorts pattern), Bib Front Regency Dresses, Versatility Dress, Aloha Vintage Swimsuit, Trendy Maxi Skirt (shortened a bit), Swimsuit Variations, Genoa Jumper with Blue Striped Tee, Silver Screen Wrap Top.

You can find all of them in this larougetdelisle Pattern Collection: Sewing With Stripes!

Now that you've got a fabric in mind, lets talk about how to place the pattern pieces and cut them out so things line up perfectly. You have several choices when placing your pattern pieces. 

• Keep things all lined up and place the pieces with the stripes all going in the same direction.
• Align the top of the side seam and under arm seam on the same stripe.
• Cut pieces out one at a time on a single layer of fabric.
• Transfer "cut on fold" pieces to a full flat pattern so it can be cut flat on a single layer of fabric.
• Mix things up a bit and rotate some of the pieces so the stripe is running in the opposite direction. An visual example of this can be found in the Playing With Stripes pattern hack.
• Take it to the next level and use the stripes to create a mitered look. The Mitered Maxi Skirt pattern is designed with this in mind and includes grain lines to cut on the diagonal.

Follow along in the video below as I demonstrate these things:

Pattern Notes: In the video I've use the UK Holiday Top to demonstrate. The pattern is currently available for a variety of doll sizes- American Girl, BFC Ink, Journey Girls, Ellowyne Wilde, WellieWishers, Les Cheries/ H4H, and Barbie. It is also being updated to include the empire waist dress and 3/4 length sleeve top versions shown in the videos and demonstrated in the Sewing With Elastic course. When the update goes out, if you've previously bought it, you'll get a notification to download the new version.

We also have two new sizes coming out as well! The Ruby Red Fashion Friends and Little Darling UK Holiday Top patterns will be available this month too!

General Tips For Sewing Matching Stripes in the Seamline:

• Cut it out correctly!
• Use lots and lots of pins. Pin every stripe, or every 1/4" or so if your stripes are very narrow. If your fabric is woven with the stripe showing through on the wrong side of the fabric. Make sure the pin is placed one the same stripe on both sides.
• Optionally, you can use a double-sided basting tape to hold the seam in place. 
• Sew the seam first with a basting stitch. This will be very easy to pull out if your stripes are not lined up correctly. If they are lined up, that's great! Then you'd change your setting and sew the seam with a standard size stitch (or serger).

Stay Tuned! Next week we go even further with stripes! Donna is joining us with a look at the symmetry of stripes, balanced vs. unbalanced stripe patterns, keeping things on grain, and placing accent pieces like pockets.

Note: If you're looking for the June coupon codes, be sure to check the Sewing With Cinnamon Bonuses page!

The topic will be broken into these installments:

• Part One: The Topic Overview  with an in-depth look at striped fabrics
• Part Two: How to Cut, sew, and determine the scale of your striped fabrics.
• Part Three: Looking at the symmetry of stripes, balanced vs. unbalanced, keeping things on grain, and placing accent pieces like pockets.
• Part Four: Fun with stripes! Pleating on the stripe and creating a sun ray pleated design.

Stripes are a fun and interesting way to express your personal style in modern fashion, but stripes have a very interesting history too! I was fascinated to learn the backstory on striped fabrics and how they've evolved through out the years. Shari is joining us with an in-depth look at the origin of striped fabric and all the many types of stripes that we have to choose from.

The History and Origin of Striped Fabric

Simple yet striking, stripes have been making a statement in textiles since weaving began. In the European Middle Ages, the bold look stripes present took on strong connotations of deviance and abasement. Servants and court jesters, madmen and criminals, were required to wear striped clothing as a means to mark them as debase and immoral deviants of society. During the Italian Renaissance, rebellious young gentlemen took to wearing stripes as a daring fashion statement. Alongside their more soberly dressed elders, stripes gave these young men a swaggering and impudent air. Conversely, stripes were a mark of honor when worn in places of heraldry such as combat or tournaments. Striped clothing became popular among sailors because the stripes made it easier to find sailors when they fell overboard. In the 19th century, striped shirts began to be incorporated into naval sailor's uniforms. By the18th century, fashionable ladies and gentlemen visiting the seaside began incorporating the stripes they saw worn by sailors into more fashionable clothing which launched the nautical fashion trend. Although striped cloth never entirely shed its negative connotations with deviance, the nautical fashions trend led to stripes being associated more with the seaside, sporting, and leisure.

There are many classifications of stripes that are determined by the size, arrangement, color, and shape of the stripes. Stripes are usually woven along the warp (vertical threads), but can also be woven in the weft (horizontal threads), knit, or printed to emulate woven stripes.

We will divide them into three main classifications: Balanced Stripes, Unbalanced Stripes, and Fancy Stripes. Then within each classification, there can also be vertical or horizontal designs.

Balanced Stripes

Vertical Stripes: These stripes are woven or knit vertically, but in many
cases the fabric can be turned so the stripes can be presented
horizontally or diagonally. (Special note: Awning, Regency, Bengal and Candy Stripes are all variations of the same design that are differentiated by the width of the stripes.)

• Awning Stripes/Cabana Stripes -Very wide evenly spaced vertical stripes that are usually a two color pattern that alternates between a bright color and white. Awning Stripes are generally too large for doll clothing, but Regency Stripes are a good alternative for this scale.
• Regency Stripes – Generally refers to evenly spaced vertical stripes, usually between 1/2” to 1” wide woven in a two color pattern that alternates between light and dark colors, the lighter color usually being white. However, this term also can refer to any Regency Era stripe design that can be a mix of evenly spaced thin and thick lines sometimes mingled with lines of prints in a repeated pattern.
• Bengal Stripes - Evenly spaced vertical stripes, approximately ¼" wide. Woven in a two color pattern that alternates between light and dark colors, the lighter color usually being white.

• Candy Stripes - Evenly spaced vertical stripes, approximately 1/8" wide. This style of stripe is usually a two color pattern that alternates between white and another color, however, multiple colors are sometimes used with every other stripe being white.
• Chalk Stripes – An uneven stripe that resembles a tailor’s chalk line. Originally used to describe a pattern of white or off-white stripes on the dark ground of cloth, the term is now used simply to refer to the size and style of the stripe.
• Double Stripes/Triple Stripes/etc. - A repeating symmetrical pattern of multiple pinstripes, pencil stripes, or other narrow stripes.

• Hairline/Mille Stripe – These are fine vertical stripes that look like a solid from a short distance. Hairline Stripes have alternating single threads and Mille Stripes have alternating groups of two or three threads.
• Pencil Stripes/Dress Stripes –Thin vertical stripes about 1/6” wide. Like Pin Stripes, the width between the stripes is always wider than the stripe.
• Pin Stripes/Bankers Stripes – Thin vertical stripes woven with one or two threads. The width between the stripes is always wider than the stripe.

• Railroad/Hickory Stripes –Designed in the late 19th century, this dark blue and white stripe was woven into a heavyweight type of cotton seersucker fabric that was used to make the overalls and other types of work clothing for train engineers and railroad workers. This fabric was durable like denim, but breathable like seersucker.
• Regimental Stripes – These stripes follow a distinctive pattern and feature classic colors associated with uniforms or heraldry such as red, burgundy, blue, navy, or yellow. This stripe is most commonly used in neck wear and school uniforms, but is also popular to use in some mainstream fashions.
• Seersucker - A vertically striped fabric, similar to Candy Stripes, in which some of the stripes are designed to pucker as part of the weaving process. Seersucker is a popular summer fabric because it is most often made of cotton, launders easily, needs no ironing, and masks wrinkles.
• Ticking Stripes – A combination of blue, black, or red vertical stripes in a repeating pattern on a white or off-white background. Originally used for pillow and mattress ticking, the stripe pattern has become popular for Americana style clothing and crafts.

Horizontal Stripes: These stripes are specifically woven or knit to be used horizontally so are not usually turned unless the design of the clothing requires it.

• Convict Stripes or Prison Stripes - Extra wide black and white horizontal stripes. The pattern was originally designed in the mid-18th century for prison wear to make escaped prisoners easily identifiable.
• Rugby Stripes – Wide horizontal stripes, typically worn by rugby players to display team colors, but also used in casual clothing. Stripes are usually white and an alternating color but can also be in two alternating colors.

Unbalanced Stripes

Asymmetrically patterned stripes. When turned 180 degrees, the stripe pattern will be in a different order and will not line up.

• Bayadère Stripes – This is a horizontal stripe pattern of various widths of bright vivid colors. This stripe may or may not have a determined background color. The name is derived from dancing girls in India who wore this type of stripe while performing.
• Barcode Stripes - Stripes of varying widths on a background color. These stripes can be of a single color or a combination of colors.
• Breton Stripes - This horizontal stripe can be balanced or unbalanced with two alternating light and dark colors. It was first used in French naval uniforms because the stripes made it easier to distinguish the sailors from the waves when they fell overboard. At the time, the French navy hailed from Brittany, so the shirt was coined the “Breton” shirt. Originally, the shirts displayed 21 stripes – one for each of Napoleon’s victories against the British. Since that time Breton stripes have become a mainstay in nautical fashions.

• Madras Stripes - These are light multicolored wide stripes of equal or varying widths with no determined background color.
• Multicolor stripes –A pattern of stripes in multiple colors and widths on a single background color. Similar to the Bayadère Stripe.
• Roman Stripes - These are bright multicolored stripes of equal or varying widths with no determined background color. Similar to Bayadère Stripes only vertical.

Fancy Stripes

Industry jargon for stripe patterns that do not fit into a conventional category.

• Chevron Stripes – A zigzag stripe pattern. This pattern may include a variety of stripe styles.
• Herringbone Stripes - The herringbone pattern is made by reversing alternate vertical sections of a twill weave to make a distinctive V-shaped pattern. It is distinguished from chevron by a shift in the stripe at the reversal, which makes it resemble a broken zigzag.
• Serpentine Stripes - A wavy, undulating stripe pattern. This pattern may include a variety of stripe styles.

• Ombré Stripes – Stripes that incorporate the effect of a shaded gradient either within the stripe itself or by the arrangement of a group of stripes in different shades.
• Broken Stripes – A stripe pattern made up of stripes with a discontinuous pattern. Each stripes may be made of lines of small dots, dashes, or other decorative elements.
• Satin Stripes - A pattern of alternating shiny and matte stripes created by the fabric’s weave.
• Wallpaper Stripes - A striped fabric that has a pattern printed between or over the top of the stripes. This pattern may include a variety of stripe styles.

Wow! That's a lot of information! Are you feeling inspired or overwhelmed? Hopefully inspired to take a look at your stash and see how many of these types of stripes you already have on hand. I think you'll be surprised at what you find!