Stewart Girl's Dress pt. 3

I have made some progress with the pattern. I still believe the greater challenge is coming up with a mass construction technique. No matter how I twist my brain around the style, it still requires hand manipulation of the gathers. So per Kathleen's suggestion, here is what the pattern would look like. I realized after I took the pictures that I had left off the seam allowances for the dart - must add that before sewing up the samples. This is a quick and dirty pattern, and I know it is not production ready. The style is going to work for girl sizes 8-16 and older. Younger sizes do not have (or need) darts in the skirt, although they can be added for a style detail.

This is a basic skirt block for a girl's size 10. A style line is drawn on the pattern where the gather detail is to be placed.








Lines are drawn from the dart point and the style line until they intersect. The skirt is slashed along those lines to the point of intersection. The dart is partially rotated closed. The original style had some fullness in the waist. The dart equivalent fullness only adds about a 1/2" to the waist front. I suspect the original style had more. The original style was probably for an older teenager rather than a young girl. Anyway, slash lines are drawn from the lower dart leg to the hip line (On a full length skirt, the slash lines would go to the hem. For ease, I am only working to the hip line).

Slash the skirt along the new slash lines to the hip and spread to the desired fullness. In this case, I spread for a 2:1 gather ratio. The finished pattern would look something like the one to the left. Like I said, I forget to add seam allowances to the dart opening. If you try this yourself, don't forget to add them.

Fabric samples will have to wait until later - too many pressing projects.

Warning - Taggies Blankets have a patent

You probably have seen them. These blankets are made of two squares of fabric with ribbon loops sandwiched around the edge. I have seen them sold on Ebay, online web sites and demonstrated in blogs and mommy discussion groups. Some well intentioned new designer could find themselves in a heap of trouble if they attempt to sell a similar product.

This is the kind of patent I dislike. The product is so simple. There is nothing unique to the concept other than the brand name. It is easy to copy and reproduce. It would be easy to unintentionally copy the concept. Just attach a ribbon loop to a product, and oops - patent infringement. (This particular patent extends to related products and not just the blankets, and would, of course, have to be tested in a court of law).

This is how the designer intends to treat potential customers and fellow designers. The designer states:

In our appreciation of your notification of any product infringements that you may find, a donation of TAGGIES will be made to a charity. In addition, your first name and state of origin only will appear on our Random Acts of Kindness page as sincere recognition of your efforts.

I think there are better ways to protect your product. Try superior product quality, customer service, shopping experience. Sure, others will copy and imitate, but you can do better in all of those areas. Build loyalty on trust - not threatened action.

Patent protection is only as valuable as the intended enforcement of the patent owner. This designer is actively protecting her patent and products. (They claim copyright protection too, although that claim is rather dubious IMO). Anyway, just a warning to any other designers - stay away from the "Taggies" concept.

[This blog entry has been edited to remove some of my stronger opinions on this subject. If you would like to share your opinion, please leave it in comments.]

Stewart Girl's Dress pt. 2 : Testing the idea

As a continuation from my first entry on this topic, I made up some samples to illustrate the sewing problem. (Click on the images for a better view).

This is how the pattern might look. I suspect the slit would be similar to a dart. The top of the slit is angled upward. I left the bottom of the slit on grain, but it probably should angle down too, making it a true dart, and not a slit.








This is how the sample looks sewn. The yellow arrows indicate the direction of sewing each dart if sewn with a 4/5 spool industrial serger with a shirring arm (my sample is not, so this is an approximation). At the end of each dart is a flat spot because of the physical limitation of the foot and shirring arm getting in the way. Even with my straight stitch machine you can see similar problems. On the left, a pretty little tuck and dimple show up. On the right, the flat spot is more pronounced because the gathers can not start at the end of the dart opening. I also ended up with an open seam where I failed to catch one side. I could easily see these sewing errors occur in an industrial setting.

I suspect there may be more to the pattern than I am thinking.

Stewart Girl's Dress Patent of 1922

From the USPTO comes a patent filing for a girl's dress in 1922. The claim made by Gladys Matson Stewart is for the ornamental design of the dress, which I found rather difficult to see. Perhaps the ribbon belt? I guess the claim depends on the definition of ornamental design and I find her claim rather dubious. Perhaps if she filed the claim on the basis of how the dress is constructed, then perhaps her claim may be more legitimate. The design of the dress is structural and also very intriguing. I would like to sit down with designer and see how she constructed it. The gather details on the upper skirt sides would be especially difficult to sew in an industrial setting. I have tried in the past to come up with an easy way to do it, but haven't yet. The pattern itself is rather easy to create, its the construction that is the challenge.

The difficulty would be in getting the gathers to start right at the end of the slit and have them evenly distributed across the length of it. The next difficulty is overcasting or serging the seam so there are no raw edges while avoiding unsightly tucks. There is a physical/space limitation in inserting the skirt piece under a gather foot on a sewing machine. The detail would almost certainly require some kind of hand manipulation and would be too expensive for modern manufacturing.

The gather detail on the skirt would not be very attractive on an adult woman unless done in a certain way. It would add weight and attention to an area that most women choose not to emphasize. But a girl's dress could certainly get away with it. As a design idea, the detail could show up in lots of different ways and locations on a piece of clothing. The only road block is coming up with an easy mass construction technique.

Tag Board for pattern making

I have needed to order tag board (manila folder paper for patterns) for a while. Up till now I haven't needed very much. My patterns are small and a large, heavy roll of the stuff seemed excessive. I think I have found a reasonable alternative until I need larger quantities.

I did a search for tag board among the big box office supply houses. Sure enough I found one that sold it in large pieces (24 x 36) in a box of 100 sheets. The pieces are big enough that I can cut out quite a few pieces at one time and still have left overs. I further economize by not cutting out square or rectangular pieces. Technically, every pattern piece should be cut out of tag board and if I were to send them to a contractor, I would. Square/Rectangular pieces are cut using cutting guides & charts. I have a cutting guide for sleeve cuffs and skirts indicating the dimensions for each size, for example.