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Transform Your Sewing Skills with Our Stunning Faux Wrap Dress Pattern!
Unlock the Secret to Flattering Fits
Marjorie Vaudreuil
July 30, 2024
Hi Margie from Sewing Pattern Secrets here!
Are you ready to elevate your sewing skills and create garments that truly flatter your figure? Meet the Princess Seam technique—a game-changer in the world of sewing. This method involves sewing curved seams from the shoulder or armhole to the waistline or hem, creating elegant vertical lines that enhance your natural curves and elongate your silhouette for a slimming effect. Perfect for plus-size clothing, the Princess Seam technique offers a fitted look, visually narrows the waistline, and creates a beautifully balanced and proportioned appearance.
We’ve incorporated this timeless technique into our Classics Faux Wrap Dress, available on our membership site. This pattern is perfect for intermediate sewists looking to master the princess seam while creating a stunning, figure-flattering dress. Dive in and discover how the Princess Seam can transform your sewing projects with our Classics Faux Wrap Dress!
Princess Seam Technique:
A Princess Seam involves sewing two curved seams from the shoulder or armhole to the waistline or hem, creating vertical seams that follow the body’s contours.
This technique, named after 19th-century princess dresses, is renowned for creating a slimming effect by enhancing the body's natural curves and elongating the silhouette.
Benefits of Princess Seams:
Fitted Look: Princess seams provide a more fitted appearance compared to traditional darts, which can create pointy looks.
Slimming Effect: They visually narrow the waistline by sculpting the fabric to embrace natural curves of the bust, resulting in a less defined waist and creating an hourglass figure.
Plus-Size Friendly: These seams help create a balanced and proportioned look, making them ideal for plus-size clothing.
Application in Clothing:
Commonly used in women’s clothing such as dresses, blouses, and jackets.
Featured in designs like the Faux Wrap dress from Sewing Pattern Secrets, where the princess seam is used from shoulder to hem.
Visual Impact:
Princess seams create a smooth, streamlined silhouette by running vertically along the body, providing a sleek appearance without breaking up the fabric horizontally.
Sewing Pattern Secrets’
Classic’s Single Breasted Faux Wrap Dress
See the Offer
Our single breasted wrap dress is great for mid-fall and winter with a fitted stretch blouse or long sleeved jersey underneath. Put tights on and you are ready for winter! Great for teachers and church.
Women’s Sizes: 6-14
Fabric Composition: Use a woven with up to 10% elastine or 25% stretch across the weft. The side panels make this design friendly to adjust for the advanced sewist.
Fabrics: Stretch Wovens up to 5-10% elastine: Cottons, Polyesters, Wool and Acrylics. Fabric Weight: 6-10oz. Stretch Corduroys, Lightweight Denim Stretch, Firm Acrylic Knits, Stretch Wool.
Similar Fabrics
Outlander Home Spun Wool Blend
Stretch Corduroy (Multiple Colors)
We used: a stretch polyester 96% / 4% lycra Telio 21 wale corduroy from Fabric.com. We suggest even more stretch across the weft than this corduroy had, but be careful with wider wale corduroy for two reasons. The corduroy stretch can go in the vertical direction, and the fabric may be so soft that coupled with the stretch, the fabric is too heavy and hangs wrong. Opt with a higher wale count, so that the ribs are thin and closer together. The lower count wale will give the wearer the effect of looking heavier.
What you want for this dress is stability of a woven but with elastine to make it less rigid and stiff than it would be as a regular woven fabric.
The Evolution of the Princess Seam: From Medieval Garments to Modern Fashion
The "princess" of the princess seam, originally from the princess dress, was Alexandra, Princess of Wales (1844-1925). As fashion evolved in the 1870s, women's silhouettes shifted from wide skirts to a more fitted front with fullness at the back. By around 1880, Alexandra embraced a form-fitting style that closely hugged the torso and extended seamlessly over the hips, notable for its lack of a waistline seam. Ironically, these dresses used vertical tucks instead of the seams we associate with princess lines today.
This style marked a significant shift from the previous 500 years of separate skirts and bodices. Long-line garments with vertical seams and gores were common before the 1500s. An example is Jean Fouquet's painting, "Madonna and Child" (circa 1455), which depicts a fitted bodice with a seam over the bust, although the waistline isn't visible.
The authenticity of this painting was supported by textiles found at Lengberg Castle in Austria in 2008, including bras with vertical seams over the bust. It's intriguing to see such modern-looking seams in both a 15th-century painting and contemporary undergarments.
According to Fairchild's Dictionary of Fashion, the "princess style" is defined by continuous vertical panels without a waistline seam, aligning with both Alexandra's fashion and the seams in Fouquet's painting. Today, we often label any bodice with vertical seams as "princess-style," but historically, the defining feature was the absence of a waistline seam.
Weekly Sewing Tip
» Elevate Your Sewing: Making Professional French Seams
» How to Determine Stretch Percentage on Fabrics in Your Sewing Stash
» Taking the Perfect Measurements (Free Measurement Printable Measurement Chart)
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