Skirt question

Written by Susan and posted by Ann

We received this question via email. I will remove specific references to companies and people to protect the innocent.

I am interested in finding a pattern for a dress. I have used (a different) pattern and made a dress with a Susan Gowin design which I think is on the Colleen's of Canberra site. However, the skirt 'bells,' i.e. makes a circular shape rather than flat in front of the legs. How does the skirt sit with this pattern?


The skirt sits flatter if you offset the stiffened side panels so that they end in front of the bodice side seams.

Here’s the deal – the body/waistline is some sort of variation of a cylinder. The rounder you are, the more the skirt is going to bell. If your waistline is more rectangular, then the skirt will sit flatter. That’s why those skinny little girls get that flat skirt look – they’ve got nothing bulging out in front (rounding them).

If you are a fluffier kind of person, there is very little you can do to avoid it – that skirt has to mold around the waistline somehow. And the top of the skirt guides the bottom of the skirt so it will bell if the waist conforms around the dancer's shape unless you get the panels to twist in opposition to what the top of the panel dictates.

One thing you can do is end the stiffened part of the skirt before it has to bend around the side of your body. Think of taking a sheet of poster board and holding it up to your waist. Bend it around your waist like you would a skirt – see how the bottom of the cardboard bells? Now cut the cardboard so that it is a rhombus –shape (triangle with the top point whacked off). Hold that up to your waist – it doesn’t have to bend as much so the skirt hangs “flatter”.

The FeisDress pattern has instructions on how to offset that front side panel and has a exemplar line drawn on the pattern pieces. (Depending upon your dancer’s size and skirt length you’ll probably have to redraw them to suit her, but you’ll get the idea.)

Does this mean the skirt won’t bell at all? Probably not – so much depends upon body shape. But it won’t bell as much as your current dress.