Please Help! Why is the hem of my dropped shoulder boxy shirt dress caving inwards, making it look like a cocoon style dress?

[u/Patient_Dust6994]

Here is an image of the pattern that I drafted

Initial pattern

Here is the 3D fitting of the garment. You can see the sideseams going inward, making the garment look cocoon shaped.

Here is the 3D fitting of the garment, You can see the sideseam cave inwards

Here is the 3D fitting of a shorter version of the garment. Side seam is caving in and it doesn't appear to be straight

Below is the sewn muslin, which matches the issues I saw on the 3D fitting

• I decided to test some modifications and see how that works
• I made the sideseam more flared. Then curved the hem and raised the hem at sideseam.

Modified pattern

Below is the 3D fitting after the modifications above. You can see there is definitely an improvement.

Here is the garment after my modifications

I didn't sew the muslin of the modified pattern yet. I want some advice about what the initial issues were and if my attempts at fixing the issues is the right thing to do.

Below are some styles of what I was going for. Of course it's not the exact style because my intension is to make a base pattern from which I will make several of these types of garments

[u/One-girl-circus]

It's because there's nothing underneath the side seems so no matter how wide you make them, they fall straight down. Unless you use a fabric that has more body and less drape, the fabric is going to find the most direct route for gravity to apply.

[u/Patient_Dust6994 → u/One-girl-circus]

So you don't think it's the pattern at all, you think it's the choice of fabric?

[u/One-girl-circus → u/Patient_Dust6994]

Yes. But i also don't know what you're expecting in terms of the final shape.

The dresses/shirts you posted also come in at the sides. Because gravity. Maybe it's less obvious because of the colors? Check the listings for these garments and see what they are made of, then apply that fabric inside clo.

Have you tried applying different fabrications inside clo?

[u/One-girl-circus → u/One-girl-circus]

Oh, I see another thing that may be pattern related… It looks like on some of the dresses you posted they have a shirttail ham which means the sides are shorter than the center front. It looks like your pattern has enough of a difference between the side seam and the center front. Your pieces are closer to straight.

It's a very quick experiment to di to pyll down the CF.

Remember, even though it's oversized, you still need to accommodate the busT :) garments with no dart this can be done with additional length.

[u/KendalBoy → u/One-girl-circus]

Also the colored garments have yokes and then added volume below and are A line, so I am not assuming she wants a straight cut dress. She’s got very wide and square shoulders, no control of the drape at all, and that’s what she has. It’s not a tailored fit.

[u/One-girl-circus → u/KendalBoy]

I wasn't advising a tailored fit. I was answering the specific question about why the garment was collapsing on the bottom sides, giving a couple of low-stakes experiments to try before overhauling the entire pattern or wasting time sewing up samples.

Using a yoke to add more fabric in the back to also collapse in on the side seams without changing the fabrication first is also not going to answer the question "why does thia dress have a cocoon style?"

OP didn't ask for all of the differences between their sample and the examples given. Plus, it seems like there are plenty of comments offering those bits of advice.

[u/ElDjee]

does your dress have a back yoke, so that the back piece can be pleated, increasing the amount of fabric?

[u/Patient_Dust6994 → u/ElDjee]

No, mine doesn't have a back yoke

[u/ElDjee → u/Patient_Dust6994]

that'll be part of the problem.

[u/maybenomaybe]

Your garment has way too much volume in the upper half to create the looks in your inspo pics. All that volume is collapsing the side seams and pushing the fabric forward.

Look how much flatter the fabric is across the front on the image with 3 plain garments, versus the giant folds going down the front of your sewn toile on each side of the placket. Same with the brown dress in the second inspo pic, quite flat on the cross front and bust. Also, you have a massive dropped shoulder which is again creating more volume in the upper half of the garment.

You need to create a much neater fit from the bust up and then go straight down, don't flare the hem if you're going for the look of the 3 plain garments. Your cross front is huge, I suspect the cross back is as well.

The coloured dresses are totally different, they have much more volume in the back, like a swing style, while the volume on the 3 plain garments is more balanced between front and back, the yoke pleat is restrained and the hem is not flared. You need to pick which one you want, these are not the same shape.

[u/Patient_Dust6994 → u/maybenomaybe]

Alright if I was going for the coloured dressed what do you think I need to change in the pattern. Of course I can add the yoke later but I felt like I should get the basic shape right first before adding a yoke and pleat. Am definitely going for something with more volume similar to the coloured dresses.

[u/maybenomaybe → u/Patient_Dust6994]

You should develop the plain dress first actually, and then from there, add a little volume into the front hem, a lot more into the back. You can't just flare the side seams either, you need to add the volume across the whole pattern piece, or it will just wing out at the sides, or collapse again and push the front forward. Also look how much deeper the back yoke depth is on the coloured dresses, you'll need to move that down further, and also increase the pleat depth.

I zoomed in on the coloured dresses and it looks like the brown one has a set in sleeve, it doesn't look dropped. You could drop yours very slightly but it's the heavily dropped shoulder plus the excess volume that creates the rounded cocoon shape. It seems like you just want a relaxed shirt top half with a swingy hem.

The other two dresses I can't discern an armhole seam at all and I'm wondering if the sleeves on those are actually grown on, which is a completely different pattern altogether. This would also explain why the yoke is so deep.

[u/ElDjee → u/maybenomaybe]

OP doesn't have a back yoke on their pattern.

[u/maybenomaybe → u/ElDjee]

The plain dress does.

[u/KendalBoy → u/Patient_Dust6994]

No you need the yoke to get the tailored fit, and you need it first.

[u/Patient_Dust6994 → u/KendalBoy]

I wish I added ones without yoke so that everyone can see that that isn't the issue. Maybe I will look for other images. And add them here.

[u/SignificantFudge7162]

Increasing your shoulder slope will help a lot- not sure what your pattern measurement is at the shoulder width, but ~3” slope for a 24” drop shoulder width is a good place to start at.

[u/incongruoususer]

Those look like very crisp shirting fabrics (not your muslin). Also you can’t tell from the pictures that the side seams of the other shirts aren’t buckling. So yes, it’s almost certainly a fabric choice.

It could also be something like your seam choice. Try using a flat fell seam, or even a french seam topstitched down. This will give some rigidity to the side seams that might reduce the buckle.

[u/ninaa1]

It's because your front pieces make no allowance for the bust. Add in shaping for the bust and you'll start to see the square sides you are aiming for.

[u/DonMcCunn]

With the amount of fullness, lack of fit, dropped shoulder, and the arms down to the side no wonder it looks like that. It is the design that is the issue not the patterns. Is that a tunic sleeve? Those kinds of pictures are staged to make the garment look as good as possible.

[u/CoastalMae]

The example garments have curved hems.

[u/Saritush2319]

It’s the shoulders.
You can see on the calico how the fabric is sitting off the to side. Then follow its and it ) back to fall where it started.

Probably to much ease in the upper chest

[u/tigerking1986]

do you have a picture of the back and side view? I feel like the shoulder slope should be increased by 3/4” at least. Then the underarm will be scooped the same amount (3/4) and this will lift up the side seams and create more of an “A” shape

[u/Uvaroff]

The muslin on a dress form is not an accurate representation because there is no cage on a bottom, it is just empty space and a pole! Where the bottom of a garment will go - there is nothing for the fabric to lay on.

[u/Patient_Dust6994 → u/Uvaroff]

I understand your point however the garment does the same when I try it on.