Solutions For Garments That Ride Up and Why - Your Weekly Guide from SewingArtistry

Published: Fri, 04/30/21

Basic

April 30, 2021

I know you hear me talk a lot about having a waistline that's slightly raised. And hopefully you've seen my reasoning on this. Here are some fresh-off-the-runway waistlines to 1.) show you how predominant this is on the runway and 2.) show you how the waist should and shouldn't be. These are from Michael Kors Fall 2021 RTW show so they aren't too weird!

First a look at how is the most attractive belted silhouette.

Both of these styles are on waaaaay-too-think models, but it makes my point that when the waistline is a little higher, no matter what your shilhouette, the line from the waist to the hip is modified, made longer and looks more pleasing to the eye.

Compare this to:

Both of his coats here have a gathered fuller look right under the waist. Now if you're 5'8" and weight 100 pounds, you don't have to worry about that fullness. But the rest of us who are normal, won't look like this. But there's a way to solve this, and that's bring that waistline up a little higher, and even with all those gathers, the silhouette looks so much better.

Here's a perfect example:

This is really the prefect solution. There is obvious gathers in this skirt and bodice, but because the waistband is a little higher, look at how beautifully subtle and pleasing the silhouette line is from the waistline to the hip. It looks like you've lost 10 lbs.

But here's the next question: How does she keep that belt tied in that "above waist" location without it slipping down?

This is a great question and it gets into a constant fitting principle we use when diagnosing wrinkles during the fitting process.

Here's the rule: If a garment girth is too small (that's the measurement around a part of the body, the bust, hips, stomach, fanny) the fabric will always hike up or ride up causing a wrinkle around that area that has a smaller measurement. Where we see this most often is in the hips. A garment may not hang or settle well on the hips because the hip measurement might be 46" and the fabric measurement might be 45" or even 45½".

What happens is like this:

You can see the wrinkles around the waist area and that it's hanging or sticking at the hip area. This is a dead giveaway of a girth measurement that is too small seeking a girth measurement that is smaller to rest on.

Another way to check this out is to slightly pull on the area affected. That can be the back, side and/or front, and if the area immediately smooths out, it's a pretty sure thing that it's because the fabric is creeping up or riding up. Especially, if when you raise your arms, the fabric doesn't fall down smoothly on the hip, stomach, and/or fanny, that's a clear sign of the girth being too small.

To cure it is fairly easy, if you're sewing and making a muslin, that is. If you're altering a garment it's pretty hard to do this.

What you do is add more fabric in at the back or front - wherever the garment is hanging, and then put the garment on again.

So here we are with the fabric added in the back. And you'll notice that there is too much fabric in front now. This might lead to the conclusion, that you had the front fixed in the photo above this one, but now the front is messed up with the back OK.

What is really going on here is there is a tilt to the garment that we have to get correct. We have to have enough fabric around the back, and that means the back, not the side or the front. As a matter of fact, you might have more space in the front and still need some in the back and you might think that you could just stretch it around to the back. No. That will cause wrinkles and these are bad wrinkles. If you have fullness in the back, put the extra fabric in the back. In this case that's what we did.

Now we can deal with the fullness in the front and suddenly we have the correct hang for your body and the correct fit. Notice in the above photo how the fabric doesn't wrinkle or hang up on the hip now? So that means we can take in a little more in those darts in front and we'll be looking pretty good.

Fabric riding up or down can be an issue, but once you understand the properties of what you're dealing with, it makes the solutions much easier. The big problem with fabric riding up or down is that the fabric is looking for smaller girth area to rest. In the case of the Burda pattern here, we have riding down problem.

Although she looks perfectly comfortable and that there's not a care in the world in this outfit, don't kid yourself. She has her tie around a higher area, above her waist, which has a larger girth measurement than right on her waist, which has a lower girth measurement. I'm sure all of you have experienced a garment hitting you a little above the waist and it will never stay there. It rides down to rest on the waist because it's smaller. When there's no bodice structure at all to hold it in place, it will inevitably slide down to the waist.

So how do we keep a belt or waistband or anything like that from sliding down? The best and most comfortable way is to use belt carriers. I actually like the more delicate threaded belt carriers on the side because they aren't so sporty looking. In the Michael Kors coats, there are no belt carriers that we can see, and in this style it wouldn't be out of place to see some really proportionally sized belt carriers.

But for a dress or something a little more feminine when you want to have a belt anchored at a certain place on your dress, a threaded belt carrier works great.

You can use two different techniques for this. One is more time consuming and looks more couture (of course)!!!! The other is faster but does the job really well, and makes an excellent alternative.

With more summer dresses and particularly the ability and option to wear a belt or tie, having thread carriers and thread loops to anchor the belt or tie in just the right location can really make a dress look amazing. And it's so much more comfortable to wear instead of hiking the belt up or pulling it down.

Here's a video on how to do that. This shows those two thread loops and how to use them.

Whatever dress or pants suit you decide, a thread loop is a great answer for a device that will keep your belt right where you want it.

Welcome to the world of a great fitting, flattering and comfortable pant. Yes, it's possible and no it doesn't take a Ph.D. from FIT!!!! Once you have this pattern perfected, making pants up is a cinch. It takes an afternoon for a newbie, but for a pro, a couple of hours -- once you have that pattern perfected.

This is the pant that I wear that gets the most compliments and even pros in the business remark at how well it fits because the hang and drape is so good. What they don't know that I do, is that this pant has the "Aaaaahhhh" factor. When I sit down I'm never worried about whether the pant will split or I'm going to have my eyeballs pop out cause the pants are so tight!

And that's what this resource does. Included in the resource are:

Instructions on the kind of fabric to use and why
Instruction on the pattern to use and why
Instruction on fit, hang, the drape of the pant
Instruction on hems and hem styles
and when to use what style where
Instruction on finishing techniques
Instruction on variations of this ponte pant
Instruction on styling for different figure types
Instructions for care

This is full of inspiration, and instruction and is one of my most popular classes at Bernina when I teach in person - hopefully we will do that again!!!

In the meantime here's a fun class at the usually special discount for new resource introduction.