Twist Tops & Collars.

All images found on Pinterest.

 Unknown, Master Class' Blog (tutorial!), Helmut Lang, unknown, Giambattista Valli

Did you notice how all the twist panels are sitting on the right side of the body? (except Karlie Kloss'). 

Starting this strong with some twisting action. The link for the second picture has a tutorial for a flat pattern - so interesting to see! 

The easiest way to understand this is that it is two pieces - a body piece and a piece that strings through it. 

Started off by marking where the twist is going to sit - the first pin is to mark the neckline, and the second to mark where the body piece starts.

Top yoke is draped on and gathered to as much as you would like to see on the garment. Necessary body lines added (neckline, armhole) then piece removed!

The second piece is draped much like a bodice would. Only one dart is added on to help with fit. This dart becomes the gathers in the top. 

We made the same top out of nine different fabrics to see how it would sit on the body. 

Polyester

Blue fabric is a chiffon - I know for one that it must have been a pain to cut and sew. It also does not look like the best fabric to use for the design. 

The black is a polyester satin of some sort. Looks pretty in the picture, but there was a lot of gathers in excess.

Cotton(?) and Cotton Knit

Not sure what the white fabric is but it could be a knit from how it is sitting. There does not look like a lot of excess fabric hanging out in the front and it's wrapping decently okay.

The second is definitely a cotton knit and although we decided knits were the best for these, this one was not quite right to me. The fabric might have just been too heavy.

Polyester and Raw Silk

We use the black polyester a lot for lining samples/projects. You can tell right away that this is not the fabric to use (even Wincy is feeling it). Too much fabric bulging out of areas we don't need it to. We did conclude though, that for those with this issue, it can be solved slightly by taking it in the CF seam. 

The silk looks quite decent - I think the proportion works well. Maybe you do want that little but of bulk in the front. In this case, I think the bulk isn't too much to make it look unflattering. 

Polyester Knit

Meredith wore the best one in class (not being biased - pun intended). A lot of it had to do with the fabric being a knit (and Meredith being fabulous). The gathered did not hang, instead it pulled it took the shape of the body. This would be the best if the look was minimalist, but with a twist! (so full of it today). 

Collars - don't know if I would ever drape. I'm not sure if anyone drapes collars them. Maybe if you had an odd neckline? 

I worked on three collars in total and all of them had the same process. Started off with so basic guidelines - this all depended on what collar it is and the body measurements.

With CB marked, the piece is put on and little snips made all around to help fabric sit flatter. 

 For the most part, a small pleat (about 1-1.5cm) is put at the shoulder as ease. This does not appear on the pattern - it's just a way to "set aside" that little bit of fabric. 

Draw in the neckline and the collar shape and remove. If it is a collar that has a rollover, the piece would be folded down, adjusted, then design lines drawn in.

Final piece for a mandarin collar looked like this! Not too, too hard, I promise.

Here's a link to some cool draping designs. They're from a website that is currently unavailable, but Pinterest so kindly rounded up all images pinned from there.