Investigative Shopping Report

What is investigative shopping you ask?? Basically I search for garments that have similar construction to garments that I've made or want to make. Then I try them on and attempt to figure out how they were put together.

I had two goals this week...examine the construction of the strapless dress and the paperbag waist. First up is the strapless dress for which I found ample specimens. My main area of interest was the bust piece. I wanted to see if there was any boning and if so how it was attached. On the first dress the boning was self encased and simply sewn to the lining on the princess seams, front and back. This being my first investigative shopping report I didn't take pictures initially. Oops!

The second item is actually a bustier style stop, but it still had boning. It looks as if it was sewn inside the princess seams, front and back. See for yourself below. Any thoughts??

As for the paperbag waist, I found one skirt that barely qualified. See exhibit b...

It looks as if the waist was done with inverted box pleats and then a waistband was topstitched over the pleats to hold them in place. Pictured below is a close up of the exterior and interior waistband.

I personally like the paperbag waist more emphatic. I mean if you're going to make a statement, go all out and end it with an exclamation! Though, I do like how they topstitched the waistband to control the top.

That's it for this week's Investigative Shopping Report! I would love to hear your input on either style.