Most, well more precisely almost all flamenco dresses and tops are shaped using princess seams rather than darts.
While that may seem more complicated – after all there are more pieces to be cut and sewn – princess seams have a number of advantages that explain why they are so widely used in flamenco costume making.
4 Reasons To Love Princess Seams
Princess seams are a lot easier to sew than a lot of people think.
Once you get the hang of it you’ll use them everywhere 🙂 I share the technique that works best for me in the free video series.
More seams mean more control over the fit of your dress or top.
Princess seams allow you to make your flamenco dress or top fit “like a glove” in a way that’s very difficult to achieve with just darts.
Princess seam tops and dresses are easy to alter
Flamenco costumes are known for their very snug fit. Putting on or losing a few pounds makes all the difference when it comes to the comfort of your costume. So it is important to be able to alter the costume easily. With princess seams you have 6 seams (with seam allowances) to “play with” and can easily let your costume out or take it in in the right places.
It is also rather common to sell or swap flamenco costumes with other dancers. In most cases some alterations are necessary to make sure the new owner of the costume will have a new favorite.
Having more seams to work with makes those alterations easy.
Princess seams allow the skirt to flare out evenly
For flamenco dresses princess seams allow the skirt to flare out evenly (as much or as little as you like) without the need for a cut somewhere below the waist or hips to attach a skirt (half circle, circle or gored) to the bodice.
Having the bodice panels transition into the skirt panels actually makes our sewing life easier and the result prettier, especially when you don’t want a lot of ruffles.
I only make a bodice with attached skirt + ruffles for little girls’ costumes.It allows me to cut the bodice longer so that the alteration will be easy when the girl outgrows the dress. When the dress is too small and/or too short it is just a matter of removing the skirt from the bodice, letting the bodice out and re-attaching the skirt further down on the bodice. But even for little girls dresses I use princess seams for the bodice.
Summing Up
For me, a better fit and a lot more design freedom is definitely worth the extra seams, especially when they’re only a little more work.
If you’d like to learn more about princess seams and how to make a one piece flamenco dress ..
