Different Types of Yokes in Dresses

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What is yoke in garments? 
Yoke is a fashioned pattern piece used in garments, usually fitting around the neck and shoulders, or around the hips to provide support for looser parts of the garment. The yokes offer support for slacker parts of the garment like in a gathered skirt or the body of a shirt and thereby aid in regulating the fullness of the garments. They are effectively horizontal panels near the shoulders or waist, which are often used for shaping because dart values can sometimes be absorbed into this seam line. Hence, the yokes are responsible for a trim and smooth upper area of the waistline in garments. Yokes are less often designed for decoration of garments. Yoke construction was first seen in the 19th century. Figure-1 illustrates the different types of suitable yokes for ladies and men’s garments. 

Figure-1: Types of yokes: Hip yoke, midriff yoke, shoulder yoke (From left to right)

Selection of Yoke Design: 
The important factors influencing the yoke design are given below. 

1. Design of the fabric: 

The form of the yoke should go along with the fabric design. For fabric designs such as large checks or stripes, yokes with round or curved shapes are not well suited. Instead, straight line yokes are more appropriate. Floral designs or curved line fabric will go in harmony with round or curved yokes. 

2. Design of the garment: 
It also influences the design of the yoke. It is preferable to design yokes that are similar in shape to the design details of the dress like collar, cuff, pockets, etc. but with slight variations to avoid a monotonous display. 

3. Purpose and use of the garment: 
Yokes find best utility in school uniforms and home-wear apparel. For party wear garments, innovative and fancy yoke designs like scalloped, asymmetrical shapes, etc. with contrasting material and decorative edging can be implemented. 

4. Sex and age of the wearer: 
Round and curved yokes go well with girls while straight yokes are more suited to boys. Simple yoke designs without decorations are preferred by the older generation. 

5. Figure and personality of the wearer: 
The physical stature of a person also decides the nature of the yoke. In the case of a short, plump figure, deep narrow yokes with vertical decorations should be adopted. This causes a vertical eye movement giving an impression of added height and reduced width, thus making the person look taller shorter and fatter and are suitable for thin figures. Also, a yoke that is wide at the shoulder and pointed toward the waistline gives an idea of a narrow waist and wide shoulder. 

Creating Variety in Yoke Design: 

1. Variety in shape and size: 
A yoke can be designed with a number of shapes like square, round, straight line, scalloped, triangular and asymmetrical. The width and depth of the yoke can be changed to produce desired effects. The yoke with a panel has a part of the yoke stretching out to the full length of the garment. Whereas in a partial yoke, the yoke may extend into the sleeve or it may extend for a certain part of the garment. Figures-2 and 3 show the yoke with a panel and without a panel for a frock. 

Figure-2: Yoke with panel

Figure-3: Yoke without panel

2. Variety in material and grain: 
For garments with light shades, yokes with contrasting colours are used and vice versa. Likewise, yokes with prints can be attached to plain garments or vice versa to provide a good appearance. With respect to grain, the yoke is cut in an inclined direction to the lengthwise grain while the garment is along the lengthwise grain. 

3. Designing seam line of yoke: 
The yoke attachment to the main panel of the garment can be carried out in a decorative manner by inserting ruffles, lace, faggoting, decorative stitches or top stitches with contrasting coloured threads. 

4. Decoration within the yoke: 
Additionally, the yoke can be beaded, quilted, embroidered, shirred, smocked, tucked or pleated to enhance the appearance. 

5. Introducing the yoke at different positions: 
Basically, the yoke can be introduced in three positions: at the top of the garment (shoulder yoke), above the waistline (midriff yoke) or below the waist line (hip yoke). 

6. Designing yokes which release fullness in various forms: 
The fullness in the body of the garment can be released in the form of gathers, pleats and tucks originating from the edge of the yoke. 

Preparing Patterns of Different Types of Yokes: 

1. Yoke without fullness: 
This type of yoke comes in a wide range of shapes and sizes. The pattern for such yokes can be prepared by two methods. For a curved or ‘V’ shaped yoke (Figure-4), the yoke line from the shoulder to the center front is constructed in the front bodice as desired. In the case of a straight line yoke, a line is drawn from the armhole to the centre front of the bodice pattern and both sections are labelled. 

Figure-4: Yoke without fullness

2. Yoke with fullness: 
These yokes involve decoration of the fabric with any fullness (tucks, pleats, gathers, shirring and embroidery). The fullness must be completed prior to the attachment of the yoke pattern. The required amount of fabric is cut and desired types of tucks are stitched according to the design (Figure-5). Now, the paper pattern is placed over the tucked fabric and the yoke is cut with the required seam allowance. 

Figure-5: Yoke with fullness

Attaching Yokes: 
A plain seam or lapped seam can be used to append the yoke to the lower section. The skirt is gathered such that the width of the gathered skirt is the same as the width of the yoke. The yoke is now placed over the skirt right side facing up and, subsequently, the notches are matched. Pinning and tacking are done in order to distribute gathers evenly. After attaching the yoke, the tacking should be removed. The yoke is turned up on the right side and pressed. The straight and decorative yokes are shown in Figures-6 and 7, respectively. 

Figure-6: Straight line yokes

In yokes consisting of both curved and straight lines as in a skirt with panel, the seam runs almost at right angles to the corner. The lower segment of the garment is gathered and stitched initially. In the yoke, stitches are made nearer to the seam line and the corners are reinforced. Now, the seam allowance is folded to the back side and tacked with small stitches close to the fold. To make a flat seam, cuff the notches into the seam allowance. 

Figure-7: Decorative yokes

By placing the yoke over the top of the lower section, the seam lines are matched. Tacking followed by top stitching close to the folded edge of the yoke is done. If necessary, a tucked seam effect can be obtained by doing the top stitching away from the folded edge of the yoke. 

Apart from skirts, yokes frequently appear in men’s shirts, trousers and coats. Depending on the form of the shoulder line, the yokes on shirts, tops or coats can be cut in two variants. In the first type, the yoke is cut as a single pattern piece, thus the back and front pieces could be merged along the shoulder line. The other variant includes the back and front yokes as two separate pieces, especially for drop shoulders as two separate pieces are required to retain the curve of the shoulder line. Alternatively, the yoke can be cut in one piece and darts can be provided along the shoulder line to impart the necessary curved shaping. Moreover, on trousers and skirts, the yoke region facilitates the dart value to be absorbed into a single panel. 

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