Design a Skirt

These steps illustrate how a skirt can be designed directly from the Master Pattern for the Lower Torso. It shows how fullness can be added. For this example a contoured waist band is used for a knee length skirt. The portion of the skirt below the waist band is pivoted so that the waist seam will be fitted and half again as much fullness is added to the hem. Three steps are used.

Contents

The Design is Created on the Master Pattern

The Master Pattern shows the shape of the body in two dimensions. When you draw lines on the Master Pattern, that is where they will appear on the finished garment. For the design of this skirt the waist is dropped below the natural waist which is where a lot of women seem to prefer it to be located.

Contoured waistbands really need to be made for a Bespoke fitting as the shape of bodies varies so much in this region. For this design the waistband curves down toward center front to add an additional design detail.

1. Draw the design lines for the waistband.		2. Extend the skirt to knee level.		3. Draw in slash lines where the fullness is to be added.

Darts are Changed to Seams for the Waistband

4. Dart points need to be dropped to the bottom of the waistband.		5. The darts are pivoted at the bottom of the waistband.		6. The waistband seam curves up to replace the darts.

Add Fullness to the Body of the Skirt

For the design of this skirt, no fullness is added at the waistband. The hem is expanded to add half again as much fullness. The purple lines indicate the amount to be added at the bottom of each slash line.

7. Calculate half the hem length for each section.		8. Pivot at the first slash line.		9. Pivot at the second slash line.

10. Pivot at the side seam.		The completed skirt pattern.

See Also in the CAPD Classes

• Designing from Master Patterns
• Changing External Lines
• Changing Seams
• Changing Darts to Seams
• Adding Fullness
• Design Index