This is a follow up on Balanced waist darts made for you and also part 1 of the skirt block drafting series.
How did you get on with the little exercise in my yesterday’s post? The answer is that the purple skirt on the left has darts equal to the difference between waist and hip circumferences but the one on the right not. The following series of posts will throw light on this difference and the implications it has on fit.
Today I’ll start showing you my way of drafting a skirt block. Conventional drafting methods do not consider your particular balance and proportions as they cater for a “standard” figure. Also, they can be vague. Take the skirt. Which one of these is the basic block? The hip-hugging or the looser one?
Let’s adopt unambiguous terminology and come up with a definition. In my method a basic skirt block is the one on the right above and can be described as follows:
a tubular shape garment anchored horizontally around the waist with circumference at hem equal to the measurement “shell circumference“;
Think you can see now that the skirt on the left doesn’t match this description and so I would consider it a slim-fitting style derived from the basic block.
With the definition out of the way, let’s take necessary measurements. List of tools:
- measuring tape
- non-stretch ribbon/string long enough to wrap around the waist + to tie a bow knot
- 2 of above ribbon/string or strips of paper about 30cm (12″) long
- strip of paper wide about 30cm (12″) and long enough to wrap around your hips + about 13cm (5″). Any paper roll will do, for example baking paper
- pins
- something to draw with – marker pen, pencil, pen…
- full-length mirror
Put on some close-fitting clothes like leggings and a t-shirt. They shouldn’t compress the body unless this is what you plan to wear normally under your skirt. Measure your waist circumference at the slimmest part of your torso or at the elbow level holding the measure tape horizontally to the floor. Divide this measurement in 4 and mark it on your string so you have 5 marks like so:
Wrap it around your waist and align points 2&4 with your centre back and centre front. Tie at points 1a&1b. Points 1a, 1b and 3 now indicate the side seam positions at waist.
Refer to the picture below. 1) pin your ribbons or paper strips from points 1 and 3 at waist down in a vertical line. They divide your body into the front and back sections so these can be measured separately. 2a & 2b) wrap the wide paper strip around your hips so it is perpendicular to the floor all the way around and pin in place. Mark the side seams following the side ribbons. Look in the mirror front-on and mark the most prominent hip level, repeat for stomach and buttocks looking in the mirror side-on. 2b) Measure from waist to hip level at side and straight down from hip to knee, see the green dotted line.
You should now have these four measurements:
- waist circumference
- shell circumference
- hip level from waist and
- hem level from hip
Unwrap your measuring gadget and keep it for the next step. It will look something like this:
Your back to front proportions, aka as horizontal balance, are probably going to be different, unless you happen to have the same shape as my example. If you are new to the concept of “balance” you might want to read this post. The front and back widths together give you what I call the “shell circumference“. To complete the block you need to work out your vertical balance and add darts. I’ll show you how to to this in the next posts. You can probably already tell me yourself now how to work out the total darts width for this block?
Clean Cut Patterns 