Creating a long skirt pattern is not difficult.
If you know how to draft a basic skirt pattern,this will not be difficult for you.
In this blog post,I will be showing you how to draft a long skirt pattern with or without slit.
Before we jump into the process,lets first find out:
ITEMS WE NEED TO CREATE A LONG SKIRT PATTERN
Scissors
Measuring tape
straight rulers
Curved ruler
Pattern paper
Markers of different colours
Sheet of paper containing your measurements
pattern cutting board
MEASUREMENTS NEEDED FOR LONG SKIRT PATTERN
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As with any sewing project,you need specific measurements to draft a long skirt pattern.The measurements you need are quite few.But that not withstanding ,the measurements need to be taken carefully.
I have a practical video on how to take proper body measurements.
You can pause and take a look at it before taking the body measurements below.`
The measurements you will need to create your long skirt pattern include:
Waist circumference
Waist to hips
Hips Circumference
Waist to Knee
knee Circumference.
skirt lenght
PREPARING TO CREATE YOUR SKIRT PATTERN
First get a long pattern paper .
The length of the pattern paper should be the full length of your skirt.
That is from your waist to your ankle length plus 10 centimeters.
The 10 centimeters is to give you enough space to be able to add your seam for sewing and hemming.
Divide your hip circumference measurement by 4.And then add 10 centimeters.
The 10 centimeters is to make allowance for the zip at the back and slit at the front .The darts are also included in this extra 10cm.
After doing these,measure 5cm from one side of the pattern and rule a straight line along this 5cm point.This is for the zip allowance for the back,and the slit for the front.The next thing is to measure 1.5cm from the top of the base line.
This is so that when you’re sewing your lining it will take up a little of the material inwards .
MARKING THE BASIC SKIRT POINTS
From 1.5cm point measure your waist to hips. My waist to hips
is 28 cm and i’m going to mark it and draw a line at that point.
And then i’m going to measure my waist to knee. My waist to knee
is 55 cm and then I will remove 5 cm upwards.
For example if your waist to your knee length is 20 inches you’re going to mark 18inches on the paper.
This 5cm is to help you when we are shaping the skirt so that you’ll be able to
have free movement. That is why you remove it .
it is normally two inches but in centimeters it’s five centimeters.
You will also mark your full skirt lenght measurement.
SHAPING OUR LONG SKIRT .
It is now time to shape our skirt .To do that,divide your waist and hips measurements by 4
So for my waist I will get my measurement divided by four.
My waist circumference divided by four gave me 22 cm. My hips circumference divided by 4 is 31cm
and then when you come to the knee ,subtract 5cm from 31cm or 2inches from what ever you get.
That is 26cm.I marked that at the knee and bottom of skirt.
All the points are now ready.The next thing is to join the points to shape the skirt.
The next thing is to add allowances.
ADDING ALLOWANCES TO THE LONG SKIRT PATTERN
At the waist I am going to give 6cm allowance . The reason I am putting 6cm
right here is because we are going to need about 3 or 3.5cm for dart.
The remaining 2.5cm will serve as seam allowance.
6 cm at the waist 3cm at the hips ,3 cm at the knee and then 3 cm also at the
bottom of the skirt.
Then we join all the lines together. Remember we added 6 cm at the waist.
From that 16cm we’re going to take away 3cm or 3.5 cm for the darts.
But before I do that, I need to shape the front of the skirt .
The front of the skirt normally is not straight.
Measure 1.5 cm from the folded end of the skirt downwards. From there you’re going to draw a line to join the curved end of the skirt.Feel free to watch the video below
The back part of the waist line remains straight.
CREATING THE DARTS FOR THE LONG SKIRT
For the front darts we are going to measure the waist length and find the midpoint.
My waistline folded is 23cm. So i’m going to get half of 23cm.That is 11.5cm.
That is where the center of my dart will be.
For the front dart, i’m going to come down 12 cm(“4”).
And for the back dart i’m going to come down 14cm.
The dart width is 3cm .So what I will do is to divide the 3 cm in between the points .
That is 1.5cm on both sides.
SHAPING THE BACK PART OF LONG SKIRT
The 5 cm gap for your zip allowance for the back part of the skirt also needs to be shaped.
This is to make room for the curve of your butt.
First take away 2.5 cm from the waist and knee section of your skirt.
Then use the curve ruler and curve from the 2.5cm mark on the waist line ,to the knee line.Then from the knee line to the bottom of the skirt.
With that,your long skirt pattern is ready.
CONCLUSIONS
So essentially that is the practical steps on how to make your long african skirts.
If you have any challenges just watch the video several times.
And i’m sure you’ll be able to
make your very own long skirt block.
The most important thing is to use different colors of your marker. So that when you’re tracing out your back
and your front you will not have any challenges whatsoever. .Thank you so much for reading to the end.
HERE IS A FREE VERY USEFUL PATTERN DRAFTING EBOOK FOR YOU.
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