I want to make the bbasic skirt draft but acording to my pattern making book i must make a curve that is as long as waist hip distance on the side of the body does anyone have any idea on how can i do that?
Hello and welcome to the Seamly forum, @fotini
Which pattern making book are you using? If possible, I’d like to check the directions because normally, the side of the skirt is slightly indented from the hip and raised from the waist line and then the raised, indented point is used to draw in a curve from this point to the side hip point, which is then tweaked to measure the side measurement.
Hello, I am using the Josheph Armstrong book, what i eded up doing was that I made a new point that is raised 1 cm from the waist on the side for the front pattern piece and the 0.5 cm for the back pattern piece and now the curves on the side of the hip are aproximately the same but if i change the body measurements those points also need to be changed so that the side curves remain equal to each other and equal to the hip depth at side. I wonder if there is a tool that I could use for this part of the pattern. When I true the darts for example i use the point on line tool and that way i make a new point on the existing dart line that is shorter and then i make the length to be as much as that of the longer dart line.
The only thing that I can suggest is that you calculate the 0.5cm & 1cm as a % of a measurement length at the base size. Then each time you change the size, it should change accordingly.
I’d have to see the Armstrong instructions and what you’re doing to make any suggestion.
thank you so much i will do that!
The 2 side curves actually form a 5th dart, so you can actually just mirror the one curve to make it identical to the other. If they’re not, the skirt won’t hang nicely or fit over the side of the body, creating drag lines and folds.
Your problem is that you need to distribute the excess width in the back between the 2 back darts and make sure that the side curves are indented and curved enough to fit the fabric to the shape of the body when the side seam is sewn together. So whatever you do to the left of point A, you must repeat to the right of point A and vice versa, because these 2 are a pair forming a straight side seam that follows the body in that area.
What I do is:
- create the Spl_Waistside_Hipside
- create a new point at the waist ‘NewWaistSide’ where
* length = -(Spl_Waistside_to_Hipside - waist_to_hip_side) * angle=(Angle1Spl_waistside_to_hipside - 180)
This NewWaistSide point will be higher than WaistSide if Spl_Waistside_to_Hipside < waist_to_hip_side, and will be lower otherwise.
I create the final curve from NewWaistSide to HipSide.
Can you please tell how to make sure that the curves length from waist side to hip stays the same for front and back if you change the size?
This goes above my head Can anyone explain this?
The easiest way is to make sure that the indent of the back and front is the same at the waist line and the rise of the waist is the same:
The height adds extra length to the side seam and width is a dart in the side seam that makes the seam hug the hips and reduces the fabric to partially meet with the waist band. The rest is distributed among the other darts.
The formulas are…
For the length, select the length of the line from the hip line to the waist line divided by 4 on all of the curve handle lengths.
For the angle, the curve handle on the hip line will always go at 90° (straight upwards) for a straight (pencil) skirt, otherwise, it will be the angle of the side seam below the hip line + or - 180°. If the seam below the hip line curves inwards, then use the 90° on the curve above the hip line and 270° on the curve below the hip line.
For the waist line curve handle, I find that using 270°+20° = 290° on the left side of the skirt (regardless of whether it is the front or the back) works very well.
Repeat everything on the right side except for the waist curve handle. Here, the angle formula will change to 270° - 20° = 250°.
Once you have the side seams completed, then you can determine the width of the darts and draw in the waist curves using the side seam curve handle angle + or - 90° for the waist-side seam curve handle.
You may check if this resizes nicely
Note
This is my rough & ready method. Sometimes the front has less of a dart at the side seam. In this case, you will need to tweak the extension height by the difference in the width of the indent, and vice versa, but that is according to the person’s build and/or the pattern making system.
Remember that you are working with fabric and not steal. Minor differences in length can easily be eased in when sewing up, so if the difference in curve lengths is 0.25cm or 1/4", don’t panic, this can be correct in the sewing.
Exactly. In fact it’s common that the back piece of pants is longer at the side seam - usually from the crotch up - to accomodate the butt.
We could make a whole topic on the how’s, and why’s where seams or pieces should NOT match. This is an area that one only learns by experience from understanding sewing construction, and not just drafting.
According to Helen Joseph’s method front has more dart then back but by adjusting the raise at side seam i have managed to make the side curve length almost equal. as you mentioned the little bit of difference can be managed in sewing.
I just followed your method and the method you told me about truing the waist darts in other post and everything is working perfect in resizes. Thank you so much for sharing your tips and tricks: grin: