Drafting / Draping patterns on a dress form
Drafting / Draping patterns on a dress form - it’s probably the thing i’m most frequently asked about, and it’s also really easy!
This is what i’ll show the process of making.
You will need a dress form that roughly matches your measurements and shape. My dress form is from here and is made of foam. You can get fabric forms or even custom made ones for more money. You can also make ones out of electrical or duct tape…or ones from packing tape filled with expanding foam. Lot’s of options; google around to find whats best for you!
Today I’ll show the process of making a bodice. You’ll need pins, a marker, and some (preferable lightly colored) crap cloth. (Cloth you don’t care about)
Protip for anyone who doesn’t have a dress form the right shape for them, put a bra on it. No really, it will give you guidelines and your pattern should have a nicer shape.
Alright, step one. Pin a piece of material flat across the dress form so you don’t get any puckering. If it puckers, pull it tighter and repin!
Then draw out the shape of the pattern piece you are trying to make.
Pin down the corners and cut around the piece you’ve drawn out. (But leave it on the form!) Pin another piece of material next to it and cut the side facing the piece you’ve already made so they join up.
then draw the shape you want onto that piece, cut it, and repeat!
Do this on the back too. You might want to draw little “tick marks” between the pieces so you know how they are supposed to join up.
Then you are done! This whole thing took maybe ten minutes. Unpin all the pieces from your form and iron them.
Then move onto creating a mock up. You can do this by laying all your pattern pieces flat and adding ½ seam allowances before cutting them out.
Sew them together and voila!
If it doesn’t fit quite right, pin it until it does. If it does fit, seam rip the seams apart and make a paper pattern by tracing them.
A pattern like this works the way it is - or you can trace it, and turn it into however many pieces you like. (remember seam allowances! Always!)
And then it can be whatever colors you like.
It works in a lot of different ways , so don’t be afraid to get creative, for another project I cut my five piece pattern into two dozen stripes!
Really…with a good pattern base, the options are unlimited :)
And that’s how I drafted the bodice for my most recent costume ^^
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