MATERIALS NEEDED:
- Pencil
- Paper
- Tape for sticking paper together
- Ruler
-Tape measure
Now everything is together lets get started!
PATTERN: TOP
1. Get a pencil and paper ready to take some quick measurements for your dress. You'll need the following measurements:
- Neck to wrist
- Nape of neck to natural waist
- Natural waist
- Wrist circumference
- Natural waist to hem
Once you have all of these your ready to draw a pattern for your dress, which will look something like the following picture:
2. To draw this pattern yourself first draw a straight line for the center fold seam the length of your nape of neck to natural waist (mine was 18.5").
3. At the bottom of that line draw a line at 90 degrees for your waist measurement which should be 1/4 of your total waist multiplied by how much gathering you want at the waist I used 1.5 my waist measurement. My calculation was as follows:
Waist: 27"
27/4 = 6.75
6.75 x 1.5 = 10.125
I rounded this to 10" for my waist measurement.
4. Once you have those lines draw in the neckline you would like - a good way to do this is to trace a neckline from a top or dress you already have that you like. Remember it will only be half of the neckline. I have a slightly higher neckline for the back of the dress, which I adjust when I cut out the dress later on to save paper.
5. From the edge of the neckline draw a straight line the length of your neck to wrist measurement at a slight angle. I usually do the angle by eye so just as long as its similar to the picture above it will work out fine!
6. Draw a 90 degree line from the edge of the end of the sleeve the length of half of your wrist circumference.
7. Finally draw a curve from the end of the sleeve to the side of the waist. This can be as wide or narrow as you like depending on how much fabric you would like in your dress.
That's it top of the dress pattern complete now for the skirt..
PATTERN: SKIRT
1. Your pattern should look something like this:
2. Draw a straight line the length of your waist to hem measurement which will be the center front line.
3. At the top of that line draw a line at 90 degrees the length of your waist that you used for the top of the dress.
4. Draw a line parallel to the center front line - if you prefer you can add a flare to the skirt here.
5. Draw a slight curve from the center front line to the side of the skirt - this adds some shape to the skirt.
Bosh!! That's it pattern complete for the dress. I'll be posting a tutorial on how to put the dress together ASAP so stay tuned.
Comments and questions welcome so ask away!
