Hey guys, it’s been a while! I came up with the idea of drafting a pattern while I take pictures of the process. I think it’s a great idea.  It’s a formal dress and very pretty. The step by step pattern drafting tutorial is just a basic dress pattern with little alterations. We’re going to make the pattern drafting tutorial in three parts. Today we’re going to learn how to draft a basic dress pattern (front), my next tutorial will be on the back and sleeves. In this tutorial, I will be using a size 10 measurement.

For the purpose of drafting the dress pattern, you will need your full body measurement. You need to measure your;

BUST

WAIST

HIP

BACK WIDTH

CHEST

SHOULDER

NECK WIDTH

ARMHOLE DEPTH

NAPE TO WAIST

ARMHOLE

WAIST TO KNEE

WAIST TO HIP

NECK CUTOUT LENGTH

DRESS LENGTH

Materials required to draft the patterns are;

Brown paper

Scissors

Measuring tape

Ruler

French curve (optional) I’m not using any

Pen or pencil

Your full body measurement

Make sure that your pattern paper is equal both length and width before you start drafting. Square your paper equally if not.

Label your center front on your pattern paper. We will start with the neck. Measure your neck circumference, mark your neck width and length. Square down as seen in the picture. Mark ½in  from the width top line, mark ½in on the neck length line and 1in where the neck and width meet. (Check the pictures). Use your French curve to create a perfect curve for the round neck, or use your hand. For the open neck, mark the length you will like your cutout to stop.

For the shoulder, mark half of the back width, you can use the shoulder measurement.

Mark your armhole depth measurement and square down.

For all sizes measure 1 3/4in from the shoulder down.

Connect the two points together (from the neck to the shoulder)

To get the chest, place your measuring tape from the shoulder to the armhole depth and fold.

Mark half of your chest measurement or mark out 1/2in

Mark your bust measurement. Bust divided by 4. The armhole depth is the bust point, so, mark your bust using the armhole depth as the bust length and rule down. ( you can use your measuring tape to do your calculation by folding it twice)

To create the armhole curve, mark 1in from the meeting point of the bust line and armhole depth line up ( as seen in the picture). Use your hand or French curve to create the armhole curve.

Curve a little bit under the bust

Picture of what we have done so far

Mark your waist length and square down

We need to do a little calculation for the waist.  divide your waist measurement by 4 add 2in for the dart and mark out your waist measurement.

Connect the bust and waist together

For the waist dart, place the tape on the waistline and fold to get the half  waist, mark the half waist

From the dart point, mark 4 inches up to the bust

Mark 1/2in on both left and right side of the dart point

connect the points

Do the same for the down dart

Mark the length of your hips ( from waist to hip is 8 1/2in)

Mark your hip width. divide your hip measurement by 4

connect the waist to the hip

Measure your desired dress length and mark it, connect the hip to your dress length. Check your measurement sheet if you got your measurement right before cutting out your pattern.

TO BE CONTINUED…