Straight Skirt Draft Along: questions and muslins

Thank you for spotting typos! I've corrected the last post accordingly Now, about your questions. You can round the side and waistlines if you want, it makes some difference for bigger angles.Try to stay close to the your original straight line though because you can accidentally add or remove too much from your circumferences.

You can divide the back dart into smaller ones and place them on both sides of the most protruding part of your buttocks, 3 to 5cm apart (1 1/4 to 2"). If you are working with softer, drapier fabric, you can divide your back dart into two darts; stiffer fabrics would benefit from splitting into three darts. The dart closer to the side seam can be about 3cm shorter than the more central dart. If your back dart intake is big you can also convert the dart into a seam. Hope this helps

Don't worry about asking too many questions, it's a good practice for me as well So, dart placement. You have some flexibility with it, whether in the back, in the front, or in the side area, without much effect on the fit. For example, you can shift side seam (keeping the side dart distribution the same) by up to 3 cm to the front or to the back without affecting the fit much and keeping the side seam straight.

In the back you can place the darts wherever you consider them more flattering, just don't forget that they are there to shape your buttocks, so leave them do it more or less, how you distribute them is your decision that will have little effect one the fit, and make at least one dart per buttock.

with 9.4 cm intake, you can convert to a seam if you are dealing with some stiff and tricky fabric, or just add another dart, making it three. But first make a sloper with two darts and check the look. Try to sew your darts nicely for your test garment, paying attention to the apex. I find muslin responds well to pressing and steaming, so if you get good results with muslin, you will be good with any fabric that behaves the same (I love wool crepe, or tweeds, for example - you can do so much with heat and steam). If the results are less satisfactory, go for one more dart to have smoother transition from the apex, or convert it to a seam, especially if you will be dealing with fabrics like taffeta, or wool gabardine, as an example.

bailee,

we take only darts for one side because we are drafting half pattern, for a symmetrical body. If we were to draft a pattern for asymmetrical figure, we'd have to take measurements for both sides separately and draft full pattern. I am not covering asymmetrical body in my draft along.

I am taking left side just for consistency: we are using left side dart, left side length etc.

Therefore, you will need to calculate everything using the Dart Depth formula as in the calculation sheet. DD (Dart Depth) = FD + LD + BD
As for your calculations, could you post here your dart measurements, your waist and hip circumference please. The value you got may point at some error in measuring darts or hips - it is normally closer to 1.

Good luck

charlievoid
could you post some images of your skirt on you from the front, back, and the side. Please make sure that the floor is horizontal on the image, and take all the images from the same distance. Also, post your measurements (you can take a picture if they are on a sheet of paper, so you don't have to rewrite them here), then I will be able to tell you what causes the problems. It can be your posture (we tend to stand differently when taking measurements), problems with measurements and calculations... I have to take a look

Hello again, I managed to take the photos, I hope it'll be useful to you (I have poor photography skills, sorry I can't do better than this):

charlievoid,

I looked at your pictures and there are several issues, but you are on the right pass. One by one.

1. I think there is a problem with your length measurements, especially in the front, it looks like you'd need more length there. Could you remeasure with an elastic band around your waist. Please, make sure you stand naturally!

2. You need slightly larger hip circumference. It takes some practice to measure the hip circumference without creating a cone with the 'hip band'. It needs to be a cylinder with parallel sides. Look at the drag lines around your tummy - they indicate that you need more fabric there. I'd guess couple of centimetres would do it, but do re-measure please.

Adding around hips should correct the side seam significantly, because the fabric will then fall freely from the buttocks without gathering at the waist are in the back. Right now, tightness around your hips doesn't allow it to behave this way.

3. Your darts. You have to be very accurate with darts. The length is different in the back, two darts closer to the centre should be the same length as measured, they should be placed close to the centre of each buttock, slightly off toward the centre back. The other dart should be positioned about three to five cm further toward the side seam, and it should be the same length as the corresponding dart on the other back half. Right now they are placed to close to the centre back. On the attached image I painted the correct placement. (you'll need to click the thumb image on the bottom of this post - to me it looks like a black rectangle, not sure how it shows on your computer)

You can post your new measurements here, and I'll help you with calculations and drafting.

4. Finally, you have asymmetric figure - this poses an additional challenge for accurate drafting. Right now you drafted a skirt for a symmetric body. But don't despair, let's practice the symmetric skirt first and then I can show you how to draft a skirt for asymmetric body, it's only a few steps extra and you can use the work you have done for one side already.