DIY French Curves with Armhole Template

I don't know if this will be of use to anyone but myself but I've wanted to work out away to make my own french curves (or Grade N Rule as they're referred to in my college) for a wee while now. Then I kind of just clicked and got an idea how to make one so I thought I'd share.

Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to buy my own set one day. But for now, I've been doing quite a bit of pattern cutting and I think this will make my life easier for the time being. So yeah....

Sorry about the picture quality, the light in my room is pretty bad so I edited the photos to make them a bit lighter and ended up with dodgy colours... I'll redo the tutorial if I get the time during daylight. Anyway.

You will need:

- A vest top

- A tight fitting top

- A tight fitting skirt or pair of jeans

- Pencil, paper and scissors.

Take your vest or tshirt and place the armhole at the top of your paper (maybe more to your right than I chose to do). Try to make it sit so that it is as close to its original shape as possible, no stretching or folds.

Lightly sketch around the armhole

Next take your tight fitting top, turn it inside out and try match the waist’s side seam curve to the armhole. 

For the final part of the curve take your close fitting skirt or jeans, match the curve of the side seam around the hip to your current curve, then lightly sketch around it until you reach the end of your paper

Next, draw around the curve and try to get rid of any little bumps along the way

Take a ruler and draw a straight line opposite your curved line, at the botton, square to join both lines.

Cut it out and your done.

Now all you need to do is find something to use to make your French Curves out of. You could leave it as it is but it will be quite flimsy, I think I’ll be using the card at the back of my A3 cartridge pad unless I find something better but you can use just about anything as long as its sturdy enough. Hope this is helpful to you, let me know what you think :) 

Pattern Cutting - How to Draft a Simple Corselet

This is a simple pattern manipulation based on the basic skirt block (Which you can draft here Part 1 and Part 2) The Corselet can be made on its own or as a waistband for a skirt.

First you will need to draw around the top of the basic skirt front and back

Then you should mark a dotted line 8 cm below the waist

This will be the bottom of the corselet waist

Next, you should measure up 8 cm at the start of the pattern, darts and side seams

Now, reduce the dart width by 0.5cm at both sides at both the front and back as shown below:

Next, increase the side seams by 1 cm as shown below:

From the waist line measure up 8 cm to make another dotted line
This will be the top of the corselet.

Join all the dotted lines to complete the pattern and label all the pieces before cutting them out

Finally, cut out all the pieces

The darts should separate the pattern into 4 pieces

And your done.

So I hope this is useful to you in some way, if you have any issues with it let me know and I'll do my best help.

Thanks for looking x

Pattern Cutting - How To Draft A Waistband Pattern

It's really simple to draft a pattern for a waistband, so rather than mention it in every tutorial, I'll show you how to do it here and I'll link to it.

For the length of your waistband you need to divide your waist measurement by 2 (for me that's 33cm)

Then add 4cm if you want to make a button hole (optional)

Then add another cm for ease

And then a final 2 cm for your seam allowance

(The dots on this picture are just where I've marked each stage)

For the width of your waistband you need to start with the finished width of your waistband multiplied by two, as the fabric will be folded to make your waistband. I want my waistband to be 3 cm wide so my mark 6 cm for my width so far.

Then add 2 cm for your seam allowance

This makes my pattern width 8 cm

Finally label your waistband and add the cut on fold sign as you need twice the length of your pattern.

And you're done.

So I hope this is helpful to you, let me know if you have any issues with this tutorial, thanks :)

Pattern Cutting - How To Draft A Panel Skirt

This is probably the easiest skirt pattern to make, trust me it is really simple. This skirt will be made up of 6 panels but could be altered to use 8 panels if you like. My pattern should fit between a size 10 and a size 12 but I included the measurements for different sizes in a previous post so you can make it to fit your measurements. Also this pattern should be able to fit on an A3 bit of paper. Okay, I better start now.

Mark point A at the top right hand side of your paper and square in both directions.

Measure down 20.5 cm and mark point B

The distance between point A and point C should be the full length of your skirt plus a cm seam allowance. For me this was 41 cm.

Square at point B

The distance between point B and point D should be 1/6 of your hip measurement (or if your making 8 panels it should be 1/8 of your measurement.)

For me this is 16cm.

Square down to point E (from point D) and join to point C 

Square up to point F (from point D) and join to point A

You should now have a full rectangle

Point G is halfway between point A and point F

For me this was 8.5 cm away from point F

Point G should also be halfway between point I and point H too

The distance between point I and H should be 1/6 of your waist measurement (or 1/8 if you're making 8 panels)

For me this was just under 12.5cm but I rounded up to 13cm

Curve a line between point I and point D

Then do the same for point H to point B

Cut it out, name it and note how whether the skirt is to be made up of 6 of these panels or 8 and you're finished.

Just like the straight skirt pattern, this can be manipulate in many ways to make your designs. I hope to show how to make a bubble skirt from this pattern maybe next week if I have time.

If you want to draft a waistband pattern for this skirt there is a quick tutorial here:

How To Draft a Waistband

So anyway, hope you find this helpful, and if you have any issues with my tutorial please let me know so I can fix it as soon as. Thanks :)

Researching Fashion

I mentioned in a previous post about the areas you should research before beginning the design process. I've compiled a list of what I've found to be the best free websites within those areas. I hope it will be useful to you.

Silhouettes

http://www.emilyhiller.com/portfolio/sculptural-clothing/

http://fashionshowphotos.net/2011/ss-haute-couture-paris-2011/christian-dior-haute-couture-ss-2011/

Details

http://www.shirtsmyway.com/blog/tag/details/

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=garment+details

http://www.etsy.com/category/clothing?ref=fp_ln_clothing

Texture

http://www.edge-textileartists-scotland.com/gallery/index.html

http://www.ckrother.com/art.html

http://www.62group.org.uk/artists/

Historical Influences

http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/f/fashion/

http://sallyjanevintage.blogspot.com

http://vintagefashionmagazines.blogspot.com/

http://myvintagevogue.com/home

Contemporary Trends

http://fashionindie.com/

http://www.anothermag.com/current

http://www.fashionising.com/

http://antiquedress.com/

http://boudoirboutique.wordpress.com/

Other Useful Websites

http://www.rinze.com/fashion/fashion_thumbnails.htm

http://avantgarde.blogsome.com/

Pattern Cutting - How to Draft a Basic Skirt Block Part 2

So in the first part of the tutorial I showed you how to draft the front of a basic skirt pattern, now I'll show you how to draft the back of the pattern.

Mark point L on the top left hand side of your paper and square both ways.

Then measure down 20.5 cm and mark point M

The measurement between point L and point N is the length of the back of your skirt plus a cm seam allowance.

For me the distance is still 36 cm

 Square at point M

The distance between point M and point O is a quarter of your hip measurement plus 1cm.

For me the distance is still 25cm

Square both ways at point O

Measure up to point R and measure down to point P

Join point P and point N

The distance between point S and point L should be a quarter of your waist measurement plus 4 cm for your dart.

For me this measurement is 21.5cm

Mark point T a cm above point S and draw a curved line to connect it to point L

Point U should be 15 cm from point O

Square up and mark point V when the line meets between points L and T

Point W is the dart length and should be 14cm below point V

The dart should be 4 cm wide

Half the dart allowance equally and join these points to point W

Mark the pattern as the back and add the Cut on Fold sign in the same way it was added to the front pattern and your finished.

This is just the basic block pattern which can be manipulated in hundreds of different ways to suit your designs. I'd quite like to upload a tutorial on the different ways to manipulate a pattern maybe next week. I'd also like to show a tutorial on how to construct a skirt based on this pattern in the near future. 

If you'd like to make a pattern for a waistband for this skirt there is a quick tutorial here

How To Draft A Waistband

So anyway, I hope this is useful to you, let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything I haven't explained well. Thanks x

Skirt Size Chart for Pattern Drafting

The measurements I've been using to draft basic block skirt pattern should fit between a size 10 and a size 12. This fits me perfectly but obviously it won't fit everyone. In the tutorial I've highlighted the parts that are specifically for my size so if your willing to do a tiny bit of math you can alter the pattern to fit you.

Here is the standard size chart

SIZE	8	10	12	14	16
Waist	60cm	64cm	68cm	72cm	76cm
Dropped Waist	68cm	72cm	76cm	80cm	84cm
Hip	88cm	92cm	96cm	100cm	104cm

So hopefully with these measurements you should be able to adapt the pattern to fit your size. If there are any issues, let me know. Thanks x