How to make a skirt pattern - part 3

So now you have your skirt block, you can make a plain 'tailored' skirt with the basic block pattern.

In this post, I shall go through some basic techniques to:

Make a pencil skirt

Make a facing 

Close darts

Make and Mark your pattern

To make a facing for any skirt, decide how deep you would like it to be, and draw a line right across the pattern.  Then trace up from that line, the outline of the top of your skirt - where the red dotted line appears in the diagram below.

Now trace this red outline onto some tracing paper so that you have a front half and a back half.   Make sure you trace the darts accurately.

Cut out the pieces around your outlines, and then fold the paper where the darts are - just as if you were sewing them together.  This will make your front section and back section 'curl' up.  That is fine.  Trace these two shapes back onto your master pattern ensuring the lines are smooth.  You should end up with something which looks like the green lined shapes below:

To make a pencil skirt shape, simply decide how narrow you would like the bottom of the skirt to be - I usually take mine in by about 5-6 cm, divide that measurement in two, and then measure from the centre line of your master block back by that half measurement on either side, and join those points to your hip line.  You should end up with :

From here you can make further adjustments to the design of your skirt.  Keeping it simple, you could either go for the basic pencil skirt as shown, or you could make it into a panel pencil skirt by cutting 10 pattern pieces instead of 4 - ie: by cutting through the darts and flare lines.  A bit more work, but a lovely effect especially if you use flat felled seams.

Now your complete skirt pattern (basic model) plus facing, should look something like this:

Because you have closed the darts on the facing, you do not have to sew darts into it - you can do this with the skirt too if you want to, using the same technique.  However, this pattern description is fora simple pencil skirt which will have a side zip and no seam at the centre front or back, there are 4 pattern pieces which will result in 6 fabric pieces to mark and sew together.

When tracing the pattern, the following steps should be taken:

• Trace with clear sharp lines
• Before removing each pattern piece:
•  make sure the piece is labelled - cf/cb/sf/sb etc.,
•  mark a grain line running vertically from top to bottom in order to ensure that your fabric is straight
•  mark balance points - where you will join the fabric pieces together - I usually do this at the hip line.
•  make sure your darts and any other important features are marked.

Pattern markings should therefore look a little like this:

And the same for the facing:

After tracing the pieces from the block, don't forget to add seam allowance!

When making up the skirt, you might want to interface the facing to give it stiffness, and you might want to add a lining to the facing or underneath the facing.  For the former, you just draw onto your basic block, down from the facing line, thus creating 2 further pattern pieces, or for a complete lining, you just cut out two lots of skirt pattern from the appropriate fabrics.

Other points to consider before you start tracing:

Where will your fastening be?  if at the back, then you will need to cut two separate pieces for the CB - ie: not cut on the fold as per my example.  You will also need a split or splits in order to make walking possible!  You could have one at the back, or one at the front.  You could even do a little peplum - but that is for another post.

And so I hope this tutorial is useful for you!  I hope to return to normal daily blogging next week!

Happy weekend everyone!!