Womens Skirt Block

Following on from the Skirt Block and Design Options post I've separated skirt designs that use a stretch skirt block to start your pattern development.  You can use my skirt block to make a stretch skirt block to use with all these pattern puzzle posts.  Some of them have been sampled and those sample posts are also included here.

Moving beyond your first skirt patterns to drape skirt patterns:  To work with these more complex skirt patterns you would need to have confidence in your skirt block.  By that I mean you know if fits because you've used it to make number of skirt patterns.   A small fitting or shape error in your basic skirt block will have some impact on outcome of these skirts.  Try my graded set of skirt blocks for any of these delicious drape skirt patterns.  Or you can try this pattern for yourself.  You'll find my Drape Gather Skirt Sizes 6-22 on the website as a PDF download.

There have been a few of this variety of skirt gracing the catwalk for the past couple of years.  I have also cut similar for local clients and the beauty of this design is its simplicity for a first attempt at cutting drape patterns. The drape shape is infact separate to the front and back patterns and acts as a decorative overlay for the front skirt.  Start with my Skirt Block and follow the pattern making instructions in this post.  Suggested fabrics:  Crepe weaves with a transparent overlay for the front drape or a satin backed crepe where you are able to reveal the satin back in the cowl of the drape.  If you are interested in more drape skirt patterns you can click through for all the other blog posts.

For this week's #PatternPuzzle, my initial idea was to make a slim jersey skirt with a #CowlDrape on the Centre Back (CB) seam.  When I started the pattern development I found there was also an opportunity to work some draping magic with the waist shaping (side seam & back dart).  What I came up with is a number of options for this skirt pattern development that should suit everyone's taste and style.  NB These instructions use my skirt block and are for two-way stretch jersey and light weight ponti only.  If you don't fancy making your own pattern, I've just added this PDF pattern to the website for the Drape Tube Skirt in Sizes 6-22.

This weeks #PatternPuzzle is not an exact copy of the Charles James Skirt but a very do-able pattern for a 101 approach to understanding darts to drape in flat pattern making.  No really, that's what I used to call the workshop; so formal and so academic. :]  This Charles James skirt has so many complex panels that it started to send me a little crazy, so the decision was made to modify and simplify.

Saturday's #PatternPuzzle had a large number of pattern pieces, all used to make five different skirt patterns, that all make the same style of skirt - The Morticia Skirt.  Many of the drafting methods used in these patterns are self-drafted with full instructions (no block required).  If you don't fancy drafting this skirt pattern I've just added the eight-panelMorticia Skirt Pattern to the website. :)

With some very clever spatial reasoning our fans we able to solve all the detail in Saturdays #PatternPuzzle.  They were cutting up bits of paper and making impossibly small skirts into the wee hours to reveal all the answers.  They make our Saturdays so much fun.  :)  This weeks #PatternPuzzle was inspired by one of those pins without a link to the source but I'm pretty sure it's a Donna Karan.  I did leave off a bit of the frippery (small drape near the waist) as I prefer a cleaner style and there is already so much going on in this skirt.  Pinstripe fabric is the driving force in this design, with the directional use making so much of the intricate panels.  The Colour Map below will help make sense of all the pattern pieces and where they belong in the skirt.
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