Draping fundamentals
Before any draping process, the dress form must be prepared. First off, we need to make sure to mark, with a bridge, the bust point, the buttocks, and with a piece of selvage, the edge of the muslin. Also, is very important to mark, with a pin, the center front neck, the center back neck, the mid-arm hole, the shoulders, the hip balance level (HBL), the bust points, the armscye, and the waist. Once the pins are placed on the bridge for the bust point, and the buttocks, then we can start styling our design with draping tape or pins, sometimes using both. After getting the dress ready, we must measure the styling drape, and using the tape, we can start placing lines for our design. I personally chose the fitted basic dress sheath with a very attractive collar, one shoulder off, and a long fitted sleeve.
Before draping on the dress form, it is always necessary to start working with the center front (front of the dress form). The measurements must be accurate for the design. Once the muslin is cut with the right measurements, the center front, the bust level, and the HBL must be marked and ironed, to make sure the grain line is correct. Only then, we start by placing the center front marked on the muslin with the dress form center front and draped. Then we move to the back using the same procedures, once the front and the back are done, then we mark, and remove the muslin from the form to true all lines. After truing the muslin’s lines we will put back the muslin and re-pin. If everything looks good, then we will transfer every information, such as the lines, the darts, and the ease, to the dotted paper. We will then true again everything that we have transferred, and then cut new muslin. Because my dress was asymmetrical, I used all front and back bodice, had the design not been asymmetrical, then only half would have been draped, and transferring would have also been half on paper with information such as cut on fold or cut two. The issue I was having when transferring the asymmetrical information was that I did not add all dart total, then divided to all four darts for the front and all four darts for the back. Once I sewn the dress I was about 4 inches short and was not able to pin the dress to the form. In order to fix that, I placed 1 1/4 on each dart, then I unpicked the dress and re-pined the darts and lines, this time I added the dart total and divided.
As I have mentioned earlier, when I transferred my dart information to the pattern paper I did not take any consideration to sum the total darts and then divided to all equal parts for the darts. What I did instead, was that I put a lot of ease to the darst, So this actually caused my ease to disappeared on the sides of the dress, and did not have enough ease to close the side seams. Alsom, my bust point darts were too long. In order to fix the issue, I backed up half of inch on the bust point and I repined my first draft to check what were the total darts, once this was done, then I added the total darts, and then divided the total darts to 8 darts.
Based on my final fit of the dress, my dress fitted very nicely and I really loved the results. What I did, is I used pattern drafting procedures on the asymmetrical, it really did help me. I noticed that transferring information from any asymmetrical draping to the paper is never correct, so that is why I used drafting procedures on my asymmetrical draping. I measured each side to make sure that the waist from dart was correct to the length of the armscye to the waist. To plan ahead on my next project, I will do the same procedures. I will start by preparing the dress form, the sketch of the project, and the measurements. Also, we want to make sure that the fabric is cut and squared to the grain line, everything has to be aligned with the L ruler. Once all this preparing is done, then I will follow the next steps, draping, transferring to pattern paper, and the first fitting.
Now I know what I did wrong on my first fitting, so I will have keep all those errors in mind. I will take into consideration the darts, and not change the amount, but to add and to divide them. I think my project was very hard, once again, I was dealing with an asymmetrical project which is harder than non-asymmetrical patterns or draping. The asymmetrical takes more math, and time to make sure that both sides of the body end up the same measurements on bust, waist, and length, but it must be done separately or else it will not be asymmetrical.
Therefore, I believe I did really good on doing my first asymmetrical job and even though it was extremely hard, I do believe that I deserve an A always wanting to challenge myself to do something harder. How can I improve, or what can I do better? Pay attention on my darts and to keep using pattern drafting procedures when draping, and when transferring any information that is on asymmetrical pieces.
The evaluation processes is to compare all my pattern pieces with each other. All pattern pieces must been truing front, back, and to all facings. Also, we want to make sure that all pattern pieces are the same as the fabric pieces, and that all matched smoothly and nicely. The dress must have a nice fit not pulling any where or loose in other areas. Further, doing this evaluation processes teaches you the mistakes, and it also makes you think how to improve the next time knowing that every single piece must be checked.
I will definitely be using these processes from now on out. These processes teach all the necessary elements when draping and truing the pieces to make your draping and sewing successful.This information is very valuable and must be kept and always be utilized when draping and sewing.