Natalie Bray Pattern Drafting

[Nguyet Edmondson]

In preparation for my new position as a pattern making instructor at PDA, I spent quite a few hours gathering all the information I could find on basic block development. Developing master patterns, basic blocks, or slopers as some may call them, is one of the first steps in learning about pattern making and how the flat pattern relates to the 3D body form. After graduating from a fashion program, you will most likely never use or make blocks again but the process of it provides many learning opportunities.

I have many pattern making books on my shelf so I set out to look for the perfect drafting method to offer the students. Specifically, I was looking for a version that would work for a completely inexperienced learner. I was looking for three things:

2. Drafting Instructions that were clear and easy to follow. If any of you have ever tried drafting, it is extremely easy to get lost in the instructions and make mistakes in the process. Doesn't that make you want to give up entirely?

3. The fit of the finished block should not require major adjustments. Students in fashion schools usually design their garments for model type bodies, I wanted a draft that would work pretty closely for that purpose.

This book is also written by an educator and was first printed in 1961. Natalie Bray is a Russian pattern maker who developed her skills in Paris and London in the 1930's and 40's. The content of the book are her course lessons.

This is also a tremendous resource. Natalie's method of pattern making is closely tied with draping and there is a lot of theory presented in the book which does not exist in other pattern making books. Theory creates understanding of the "why" of things.

No, it didn't make the cut either. The language of the book is very difficult and requires some understanding-not a beginner book in my opinion. I have tried the sleeve draft in this book-only minimal success with that one.

2. Every author has their own method of body measurement and drafting sequence. The end result is basically the same. You will have a pattern which you will need to make into a muslin and fit. All blocks require fitting-none are perfect.

3. Sizing charts are generally outdated for contemporary fashion. Most of these books seem to have been written 30 or more years ago. There have been changes in sizing standards in the industry. This is not important if you are drafting for yourself or custom clients.

Today, I want to show you how to draft a skirt sloper, using pattern drafting technique and how to use this sloper to make a lovely mermaid skirt. Making this skirt is really, really easy. I made the skirt in an hour, even though I always had to pause a bit to take pictures. I just wanted this tutorial to be really detailed, so I captured quite a lot of pictures.

The paper I am using for my pattern drafting.

• Mark 2.5cm from the top of the paper, on both sides of the paper
• Draw a line connecting the dots like so. We will call this line the waistline.
• From this waistline measure your waist to hip (Do not measure your waist to hip from the top of the paper. Measure it from this line you have drawn). This new line is your hipline
• From the waistline, measure your waist to knee measurement. Make dots and then connect the dot, to get your kneeline like so:
• On the waist line, mark your waist divided by 4. On your hipline, mark your hip divided by four plus 3cm, on your kneeline, mark your hip divided by 4 plus 3cm as indicated by the red dots in the image below: This 3cm is for ease. Feel free to eliminate it, if you prefer tight-fitting clothing. I would however recommend you reduce the 3cm to 1cm instead of eliminating it completely.
• Connect the hip and knee dots with your ruler.
• Now subtract your quater waist from your quarter hip. My quarter waist is 22.5, while my quarter hip is 25.25. I will round that 25.25 into 25.3 (because there is nothing like 0.25 in the meter ruler, there is 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 etc, but no 0.25) Then, I will subtract: 25.3-22.5 = 2.8cm. Now divide what you get into 2. I got 2.8cm, I will divide that into 2 and I will get 1.4cm. From the quarter waist mark you made on the waistline, I measured this 1.4cm and made a new mark (the mark my pencil is pointing at)
• From that new mark you made on the waistline, measure 2cm upwards (as indicated by the pencil). Make a mark there. This is our new quarter waist mark.
• Using your curved ruler, Join the quarter hip mark to the new quarter waist mark
• Still using your curved ruler, draw a curved line from the quarter waist mark to the waistline as shown below: you have completed the front piece.
• Repeat this exact same process for the back piece.

Placing Darts in the Pattern

notching the single fold

• Measure 1.5inches from both cut-ends as shown below. This is the centerback seam line for the flare piece. The gather must NOT reach this line or you wont have a neat finish. As you can see, I started my gathering stitch after this line, not before it.
• Set your machine. The upper thread tension should be set to zero while you will set your stitch length to the widest your machine has (this setting is for mechanical machines. Please check your instruction manual to know how you can replicate this in your own machine)
• Start sewing gathering stitches from the 1.5 inch line you made on one cut-end, to the 1.5inch line on the next cut-end. Because of the setting of my machine, the fabric is gathering as I sew. But the gather will not be enough because I am working with a huge amount of fabric that must be compressed to a small kneeline. So I will still gather the fabric some more, manually.
• Sew the 1.5 inch line down to length of the fabric. Remember to return your machine to its normal setting before you do this. This will be the Center back of the gathers.
• Remember those notches we made? they will come in good use now. We need those notches so we can distribute the gathers evenly and have a professional looking skirt. You will put the top skirt into the flare lower skirt, right sides touching each other. Then you will match the Centerback of the top skirt with the 1.5inch line of the flare. To the left of this 1.5inch line is a notch. Match that notch with a side seam. Do the same with the notch on the right hand side of the 1.5inch line. Then the single fold notch must be match with the CF of your top skirt. So as you are gathering the flare, you must be sure that these notches are matched to the appropriate parts. Really important for a nice finish.
• What the skirt should look like after all the gathering and matching. When the flare and the top skirt are now the same amount around the knee, make sure you pin to secure the gathers and matching. Then go to your machine and stitch.
• Still using that your skirt pattern, cut out lining pieces. I added the same seam allowances as I did for the fashion fabric.
• Sew the darts of the lining and then sew the side seams. Then making sure that right sides are touching each other, sew the waistline of the lining and fashion fabric together.
• Then sandwich the zipper in between the fashion fabric and lining, then sew lining to zipper fabric, making sure that you do not sew on the fashion fabric while doing this.
• Then sew the centerback of the lining.
• Serge the hem of your fashion fabric and lining and you are done. Skirt finished.

Mermaid skirtFor a clearer view, you can click on the pictures to see it better.

this is my first time of seeing your blog and I was so happy to know some one taking the time to teach . I did not understand the measurements you used for the darts. Did you measure from the fold ( I taught to measure the dart line four or three inches from the center fold, also the front dart was either longer than the back dart. Can you verify that) . Also from your measurements you are a small person. How do you measure the curve from waist measurement of 38 or less and hips of 46 inches. the curve by your method was impossible. the curve took part of the hip measurements. HELP.

As part of a planned costume, I want to make an Edwardian style divided skirt. These skirts, along with bloomers, became popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century as women began to participate more in sports such as tennis, golf and particularly bicycling.

For some time now I have been planning on creating some blocks using my own measurements in order to design my own patterns, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to create a skirt block using my own measurements. I had three source books (the first two from the local library, the third being one I picked up from a flea market) as follows:

Although all skirt blocks begin as a basic rectangle measuring 1/2 hip measurement x required length of skirt, the way in which the drafting was undertaken varied in each book. The Teresa Gilewska method does not use any ease allowance on the drafting (I presume you must add this when cutting out) and was very calculation based. I did draft her basic pencil skirt for future use. The Pattern Cutting made Easy used a similar system but did add some ease to the measurements and did include a culotte variation.

However in the end I decided to use my Natalie Bray book mainly because the follow up book More Pattern Cutting (which I bought at the same time as the basic book) has instructions for a pleated divided skirt. It is an older system and I suppose some may say old fashioned method but the book is often seen as the definitive guide for pattern cutting. There are updated versions but the copy I have dates from the early 1960s and so many of the variations illustrated have a lovely vintage feel. The book uses the technique of cutting and spreading the original basic rectangle. As I began to draft this skirt block the technique began to feel familiar and I realised I had used it before when I did some basic pattern drafting at school. This method creates more of an A line skirt which is what I wanted for the Edwardian style but the book does show how to reduce hem width to create a pencil skirt style.

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