Hello Friends, Today it’s time to learn how to design a Basic Skirt Pattern in Muller method. If it is your first time in drafting, do not worry, you can easily design your first pattern by doing the following steps. So get the pattern making tools described in previous post and start working with me.
Drafting Basic Skirt Pattern in Muller Drafting system
- To design a base skirt pattern, you need to take waist, hip, skirt height, and hip measurements. For more information on how to measure them, you can refer to my previous post (Muller Template Tutorial).
For all pattern making tutorials I use standard size 40 , but you can create patterns with your own measurements. Do not forget that if your have a abnormal body shape for example big abdomen , you need more knowledge for altering the pattern that is not included in this post.
- Waist :72
- Hip :102
- Hip depth : 22
- Skirt Length :60
- A-B = Skirt length
- A-C = 1/2 hip
- C-D = Skirt length
- Connect D to B.
- A-E = Hip depth
square out from E to F - Find the middle point of A and C square down to the bottom. (M-N)
This line is the sidebar of the pattern - The right half is the front pattern and the left half in back pattern of the skirt.
The formula for calculating the skirt darts
The size of the waist is narrower than the hips, so by giving darts, we should eliminate this difference on the line. The sizes of the back and front darts are calculated in the following way.
Formula | Calculated values for size 40 | |
|---|---|---|
| Difference of waist and hips | hip – waist /2 | 102 -72 = 30 /2 =15 |
| Total back Darts | Difference of waist and hips / 2 + 1 | 15 / 2 = 7.5 + 1 = 8.5 |
| Total front Darts | Difference of waist and hips / 2 – 1 | 15 / 2 = 7.5 – 1 = 6.5 |
| back dart | Total back Darts / 2 | 8.5 / 2 = 4.25 |
| front dart | Total front Darts / 2 | 6.5 / 2 = 3.25 |
Side Seam Curve
Do the following steps to design side seam curve
- M-K= back Dart
square up 1 to 1/5 cm (K-P) - M-J= front Dart
square up 1 to 1/5 cm (J-Q) - Draw side Seam curve using skirt curve rule
Designing skirt front and back darts
- Mark midpoint A to K, square down to the point of the hip depth minus 3. This line is the center line of back dart.
- Mark midpoint C to J, square down to the point of the hip depth minus 3. This line is the center line of front dart.
- Mark 1/2 Back Dart at the two side of back dart center line, draw lines form this two point to the end point of back dart center-line.
- Mark 1/2 Front Dart at the two side of front dart center-line, draw lines form this two point to the end point of front dart center-line.
- With hip curve ruler, draw waistline From 1/3 (A-K ) to P
- With hip curve ruler, draw waistline From 1/3 (C-J) to Q
Designing the Skirt hemline
- With a hip curve ruler, draw skirt hem line from 1/3 (B-N) to 1 to 1.5 centimeters above N.
- With a hip curve ruler, draw skirt hem line from 1/3 (D-N) to 1 to 1.5 centimeters above N.
1 to 1.5 centimeters is not constant and varies according to limb
Control your waist and hip circumference. Your base skirt pattern is ready.
