Skirts are one of the simplest and most versatile patterns there are, so welcome to Drafting Skirts 101. The base is really easy to draft and it can be modified in a million ways. Patterns can be combined, altered, made longer, shorter, etc. Let me teach you how to draft the skirt of your dreams!
Table of Contents
Let’s start from the beginning. A skirt design can be dissected in the following ways.
- The Foundations: This will define the base structure of your design. There are 3 different skirt foundations: The Square, the Basic and the Circle.
- The Lengths: The length of the skirt can be modified on both sides. You can have different waistline levels and also different length levels.
- The Fullness: This defines how much fabric is added to your skirt at any length of the skirt. For example, a skirt can be really tight to your body, or it can have multiple layers on top of each other
- The Add ons: Once you have decided on the top characteristics, there is plenty more you can add. You can play with the darts, add partitions, add godets, drape, play with asymetric designs, add a yoke and much more.
So now that we know these basic things, let’s look into them more closely.
The 3 Skirt Foundations
As we said before, there are 3 different skirt foundations, The Square, the Basic and the Circle. Each of these foundations has its own pros and cons and can be used for different designs, let’s take a look.
The Square Foundation
The square foundation is the most basic one when drafting skirts. Just draw a rectangle that with your desired length and your waist measurement as the width.
This pattern doesn’t give you much shaping around the waist, but is the best one if you want to add gathers or pleats. Some typical designs that use this foundation are: Tiered skirts, Layered skirts, Gathered skirts and Pleated skirts.
In each of these skirt designs, you can play around with the fullness of the skirt by adding more or less gathers or by choosing different styles of pleats. There is more styles of pleats but they combine other foundations, like the Sunburst pleats which are pleats on a circle skirt.
The Basic Foundation
The basic foundation is the one all the books come with. It resembles the rectangular one but adds some shaping around the waist by adding curves and darts.
Most designs are based off of this basic pattern: Straight skirts, A-line skirts, Pencil or Pegged skirts, Bell or Mermaid skirts, tulip skirts, Cowl skirts or Wrap/Sarong skirts.
For these designs you can also play with the waistlines and the lengths. As for the fullness, it is normally standardised depending on which design you are more interested in, but you can always add gathers or pleats instead of darts.
The Circle Foundation
The circle foundation needs some mathematics but it is fairly simple to draft and the final result looks gorgeous when dancing.
The designs that use this foundation play with the length and with the fullness. We have designs like: Full circle skirt, 3/4 circle skirt, Half circle skirt and 1/4 circle skirt. These are the basic ones but you can make the circle as big as you want.
On the other side we also have designs like: the Bubble skirt, high-low sikrt and the Handkerchief. This last design is actually composed of two squares instead of circles to create the uneven edges.
Drafting Skirts – The Addons
The Add-ons are some things you can change in your skirt. We already talked about pleats, gathers, draping, cowls, you can also play with the openings, slits and much more.
In this section I want to focus on the main design changes you can do to crate intricate designs, like: Adding a yoke, separating the skirt in panels, adding godets, peplums or making your skirt asymmetrical by combining designs.
Let’s take a look at them!
Yokes
This refers to the top of the skirt when it’s a separate shaped pattern piece. When drafting skirts use this piece to help us shape the pattern around the waist, create fun designs and is also useful to eliminate darts.
It is very easy to pattern:
- First chose which foundation you want and lay it flat.
- Mark the shape of the yoke. If you’re using a basic foundation I would advice to mark it below the darts so you can eliminate them
- Separate the pattern pieces
- Close the darts if there are any
And there you have your yoke. Play around and go crazy with shapes!
Gores
A gore is a triangular or a trapezoidal piece that can be used to add shaping to the garment. For skirts, we use them as a divider so we can get rid of darts, fit the garment to the body or add extra flare between gores.
Of course you can divide your skirt in as many pieces as you want, but the “normal ones” are:
- 4 gore skirt
- 6 gore skirt
- 8 gore skirt
- 12 gore skirt
This technique is mostly used with the basic pattern, but it can be used with every foundation
Godets
Godets are an extra piece of fabric added to the garment, they can have any shape you want but they are normally circular. We use these to add flare and volume to the skirt, and they are normally added at the bottom of the piece. We can add them as a random piece or also between the gores of the skirt.
- Mark where you want the godet in your skirt pattern
- Separate the skirt and the godet piece
- Add as much flare as you want to the godet by slashing and spreading (the bigger the shape, the more flare)
And now you have the godet and the skirt ready to be attached.
Peplums
Peplums are basically a single tier that can complete a garment. They can be seen as really short skirts or as an extension of some shirts.
Like we’ve seen with skirts, they can have multiple shapes. For example the top part of a basic foundation, or perhaps any variation of the circle blocks. Just have fun and add as much fullness as you need.
Asymmetric designs
This is the section where we say: HAVE FUN!
Now you know about all the foundations and their variations, so why not combine them? You could have a pencil skirt and add a pleated section at the bottom. Or you could add some ruffles on a wrap skirt or for example combine godets and gores. The possibilities are endless and that’s what we like the most.
Drafting Skirts – Darts
There is always a lot of confusion when talking about darts. Should there be one, two, none? How long should they be? And how wide? Well, I wish the explanation was easy but it’s not! Darts are a way to create 3D shapes on a 2D surface. All our bodies are different so it’s impossible to find a dart method that suits everyone.
If you take me for example, I have a flat stomach and a round buttocks. This means that if I add darts on my front pattern, this will create a round shape that my body cannot fill, which will translate into extra fabric and wrinkles. The same way, if I have no darts on my back pattern, there will be no space for my buttocks. And if you add two darts, there will be too much shaping and wrinkles, so one dart is my lucky number. As a summary, all my foundations have exactly the same amount of darts: Zero at the front and one at the back. So despite what the pattern asks for, this is what I always go for.
The same stands for how wide and how long the darts should be. You’ll have to investigate through trial and error. In general, darts should point towards the fullest part and finish some centimetres before that point.
Darts are not only useful but they can be used as a design feature. You can transfer them around the waist to create intricate designs.
Drafting Skirts – Length variations
Once the foundations are clear, it’s time to define how long the skirt is going to be. There are 8 official length variations and these are:
- Micro length
- Mini length (5cm below crotch)
- Above the knee length (5cm above knee)
- Knee length (at knee level)
- Below the knee length (5cm below knee)
- Midi length (1/2 between knee and ankle)
- Maxi length (Ankle length)
- Floor length
When drafting these designs you can use the foundation of your choosing. Be aware that these are the official lengths but you can always play around and make them shorter or longer.
Drafting Skirts – Waist lines and Waistbands
Waist-lines
Before deciding what waistband is better for your design, you have to ask yourself: “Where do I want the waistband to sit?”. Most books define 3 main levels:
- High waist: It can be as high as you want, it normally sits below the breasts on the empire line.
- Natural waist: Normally it sits at the end of your ribs and it’s the thinest part of your body.
- Low waist: Most drafting books say this should sit 5cm below the natural waist.
If you want my advice, you should ALWAYS pattern your design to fit your natural waist and modify it afterwards. It is way easier to adjust any fitting issues and you can always go to high or low waist from there. You can also make the pants as high or low waisted as you want. Always take into account the shape of your body, sometimes when lowering the waistline, you’ll have to lower the front pattern more than the back.
Waistbands
Once you have defined the waist line, you can choose the type of waist band. There are 3 types of waist bands:
- Straight: It’s a rectangle that uses the length of your waist plus some ease
- Curved: It’s a curve (changes depending on the body) that uses the length of the pants waist and your waist
- Facing: It’s an invisible waistband
Which one you’ll choose depends on the body shape or how high/low the waistband sits. For example, if it sits over the natural waist, a straight band will sit well enough. On the other hand, if you’re working with low waisted skirt, you will probably need a curved waist band. If you plan on using a waistband, I would advice you to use the straight one.
There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to create the curved waistband. I think the BEST way to do it is by using your pattern, adding front and back together and cutting through the darts. That way, the curve will be exactly what your body needs.
This is a working document and I will keep adding to it the more I learn, so keep it saved! If you want to know more about skirts, drafting techniques or similar, take a look at the posts below and have fun.