Transcripts
1. 1 - Introduction. Who is this course for?: Hello everyone and welcome
to how to draft basic bodice from scratch using
specific measurements. Hi, my name is Nina via
and I'm your instructor. I have a feeling that
most of you are... well, a lot of you, I should say, I've taken my
previous courses in pattern-making and draping and sketching, branding and etc. So I'm not going to get into
too much of my profile. I graduated from FIT
in New York City, worked in industry for many, many years and I was
teaching at FIDM, the Fashion Institute
in Los Angeles. And then fast-forward,
I'm now teaching online courses in fashion
designing for you guys. So here we are. Who is this course for? Well, quite a large variety
of students. Let me explain. If you're just starting
out in fashion designing, this is the foundation
of pattern-making. Pattern-making is an
essential technique and principles in designing. So this is the first step in
creating a pattern, right? So if you're a student, a brand new student, who's venturing into the
world of fashion designing. This is definitely for you. Now. If you were a little
more advanced and you do have patterns, and
you say, Well, I know how to
manipulate patterns, but I want to make
clothes for myself. Then I'm going to teach you how to take specific
measurements, right? And then thirdly, if you
have a significant other, a sister, a friend, a client, a customer who wants to have you design a specific
garment for her, then you need to take
measurements of your customer. I'm going to show
you how to do that. And lastly, if you are one of those students
who's been asking me for years now how to take measurements and create your
own patterns from scratch. Well, this is
definitely for you. So welcome. This whole process
of measuring and transferring these measurements
onto paper and all that. It's a very lengthy process, meaning it takes a long time. So obviously, I'm going
to break it into four to five-minute videos so that you can easily
digest the material. And remember, this is a video. If you don't get it
the first time, pause, rewind, watch it again, watch it again
until it's perfect. Also, there's a lot
of numbers, math. So be patient. It might be a little
challenging trying to figure out what is half of two and
three-quarters and all that. So it's just trust me. Show you how to do
all that stuff.
2. 2 - Tools needed.: Okay, I'm going to show you how to take specific measurements. Now, if you're measuring
a dress form, obviously, I'll show you how to take specific measurements
of your form. If you're measuring yourself, you might need an assistant or a friend to take measurements of yourself because it might be challenging to measure
certain sides seams and shoulder
seams and so on. So you might need somebody to
help you measure yourself. And if you're
measuring a customer, pretend that the form and the customer is
one and the same. Again, I'm going to show you
how to take measurements, what kind of measurements
to take, and so on. N, We'll need tools, right? The first thing you'll need
a tape measure, obviously, I'm going to show you how to
use a tape measure to take specific measurements
of the body, your body, or her body. You'll need a pencil. And for the purpose
of this exercise, I might use a marker because it's a little darker
and it's easier to see. When I'm drafting on
paper and speaking paper, I'm going to use what's used. In the industry. We use this kind of paper. It's called dotted paper. It has numbers or dots
or combination of both, makes it easier to find right angles and square
lines and so on. But if you can find
it, don't worry, it's very basically paper. Fabric stores
usually carry dotted. paper, a ruler. This is a see-through ruler. You can see through it. And it'll help you in
measuring and drafting. patterns also it bends,
see, it's flexible. So it's easier to use a flexible ruler
if you're measuring, say, a circular shape like
an armhole for example. A French curve. French curves are used
primarily for armhole. If there are variations
of French curves. Also, this is the hip curve which I've used in
my other classes. And you actually, if you notice, if I place these two, the French curve that I
have and the hip curve, the two are the same shape
for part of the French curve. So you can use this as well. All right, So these are the
basic tools that you'll need to measure and
draft your basic bodice. Okay? I'm going to show you how
to draft a front bodice, back bodice and a front
skirt and a back skirt. And if you're
interested in a sleeve, I have a course
specifically on sleeves. I highly recommend that
you take the course. It does show you how to draft a basic sleeve
from scratch, again, using specific
measurements. And it's not just
a basic sleeve, There's bell sleeves
and puff sleeves and short sleeves with gathers and all fancy sleeves and so on. So take that course. Now. In that course, there's
charts for different sizes, meaning that if you're working
with a size four form, then you use size for
measurements to draft the sleeve to match
the batteries of a size four form
makes sense, right? But if you need to make
it bigger or smaller, that is a process
called grading. I'm not gonna do any grading
right now in this course, but it's not about grading. Not gonna touch
screen right now. I will include a
miniature video on a general concept of grading a size four bodies
to a size six, size eight, size ten, and so on. I'll show you a little
principle how that works. Alright, so let's
get started with measuring our dress form, our customer,
or yourself.
3. 3 - Starting the measuring process: (a) Front, CF, Bust, etc: Okay, so we're going to start by taking measurements of the body. And we're going to
start, I'm going to measure this dress form. This is a size four transform. We're going to start by
measuring certain parts. And after all this is done, we're going to end up with a pattern that looks like this. This is a one dart
bodice sloper. And we're going to
use this one dart to create a fitted bodice. We can then manipulate the dart in different directions
or eliminated and so on. We're going to start by measuring
what is known as H P S. If you see the word
the letters HPS, it stands for High
Point Shoulder. High Point Shoulder. And it's this corner right here where the shoulder
meets the neck line. It is the highest
point on the body. I'm going to start by
taking your tape measure, measuring it over the
bus to my waistline. If you have a tape on your form, the bottom of the tape
is your waistline. So in my case and
measures 17 inches. So the first measurement
that I have is 17 inches. I'm going to label
this measurement a, b. So I'm going to use this paper, this board and
this dotted paper. You will use your table and
your paper on your table. So I'm going to take
this measurement 17 inches and draw a straight line. Measuring 17 inches,
which is right there. Okay. So I'm going to
label this A and B. Okay, next I'm going to measure across the shoulder right here. I'm going to take my
tape measure from the center front
neck line corner. I'm gonna take my tape
measure and measure across to where the shoulder starts
with the shoulder rim starts. And in my case, it is 6.5 inches. So that would be measurement. And number two is
6.5 inches, right? So now I'm gonna take my ruler, come across from a and
measure 6.5 inches across, which is right there. Okay? So we have a b. Now we're going to create a, C. This is a C. I get that. Well, we have a
and B and then we have a and c. So a, b, c, right? That's c right there. And I'm also going
to square of ally, a few inches, 34 inches. As a guideline, you'll see why. In a second. Our third measurement is our center front
is fairly simple. We'll take our tape measure from the neck line down center
front to the waistline, in my case, and measures
14 and a quarter. And that's the
third measurement. So that's measurement number
three is 14 and a quarter. Okay? So from your B cross mark, we're going to measure
up 14 and a quarter. And in my case, 14 and a quarter is right here. Right there. And that is, so we have a, B, C, Guess what? That is? D. So I'm going to mark this d. Okay. All right. So far so good. Okay. Next we're going to
measure our bust, placing our tape measure from center front across the
bus to the sightseeing. And in my case, it measures 9.5. So 9.5, That's our
next measurement. Measurement number four is 9.5. And now watch this. I'm going to place that
measurement here at the bottom. I don't want you
thinking wait a minute. That's not the bus. The
bus is here somewhere. Trust me. Trust the process.
It'll work out. So I'm going to take 9.5 from B. You got to go
across 9.5 is right there and also square a line
about 1011 inches or so. Like that as a guideline,
you'll see why. So we got a, B, C, D, this is E. And we
have E. This is E. Okay?
4. 4 - Front (b) continued : Okay, our next
measurement, number five, is measurement from this corner right here with the
shoulder meets the arm. We're going to measure
across the bust to center front
at the waistline. So take your tape measure across the bust to center front
at the waistline. For me it makes 17 inches. So number five is 17 inches. I'm going to take my ruler. And from center front
measure FY 17 H's. On your ruler. Find 17 inches and where it lands on this
guideline right there. We're going to draw
a line like this. I'm going to label
this G as in George. And I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute. A, B, C, D, E, F. What about F? We'll
get to F in a minute. F is at the bottom
here, but skip that. We'll get to this is B, G, 17 inches is B to G. Okay. That's B-G. Okay. Next is our shoulder seam. That's very simple. Basically from where
the neck line meets the shoulder all the way to
the ridge of the arm hole. I'm going to measure in my
case and meshes five inches. Okay? So measurement number
six is five inches for me. Okay. And so that will be right here. I'm going to take that
five inch measurement. I'm going to take this ruler
and met find 55 inches. And from G wherever it
touches this AC line, that is my shoulder
and looks like this. And also I'm going to
square off a little line. So this is a square
corner right there. And I'm going to label this. Trust me, it's all
going to work. It's all going to fall
into place, right? So that's G. G. All right. Next we're going to measure from center front to the
apex to the bust point. From the center front to the apex is measurement right here. Now on a dress form on the body, you can see where
the bus level is, but on a piece of paper, you really don't know
where the bust level is. Is it here, here where
I have to measure up? When I did here on this form, I measured from the
waistline center front to the bust level. And in my case it is 7.5. So I took my ruler and from being the waistline
measure up 7.5. And I put a little cross mark. And then I'm going to create
this measurement right here, which in my case, from center front to the
apex, it measures 3.5. So 3.5 goes right in here
with your ruler squared, a line across 3.5, which is right over here. There's my 3.5 and I'm going
to label this j, j, and k. Right? So that would be
measurement number seven, which is 3.5 j k 3.5.
5. 5 - Front (c) continued: Next I'm going to take
this measurement D J and divide it in half, find the halfway point
between D and J. So my DJ measures seven
inches divided in 7.5, divided by two is 3.5. I'm going to measure down. 3.5 is right here. And that's labeling. And then I'm going
to square line across in a minute. Okay? Next, we got d j, d j, d j, d j, right, with
divided in half, That's L, DJ divided in half. I've put a little
pin on my form so I know where that L cross mark is because from that cross
mark at center front, I'm going to measure across
the chest, not the bus, the chest from center front to where the arm hole bridge is, in my case, is six
and a quarter. So I'm gonna take
my ruler from l, come across six and a quarter, and it's right there. That's six and a
quarter right there. So that's my l m. Okay. Next we're going to measure at the waistline
from center front, at the waistline, the
bottom of the tape, from center front to
the princess line. The Princess seen. This measurement right
here, in my case, is two and three-quarters.
Two and three-quarters. This is where the dye will end up the first
leg of the dark. So two and three-quarters
at the waistline be when I measure two
and three-quarters. Two and three-quarters
is right here. And that is my f. Then we skipped ABCDEF. Well, there it is, B, F. I'm going to erase these numbers so that I have space
to write more numbers. Okay, our next measurement
is from the shoulder, neck across all way to the
side seam at the waistline. So take your tape measure
from the shoulder, neck, measured like
this to my sightseeing. The waistline is
17 and a quarter. 17 and a quarter. 17 and a quarter. So I'm going to take my
find 17 and a quarter. I'm going to take the top of
the ruler, place it on AI, and we're wherever 17 and a quarter touches
this guideline. Right? Hold the ruler in place. Take your marker or pencil
and draw a line like this. I, and this is like, like Mino. Next we're going to
measure our sightseeing. Now, if your form has a plate, you don't want to measure
all the way up to the plate. You want to come
down a little bit, otherwise it would
be very high, right? So I came down to
about an inch or so. And when I measure my sightseeing and
measures eight inches. So with your ruler, eight inches from n, measure up eight inches, inches and put it
on a cross mark. And that's n o
6. 6 - Front (d) continued (Dart, part 1): Okay. So again, we, number 11
was 17 and a quarter, which was I n, this measurement
from here to here. 17 and a quarter,
right, we got that. And then n 20200 is
your site's theme. In my case was eight inches. And then from n, we're going to measure out an inch
and a quarter. Very simple, nothing. No major brain
surgery here measure an inch and a quarter or I
put a little cross mark. And that's N, O P as in Peter. Here we go P, right? And then from p to o is
your actual site's theme. This is your sightseeing. Now, we established that the
side seam is eight inches. So from o you're going
to measure a inches. Make sure you got eight
inches right there. And this is your S. S, as in sightseeing. It's slowly coming together. We're almost done. So see how eventually this
will become this. You see that center front as
your shoulder sightseeing. We don't really have a dark yet. In fact, we don't
have a doubt yet. So we're about to create a gun, but how do we know
the size of the die? Well, we're going to start
by measuring our waist line. Now, in my case, my waistline, I mentioned it, it's six and three-quarters. So if I take six
and three-quarters minus this portion right here from center
front of the Princes, which is two and three-quarters. So six and three-quarters minus two and three-quarters
lives we went for. In my case, it's the
waistline minus this, in my case is four inches. So I'm going to
measure four inches. However, I don't really
know the direction. Does it go this way, this way, this way. So as a guideline, I'm going to take a
ruler and from P, draw a line to f, just as a guideline, it's just to help us
figure out the dark, just a very light guideline PDF. And that for measurement
right here is what goes here. Okay, so now we have
four inches right there, two and three-quarters,
four inches. So we're about to
create the dirt.
7. 7 - Front (e) continued (Dart, part 2): Okay, So we know
the k is your apex, k is your apex the
bust point, right? Stuff from the bust point, we draw the dye, the legs of the dark. Now, the dark never goes
to the apex to that point. No, it always, you want to
back away from the apex? Anywhere from half-inch,
three-quarters, maybe one inch depending
on the size of the form or the person
that you're working with. I'm going to back away
three quarters of an inch. I don't really know
what direction. So watch this. I'm going to take
my dark right here, which in my case is four
inches half for that is two. I'm going to draw a guideline. This is just the
guideline. Watch this. And then from K on that
guideline from K back away, three-quarters of an
inch or so. Okay. And my three-quarters
is right there. And now I can draw, and I'll do it in
red ink to show you the actual data itself. From K back away three-quarters. And there is leg number
one and number two, we now have created a dart. So this point, we
have two true a dart. We have to true the dart. If you don't know what that is, we'll get to that. Most darts. In fact, all darts
have a certain shape. And to create that shape, it's called trueing a dart, where you close the
legs of the dart and then create the shape
of the waistline. In this case. We're almost done. Now, the last two things, couple of things to do is
to create the neck line. We need a neck line shape here and the arm
hole right here. So let's start with
the neck line. With your French curve. You're going to place your
French curve like so. And create your neck line. I'm gonna do it in red so you can see what I'm talking about. For the arm hole, we're going to take
your French curve and we're going to
place it like so, going from O to G and getting
close to this n cross mark. So it will look something like, Okay, I'm going
to make sure that this is squared off here. Okay? You don't want a
point here sticking out. So that's pretty much it. Now, I'm going to show you at some point how
to true a dart. And when it comes to drafting
something from scratch, you always have to do a fitting either on the form or a
live person or yourself. And there's always some tweaking here and
there some adjustment. When you're measuring
this kind of thing. Sometimes you're
off by a quarter of an inch and three-eighths
of an inch. And it affects one
mesh and effect one measurement affects
the others and so on. So you'll do a fitting
in muslin or fabric, and then you make
some adjustments. You try on the muslin. And you said, well,
it's too tight here, it's too big here. And then you make
this adjustment. You go back to your
pattern and you fix that. Now, this will become a
template, if you will. This will be a template. You see this pattern is
something that you can use to create other patterns. This is just a basic
slope or a blog. From this pattern, you
can create other styles. All right, Next we're
gonna do a back, and then we'll do a skirt. So stay tuned.
8. 8 - Measuring Back Bodice (a): Okay, So we are
drafting the back. Now. The process of
drafting the back is similar to
drafting the front. So to avoid a boring class, I went ahead and started
drafting some preliminary, some basic lines for you because it's very
similar to the front. For example, if you
remember in the front, we've measured from
the high point right across the bus
to the waistline. Same thing we'll do to the back. So from HPS High Point
Shoulder where the neckline meets the shoulder I measured from that
to the waistline. In my case, a measures
17 and a quarter. So I took my ruler and I've
mentioned 17 and a quarter. And I'm, a and b, just like I did in the front. Then secondly, what we did, we went from a to C. A to C. What is that? That is this top shoulder
section right here from where the shoulder meets
the shoulder seam. The ridge of the
arm hole, right. Measuring across to center back. So it looks like this. And in my case, and measure seven and a quarter. So again, I took my ruler and measure seven and
a quarter, right? Cross mark. So it's a to C and
then a square, a line downward, but
34 inches of soil. Okay. Now at the bottom
of the waistline, this measurement right here
is the back measurement, which is from center
back to the side seam. Think of it like a
bra strap, right? So which is right
below the arm hole, somewhere like an inch or so
below from center back to decide seem in my case and
measures eight inches, measure eight inches across. Cross mark becomes B, e and squirt align up
10-11 inches or so. Okay. So far, so good. Good.
9. 9 - Back Bodice (b) continued: Okay, next I'm going to
measure my center back. Very simple, easy. Take your tape measure
from the neck line. Center back to the waistline
is 16 and a quarter. Ruler measure from the base, right from your waistline
measure up 16 and a quarter or wherever you sent her back is and put a little cross mark. And I'm going to label
this D as in David. Okay, next we're
going to measure the back neck line,
the back neck. With your tape measure. We're going to measure
from center back from Center back to the
shoulder seam. And when you take your
tape measure like so from center back to the shoulder seam
two and three-quarters. So again, I took my ruler and measure two and
three-quarters is right here. And I'm going to label that. Okay. Next, going to measure from your shoulder arm hole corner with the shoulder meets the arm will take your tape measure and come across to the center
back at the waistline. So from this corner across
the back to the waistline, a simple back in my
measurement is 17 inches. So this is a little tricky. So with your ruler, measure 17, find your 17 on your ruler or whatever
your number is, right? And from this corner right here, you're going to place
your ruler like this until it touches this
line right here, this cross line right here. So again, from here, 17, There it is. There's my 17 cross
mark right here. I'm going to draw a
line right across from the center bank waste to
this guideline right here. And a, B, C, D, E, F, G.
10. 10 - Back Bodice (c) continued: Next we're going to
measure the shoulder, the actual shoulder
seen right from the neckline to this
arm, Oak Ridge. And the shoulder seam is
five inches right now. The shoulder in
the front is fine. The shoulder in the
back must be fine. In other words, imagine if
the shoulder of the front, shoulder of the bank didn't
match and have a problem. So there has to be the same. This was five in the front, would be five in the back
because we take your ruler, placed it from F through G, gonna go through a cross G and mesh and find
five inches, right? So from f through G
and stop at five, which will be just outside of
that G cross mark slightly. And I'm going to call that h. Okay, next, I'm going to work
on creating the neck line. And I'm going to
start into Institute. It's a two-step process. First you got to take your ruler and create a square line. A square line meets
at a 90 degree angle. This is a 90 degree
angle right there. And then you'll also
take your ruler. And from D cross mark, you're going to draw a
line across like this. So you'll end up with that. And eventually we'll take your French curve and
shape the neck line. So it's a rounded shape for now, let's leave it the way it is. We'll get back to this. Okay, next we're
going to measure the waistline from the center
back to the princess seam. So tape measure center
back to princess seam. That's two and three-quarters. Come over here right
at the waistline from the measure two and
three-quarters to cross mark. And I'm going to label that. I
11. 11 - Back Bodice (d) continued: Okay, next we're going to
measure our waistline. But we have to remember
that ultimately there will be a dart at the waistline. Usually a dart for the back is about an inch and a quarter, maybe an inch and a half,
somewhere in there. I'm going to use
one and a quarter. So if I measure my center back to my side seam
at the waist, right? Five and three-quarters plus and an inch and a quarter
for the dart, right. That totals to seven inches. In my case. It's that measurement,
the waistline plus your dart, quarter
inch and a half. Whatever you however whatever
size you're working on. So in my case it
is seven inches, so it come across here, measure seven inches with my
ruler approved cross mark. And I'm going to label that j. Okay, next we're going
to create the dart. Now, in my case, as I mentioned a second ago, It's an inch and a quarter. So from this, I cross mark, I'm going to measure one and
a quarter full cross mark. This will be my dart. Normally the dart is that the direction of the dart is perpendicular
to the waistline. So if I take my ruler and I place it like this
on the waistline, and I draw a guideline
in the middle. Like this, right? Usually, the measurement
that we use in the industry for a backdoor is about
seven inches or so, give and take a quarter of an inch or so, but seven inches is a
standard measurement. So I'm going to measure seven inches up
from the waistline. And seven inches in my
case is right here. And then I'll draw the
legs of the darts. You can see the dart. There's my dart, which again is one and a quarter
or so. Okay. Okay. Next, I'm going to
work on the side seam. As I mentioned earlier, the side seam of the back
must match, match. The side seam of the front, right in the front, if my side seam
was eight inches. So guess what? The same thing applies to the
back. Eight inches. Find your ruler Eight inches on
your ruler, right? And you're going to
start here at J. For me, it's eight inches. And wherever it touches
this guideline right there, place your ruler like that. Eight inches here,
touches there, and here is my sightseeing. Again, double check to make sure that the measurements
are the same.
12. 12 - Back Bodice (e) continued: Okay, next we're going
to work on creating our arm hole and using
the French curve. It'll look something like this, but we're missing one measurement an
important measurement, which is the cross
section ... cross back. Right here. We need to know what
that measurement is. It's kind of important. So you got to come down to about four inches
from the neck line. But four inches or so. And at that cross mark, you're going to measure
across from center back to the arm hole. So from center back to the arm
hole for me is 6.5 inches. So I'm gonna come down from
the neck from the neck line, measure four inches
and come across 6.5. Let's see. 6.5 is right here. Put a little cross
mark like that. Because now I'm gonna
take my French curve and place it from the
sightseeing under the arm. So touching this
cross mark to h, the outer cross mark, it look like this. Hold it in place. And your French curve, you're going to draw your arm hole. There's
your arm hole. The next thing, the last
thing we will do here is the neck line of the back
it needs to be curved. Obviously, you can't
leave it at a corner. I'm going to use this
curvature right here to create a nice curve that
will look like this. Okay? It might need to be
adjusted a little bit, but basically that's the
neckline of the back. And I think that's
about it for now. Okay. Next is the skirt.
13. 13 - Measuring the Skirt (a): Alright, let's draft a skirt. I'm going to use the
measurement of my form. You will use the
measurements of your form or yourself or your
client ...whatever. So in the bodice, we drafted the front
first and then the back. Well, for the skirt, we go into both of them front
and back at the same time. In fact, they will be
joined together at the side seam and then we'll separate the front
from the back. And speaking of side seam, I'm going to start with that. I'm going to start by creating
the side seam first. And that is really the
length of your skirt. What length is your skirt? Any length you choose. I make my 16 inches. You can make yours 19,20,22.
It doesn't matter. This is just a basic
pattern and basic sloper, basic block, a basic template whether you want to call
it , it's a basic pattern. So I measure 16
inches with my ruler. I mentioned 16 inches
and I'm going to label this A and B. Okay. Next we're going to
establish the hip level. What does that mean? The
hip level on a form on a body is the widest the widest part of
the form of the body. Notice how the body is narrow at the waist and
it goes wider here. Well, the hip level is the
widest part of your body. So normally a
standard measurement for the hip level
is seven inches. In other words, if
I measured down seven inches from my waistline, measure down seven inches, that's pretty much where
your hip level would be. So I took a piece of elastic
here just to show you where my hip levels is the widest part of the
body as you can see. So when I measure down
from my waistline, it is about seven inches. So I take my ruler. And from the waistline
measured down seven inches, and I'm going to label that C, and that is my hip level. The bottom of the
skirt is your hem line. It's straight across and it's parallel to the floor, right? That's the bottom of the skirt. Next, I'm going to create my
center back. Center back. the way I'm going to do that,
I'm going to... measure. I'm going to measure
from the side seam. Side seam, going
to measure to center back from side seam to center back whatever
that measurement is. Take your tape measure from the side seam to Center Back, in my case is nine inches. I'm going to measure
at the hip level, right hip level, nine inches across and
draw my center back.
14. 14 - Measuring the Skirt (b): Okay, so there's my center
back CB for center back. I'll do the same thing
for the front, right. So from the side seam
to center front, at the hip level. Sides seam to center
front is 8.5. Want to come over
here and measure from the side seam 8.5 and
that'll be my center front. Okay. Okay. So there's my hip level, right side seam to center front. There's my center front. I'm going to label that C, F for center front. As you can see, what I'm doing, I'm creating a box. And in fact, I'm going to connect these top
lines right now. And it'll be a box, the front and the back. Okay. So there's my box right. Now. The way our bodies
are made, designed is that the back is slightly lower than the front
at the waistline. You can see it on this form, the waistline slightly drops at center back about
a half-inch or so. So I'm gonna come down
from the waistline. I'm going to measure a half
inch and put a little cross mark. This will be my new
waistline right there. Okay. So we have this box, right? So ...our body is not
a box shape, right? we have shape...
in the back area. How do we take a two dimensional
piece of paper or fabric, and turn it into a
three-dimensional shape. Darts, we have to
create some darts. We have to design
establish darts. Now you can have one
dart in the front, one dart in a back, or a two darts in the front
and two darts in the back. I'm going to have two darts in the front and two
darts in the back. The first dart lines up with
your princess seam, your princess line. So from center front, we're going to measure this
waistline... right here. And that's where our
first dart will be.
15. 15 - Measuring the Skirt (c): So my measurement from center front to the
first princess line is two and three-quarters. So from the center front, measure two and three-quarters and put a little cross mark. And the first dart will
be a half-inch dark. So I'm going to measure
half inches right here. That will become a
dart in a minute. I'm going to measure two inches between the first
and the second dart. So between the first
and the second dart, I'm going to measure two inches right here, two inches space. And then create a second
dart, also a half-inch. Okay, So it's the first dart. It's not done yet,
obviously, Second dart. Okay, so I'm going to
have two darts here, half-inch, half-inch,
that's one inch. One inch. Now, my waistline is 6.5
plus one inch that's 7.5. So I'm going to measure
7.5 on my dotted paper. 7.5 is right here. And that's where my
side seam will be. see, I'm going to take my
hip curve in a minute and create this shape, this curvature right here. Now, if this is confusing, you look at it this way. This is 6.5, right? If you close these darts, this has to equal 6.5, right? If you close these dark and
you add this plus this, plus this must equal this. Now I'm going to do the
same thing for the back. I'm going to create two
darts for the back. Similarly to what we did in the front we're doing in the
back from Center Back, we're going to measure to
where that princess line is, the Princess seam right here. Take this measurement,
put it right there, leave a certain space
and then create a second dart center back
to princess line, right? Center back at the waistline to the princess line, princess seam right here,
put a cross mark. I'm going to make, make my
back darts one inch each, instead of a half-inch,
they're slightly different. One inch for the back. Right. So here's my first
dart leave a space and then a second dart and then
onto the side seam. Okay.
16. 16 - Measuring the Skirt (d): Okay, So let's create
these darts now. Darts are straight, they
are parallel to center back for the back and they're parallel to center
front for the front. If I find the center of the dart and I draw a guide
line like this. I use my pencil to
find the center of this dart and find the
center of the other dart. Okay? Do the same thing for the front. Okay? Now, there's a standard
measurement (which varies), but this is a standard
measurement that you can use in the industry. We use 3.5 is the
length of the front dart. It's 3.5 for the front. 5.5 for the back, 3.5 and 5.5. How do we do that? From the top of the waistline, measured down 3.5,
which is right here. And the same thing here, 3.5 is right here. Alright? I'm gonna use
the marker so you can see what the dart looks like. And here's my dart. And for the back is 5.5 And then create the
legs of the dart. Okay, 3.5, and 5.5, there's our darts. The last thing to do
is to true the darts. Now we haven't talked
about trueing darts. We didn't true the darts for
the bodice or for the skirt. So now I'm going to
show you how to true a darts before we
true the darts One final thing on the skirt
is we have to create our side seam the shape of the side seam using
our hip curve. So we place the hip
curve like this. So it goes from the side
seam at the waistline and it blends into the side
seam of the dotted paper. So it'll look like this. This is the side
seam on the skirt. Now watch, I'm going to
flip my hip curve over. And, now most of these
hip curves have numbers on, on both sides. In other words, if I have say
11.5 here at the hip level, when I flip it over, there's 11.5 at the hip
level so I can have an exact perfect replica of my front side seam in the
back side seam are the same. Now, all of this gets
true... when it's all done, there'll be a certain shape to it and we'll
get to that next.
17. 17 - Measuring the Skirt (e): And once we true all the
darts for the skirt part, the skirt front will
look like this. There's a certain shape to it, and the back also has a certain shape to it once
we true the darts correctly. Okay, One final note. I mentioned that the back at the waist drops, the body just lowers at the back, right? But eventually when it
gets to this side seam, it comes back to meet
the front side seam. In other words, when you
have the front and the back, Right, the side
seams have to match, they have to match. You have to match, right? When you're sewing a skirt
the side seams have to match. So you might have to
make some adjustments. In other words, this
curve might go up, up here so that the waist
side seam on the front and the waist side in the back are exactly the same point
and they meet, okay.
18. 18 - True the Darts: Okay, I'm going to show you
how to true a dart, and I'm going to show
you a little video from my pattern-making classes. So here we go. Let's take a look. And there is new Dart. Next. I take one leg, the first leg of the dart, the one closer to center front. I'm going to crease
it and fold it over to meet the other
length, like so. And you seeing my tracing wheel, I'm going to go over the waistline right through
all the layers of the paper, of the dotted paper like so. And when I open it up, it will look like that. You can see these little
tiny holes right there that the tracing wheel made. Okay, So using my French curve, I'm going to connect all those little tiny holes
left by the tracing wheel. And there's a certain
slight shape to it. So now we have a new
pattern with one dart. I have stapled my pattern, my dotted paper
pattern, to manila. And I'm going to cut it out. I'm going to use my awl
or a push pin to mark the apex and the
vanishing point. Make sure you don't
hurt yourself. This is sharp. And then using my notcher, I'm going to notch
the legs of the dart. We can do it this way. And I've seen it also used
this way where you can see the legs of the
dart and match it. And now we have a new
one dart sloper.
19. 19 - Making a "longer" bodice (Fisheye Darts).: Have you ever wanted to
make a pattern longer, meaning longer
than just stopping at the waist instead
of stopping here, let's say you wanted to make
a jacket or coat, right? How do you do that? So some students, some beginner students,
make this mistake. They'll say, Well, all you
have to do is just make the side seam longer and
the center front longer. And there it is. You got, you made it
longer, right? Wrong! The body doesn't go
like this, right? Look, the body comes down to
the waist and then goes out. So it comes in at
the way it goes out because you got
the hips, right. So we cannot do this. This is not the way to do it. In a way, what you
have to do is you have to sort of add
the skirt portion, a skirt part to it where
you have your hip. Right? So it would be
something like this. Now the problem
with this is if you don't have any darts if you don't have any darts, you'll have a lot of
loose fabric here. It's very baggy, right? So if you wanted
something fitted, what you have to
do is you have to introduce what is
known as fisheye darts. Fisheye darts, It is basically two
darts coming together. Now we get into pattern-making
techniques and principles. So I invite you to enroll in
my pattern making classes. Alright.
20. 20 - A simple general concept of Pattern Grading.: So I've mentioned to
you the word Grading. The process of Grading. Grading is the process
of taking a size four and making it into a
size 6, 8, 10, 12 and so on, making it bigger and smaller. It's called Grading. It's a very precise,
very complex process. I'm not going to
get into it now, but I'm going to show
you a video that I put together for
my YouTube channel, which will give you the basic concept of
grading and how it works so that you can apply it to your pattern-making skills. Okay, so here's the video. So I get this question. A lot. Many students e-mail
me and they say, How do I make my pattern
bigger or smaller? How do we, how do I
expand my pattern? How do we increase the size of it or decrease
the size of it? So it all starts with the
center of the pattern, which is the apex, right? We use a process called Grading. Grading is when you take a
size eight and make it into a size 10, 12, 14 and so on, and decrease to size six and
four, and two and so on. Grading is a very
precise technique and it takes years to really master the technique
and it's very complex. So I'm not going to
get into it right now. I'm just going to give
you the general idea. If you can get this principle
that I'm explained to you, you can actually do it
on your pattern without having to know grading down
to the 16th of an inch. The center of the
pattern is the apex. So which means that everything
expands from the apex. So for example, let's say for the purpose
of this exercise that we want to make the pattern one inch
bigger all the way around. So from the center, right. What is this? This is center front. We will move center
front in this direction, half-inch and the side seam
in this direction, half inch and half inch
and half inch down. Let me explain. So if we move center
front half inch in this direction and we move the side seam over half
inch in this direction. And the waistline again. Same thing, half inch in this direction and the
shoulder, same thing. And then we have
to adjust we have to readjust the arm
hole and all that. But you see how we have expanded
the size of our pattern. And to make it smaller, you do the same thing only
in the opposite direction. We make it, we bring it
in towards the center. So again, the apex is the
center of your pattern. So everything starts
from the apex. When you expand a pattern, when you increase the pattern, you go from the apex in
all different directions. So if we add a half inch here, half-inch, half-inch is one inch, half inch and halfway just one inch. We made the pattern one inch
bigger all the way around. Now this is a very
general, very, very simple way of explaining
the process of grading. Again, this is a very technical, very exact, very
precise technique. So it takes time to learn it, to mastery, to practice it. So this is a general idea how to adjust the size
of your pattern. Okay?
21. 21 - Working at Ralph Lauren - story time.: So I'm going to leave you with a little story, story time. When I was working
at Ralph Lauren. It's a cute little story,
It's Educational, a little philosophical, listen. So when I was working
at Ralph Lauren, we had weekly meetings
and fitting on a model. Model would come
in, we would try on the latest samples
jackets, dress. And so on. One day we had this new jacket
and the model puts it on. And Ralph says: "That lapel should be an eighth
of an inch smaller". I was so young and
naive. I didn't know. I'm thinking, well,
an eighth of an inch. Who's going to know
the difference? An eighth of an inch, right? Anyway. So I took notes, went back to the sample room, told the tailors and
the seamstress what to, what to do and so on. Fast-forward. Many, many years later, I am teaching at the
Fashion Institute one day. And in my classroom, I got my 17, 18 students
around me, my table. I'm doing a demo and I'm
telling them this story. And I told him that sometimes
a little difference, like an eighth of an inch makes a difference between
good and great. Anyway, so I did my
demo, I tell the story, they got back to their desks and they continue
with their work. I'm walking around the classroom to see how they're doing. And one student, this one
girl, was writing something on her hand. She's writing something and
I'm going: "What are you doing?" And she showed it
to me and it said, "the difference between good and great is an
eighth of an inch". So pay attention to details. Sometimes the difference
between good and great, it's an eighth of an inch.
22. 22 - Conclusion: Well, I hope you have enjoyed this course. Have any questions? Email me, I answer
all my e-mails, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and I will see you
in the next course. "Ci vediamo in classe" (see you in class). Ciao.
23. Bonus Lecture: FAQs, and other "goodies", etc.: Hello everyone. In
this bonus video, I'm going to answer the most frequently
asked questions that I get from you
guys, like supplies. When do I get my supplies
from whatever gets scissors and muslin
paper and so on. How do I get addressed for them when we get to dress form? And what's a good
textbook to use e.g. so I'm going to answer all
those questions for you. So when it comes to supplies, the company that I use, and it's a great, great, great company, is called French European Inc.
www.frencheuropeanink.com. They have every supply, every item you can imagine
for fashion designing, for draping, for
pattern-making and so on. So check them out. Including forums, yes,
including dress forums. When it comes to textbook, this is a great textbook
for pattern-making. It's called pattern-making
profession designed by Helen Joseph Armstrong. I highly recommend it. Okay. So that's that on supplies,
dress forms, textbook. So, okay, moving right along, what is the first course
that I should start with? What is the order that I
should take your courses in? Or another way of saying it is, I love fashion designing. How do I start?
Where do I start? Right? So I'm going to answer
your question like this. You could divide the industry, the fashion industry, into
two areas that co-exist. One is the creative
aspects of the industry, and another is the
business aspect. And the two have
to work together. If you're in the
creative aspect, meaning if you'd like to
sketch and paint and draw, I would say start
with sketching, sketching classes and
the draping classes and the pattern-making classes, which there are quite a few, as well as the fabric course, which is really quite
an intense course. But if you say,
well, you know what, I'm not really very artistic. I liked the business part. I like to buy and sell
fashion and social media. Then the course is to take would be the business of fashion. That's the title of
the course, which is, as the title says, it's about
the business side, right? The financial aspect,
buying and selling. Then there's also
marketing and branding. Have you ever wanted to draft? A basic bar is basic
pattern from scratch, using specific measurements
to fit your form, to fit yourself, to
fit a customer well. In this course, I'm going
to show you how to do that. I'm going to show you
how to measure a body so that you can create and
draft a basic bodice, front and back, and
a skirt as well. But there's one course
which is how to create a fashion collection
and launch your own brand. Which is really an
overall picture of the whole process
from beginning to end, meaning from the inception, from your ideas and mood
boards and sketching and some pattern-making and
draping onto production, manufacturing, some of
the business of fascism, branding and
marketing and so on. That will give you
an overall picture of the industry runs. It'll give you a good idea, maybe which way to go, which way to start, how to start the
process of taking these courses and learning about the fashion designing process. Okay. How did I get started
in fashion design? I get asked that
question many times. Well, let's start with
the fact that I was born and raised in Rome, Italy. So I was surrounded by art
and history and beauty. I mean, wherever
you turn in Rome, There's beauty like
fountains, e.g. such as the Trevi Fountain, where the famous movie
like Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini was shot
with Marcelo Master Yan. And the beautiful and either
Egbert and of course, architectural wonders like
the Colosseum and frescoes. Rama kept bell logic that
I was always good in. I was drawing and
sketching and painting. When I was 13 years old, my parents immigrated
to New York and I eventually attended one of the best fashion design
schools in the world, FIT Fashion Institute
of Technology, fashioned by day and
yes, music at night. I was in Iraq. After graduating from FIT, I worked at Ralph Lauren and we had the best Italian tailors in the world who share with me knowledge and skills and
wisdom from the old school, which I incorporate
in my classes. My mom was a seamstress. She was always working on
some project or another, either making something
for myself and my brother or working for
a factory sewing clothes. So I looked at her sewing machine as a toy and I started
playing around with it. When my mom passed away. She left me her fashion
design homework notebook from when she went
to school in Italy, something I will always
treasure because it's full of inspiring information
not available in any textbook or school. After working in
the industry for many years and
teaching at FID m, the Fashion Institute
in Los Angeles. I decided to start sharing my knowledge and
experience online, creating fashion
premier Academy, where I teach
courses on sketching and draping and pattern-making, branding and marketing,
textiles and board. I also have a YouTube channel where I answer all my
students questions. So I look forward to
answering more of your questions or
senior on Zoom. She been Yammer in classic Ciao. Fashion can be a form
of self-expression, of fun and creativity and can be a vehicle for you to make
a difference in the world. But what if you're lacking
the resources to grow? Did you know that Samsung
has a fashion division? Yep, they do. Their vision is to
support and empower new designers and companies
that want to grow and expand. As a consultant with Samsung, I am positioned to introduce new brands to
Samsung's resources. The possibility to elevate your brand to a whole new level. When I was working
at Ralph Lauren, we had weekly meetings
and fitting on a model. Model would come in, we would
try on the latest samples, jackets, dress. And so on. One day we had this new jacket
and the model puts it on. And Ralph says that lapel should be an eighth
of an inch smaller. I was so young and
naive. I didn't know. I'm thinking, well,
an eighth of an inch. Who's going to know
the difference? An eighth of an inch, right? Anyway. So took notes, went back to the sample
room till the tailors, seamstresses what to,
what to do and so on. Fast-forward. Many, many years later, I am teaching at the
Fashion Institute one day. In my classroom, I got my 17, 18 students around my, my table. I'm doing a demo and I'm
telling them this story. And I told him that sometimes
a little difference, like an eighth of an inch makes a difference between
good and great. Anyway, so I do my
demo, I tell the story, they go back to their desks and they continue
with their work. And I'm walking
around the classroom to see how they're doing. And one student, this one girl, was writing something
on her hand. So she is writing something. What are you doing? And she
showed it to me and it said, the difference between good and great is an
eighth of an inch. Pay attention to details. Sometimes the difference
between good and great, it's an eighth of an inch. And one more thing. For those of you who need one-on-one coaching and
tutoring, I am available. That service is available. We can zoom, we can FaceTime. Or if you prefer, just a simple phone call, that'll work just as well. I would love to take
you to the next level. So email me via admin.com and subscribe to my YouTube
channel, you know, V01.