For the hardworking - a bright light burns through life, for the lazy - a dim candle
Constructing a base pattern - THE MOST CLEAR METHOD (for beginners)
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Good afternoon I would even say a beautiful day. Because we are finally starting a series of articles on tailoring for adults. We have already sewn a lot of things for little girls - both dresses and bodysuits are different - now we will sew for big girls. That is, for myself. And since you and I have already practiced sewing, the fear of the pioneer has passed.
THAT MEANS IT'S TIME TO TAKE A NEW FRONTIER. And master the wisdom of sewing using real adult patterns yourself, with your own hands and your own brains. We will draw the base pattern ourselves - in a new, easy way (I spent more than one week creating this lightweight method for creating a base pattern). And then we will sew a bunch of all kinds of dresses, tops and tunics.
No- I won’t give you a single finished pattern!
I'm not Madame Burda. I am Madame Klishevskaya.))) And the main harmfulness of my character is... That I will make your head work and give birth to bright and clear discoveries in the field of sewing. The easiest and most understandable of all types of art. Believe me, this is true.
Yes- sewing yourself is very easy and simple!
Right from scratch you will get more and more beautiful and well-tailored things.
Moreover, you will do everything yourself, without a state of hypnosis, but in a sober mind and clear memory. YOU will DO it - moreover, you will UNDERSTAND what exactly you are doing.
I will tell you the secrets that I know. Moreover, I will teach you to discover more and more secrets of the world of sewing and clothing design.
I will not lead you (blind and stupid) by the hand in the chaos of letters and numbers denoting the intricacy of numerous lines of the design drawing. NO, I WILL NOT TAKE YOU HERE:
Well, you must admit, one such picture can instill fear and make a girl who doubts her own abilities really, really wants to sew a dress- But I wasn’t very good with geometry and drawing during my school years. Even I, who adore both of these school subjects, beat around the bush for several years, not daring to start delving into the construction of such a drawing: “How long will it take to draw something like this, and after all, everything must be calculated correctly and not get confused in the letters...”.
And, nevertheless, today we will draw a pattern.
We will draw a base pattern (you see a piece of it from above.))))
But - don’t be afraid - we will create our pattern a little differently. Away from the engineering design method - and closer to human understanding.
We will draw one for you - just one- pattern.
And then from it we will create more and more new dress models. And it will be very easy and simple.
- No confusing formulas
- No confusing calculations.
- And without the letter-number cobweb.
So how? Have I already alleviated some of your concerns?
I'll relax now - we won't start drawing right now. First, we'll take a nice stroll through the pattern. The purpose of the walk is to get to know and become friends with the pattern and remove the last doubt that you can sew any dress.
So... what is a pattern - the basis?
To put it figuratively, this is a cast of your body. This is your individual imprint. Any item sewn according to YOUR base pattern will fit YOUR figure perfectly.
Yes, you heard right - ANY THING can be sewn on the basis one single pattern. All dress models are born, modeled, and sewn from one source - this is the base pattern.
I will now prove it to you with an example. Even with three examples - in the form of photos and pictures.
Here is the first photo (below). Our pattern base is essentially your sheath dress (the one that fits your body perfectly). Dress made by yours pattern base, will follow all the curves your his bodies. This simple sheath dress is sewn using a regular base pattern. You see, it’s like a plaster cast of a girl’s figure.
And today, having drawn the base pattern, you can safely cut it on the fabric - and you will get a dress like this. The only thing you can change is the neckline - giving it the shape that suits your face shape.
All other (any kind) dress models are just a modification of a sheath dress - fantasies on a free theme.
That's how it works in the fashion world.
One day a fashion designer thought...“What if the bodice of the dress at the top is held on the shoulders by a round yoke (yellow outlines - figure below), and the bodice itself is made in the form of overlapping intersecting triangles (red outlines - figure below). The result is what we see in the photo below.
Beautiful? Beautiful! What did the fashion designer base his fantasies on? Based on a pattern. And you can come up with something of your own. We women have just a lot of imagination.
By the way - since we’re talking about a round yoke here - this site already has one of my articles on creating and
And another fashion designer thought: “What if you give the sheath dress a looser cut - make it wider. And make the shoulder line longer so that it hangs over the arm.” And as a result, a new model is born (photo below) - also very beautiful. And it's very simple.
You can do this too. If you will UNDERSTAND what the base pattern consists of. And by what laws does it exist?
That is why I don’t want to stupidly give you instructions on creating a base pattern (like “draw a line from point P6 to point P5 and mark the place where it intersects with line X with the next point...” - ugh!).
I want to awaken you bitch. I want you to feel the pattern, to know its soul. Haven't learned to see what a simple drawing hides behind a photograph of any dress, even an intricately tailored one.
Therefore, for the next 30 minutes we will not draw anything - we will walk through the pattern itself. Let's get acquainted with all its elements - find out what each line serves, and why it is located here and drawn this way.
After such an “educational walk” you will feel a joyful clarity of understanding of everything, everything, everything. It's as if you've already drawn basic patterns many times. And you will take up the drawing with the feeling that this is a couple of trifles. Ha! Business!
As the sage said: “We are afraid only of what we cannot understand and explain logically. But as soon as the thing that frightens us becomes clear to us, it ceases to cause us fear.”
So let’s go and tame this “terrible beast” - the base pattern. Let's tame and draw in 20 minutes. Yes, yes, in 20 minutes - because after a walk - the pattern drawing will seem to you an old and familiar simple drawing - like a grid for playing tic-tac-toe.
Where does the base pattern come from?
So where does the base pattern come from - usually it is obtained from the following drawing:
The drawing contains half of the back part + half of the front part.
We will also draw a similar drawing with you - only more simple and understandable.
And what these halves are needed for, and where to use them - now I will clearly show everything.
Here (!) I dug up a wonderful sample - below - in the photograph of a black and white dress, our halves are very clearly visible - both the back half and the front half. So to speak - clearly and understandably.
Yes, in the Potnovian language the halves are called “shelves”. Today we will draw these same front and back shelves. But first, let’s take a closer look at what elements each shelf consists of. And most importantly, I will tell you why each element is needed and what it serves.
To make everything as clear as possible, I will illustrate each of the elements both in pictures and in photographs of real dress models.
First, let's get acquainted with two incomprehensible words: DOT And ARMHOLE.
Of course you may know them. Or maybe not. My job is to introduce you.
So, meet - PROYMA
When drawing a base pattern, you will create exactly that bend and size armhole that suits you – when the armhole does not pull or dig into your arm.
That is, the pattern base contains minimum armhole size allowed. You can model the armhole to your taste, in any configuration. But your fantasy armhole should not be smaller than on the base pattern. That is, the armhole is based on a pattern - These are the boundaries beyond which your imagination should not cross.
Your model armhole can be as large as you like - but it cannot be smaller than on the base pattern. More - yes, less - no - otherwise it will dig into the armpit. This is the rule in modeling designer armholes.
Now let's get acquainted with the darts.
DARTS ON THE BACK – shoulder dart + waist dart
In the picture above, I wrote everything about the back darts - and in the photo of the dress you can find 2 waist darts - one to the right of the zipper, the other to the left of the zipper.
But you don’t see the shoulder dart on this dress. And many dresses don’t have it either. Because for convenience and beauty, this dart is moved from the middle of the shoulder to the zipper (or along the edge of the armhole, where the sleeve will be, a corner is simply cut off). That is, the excess fabric is not pinched at the middle of the shoulder and is not sewn inside the dart. And the extra fabric cut in the form of a corner at the edge of the shelf, where the zipper is sewn in, or at the edge of the armhole - where the sleeve will be sewn in.
Also, darts are not necessary if you sew from stretch fabric - it itself follows the curves of your body and shrinks both in the shoulder and waist areas.
Let's get to know each other next... DARTS ON HALF FRONT
Oh, I could write a whole poem about her.
I spent a long time wondering how to explain more clearly - why it is needed and by what laws it lives. I thought and thought... and came up with an idea.
The fact is that a woman has breasts.))) That is, from the front, an adult girl is no longer flat. This means that the dress should be convex in the chest area. The dart on the front shoulder gives the dress that same bulge in the bust area. Now I’ll show you everything in pictures. How does this happen.
For example, we have a flat piece of fabric, but we need to make a convex piece out of it. To do this, you need to make a tuck on it. For example, this flat circle of cardboard will now become convex with the help of a dart.
And here's how a bust dart creates a bulge on the front detail
You will notice that the top of the convexity (that is, the peak of our round pyramid) is at the tip of the dart. Pay attention to this. Because when we draw the bust dart, the point of our dart will be at the top of the chest(where the nipple or bra cup is usually located).
Remember that sometimes you tried on a dress in your size in a store, which somehow strangely skewed on the chest - this is because the dart in the dress with its point was directed by the tops of your chest. So the breasts did not fit perfectly into the bulge of the dress. This product was not cut at the factory to suit your breast shape.
But that is not all, what I want to say about the chest dart.
The fact is that in almost all dresses this chest dart is located not on the shoulder- A on the side just below the armpit. This is done for beauty. The dart on the shoulder catches the eye more, but on the side, and even covered by the hand, it is not noticeable.
When creating a base pattern, we draw a chest dart on the shoulder only because it is more convenient to draw there from the point of view of constructing a drawing.
And after the drawing of the base pattern is ready, we very easily and simply transfer the dart from the shoulder area to the armpit area. Don’t think that you need to make new drawings for this. Nope, everything is simple here - like opening a carton of milk - one minute and that’s it.
Here, in the picture below I schematically depicted transferring the bust dart from the shoulder to the side seam under the arm.
Well, do you already feel how wiser you have become in these 15 minutes?))) Or else there will be more... Let's continue our walk through the pattern and now let's get acquainted with the lines. Horizontal lines
CHEST LINE
The first acquaintance is the chest line. (It’s a beautiful dress, isn’t it? We’ll make it for you. Don’t even hesitate)
The bust line is the most remarkable line on the pattern. It is so convenient to focus on it when drawing a base pattern because:
- We know that we finish drawing the back waist dart at the bust line.
- We know that we finish drawing the front waist dart not reaching 4 cm from the chest line.
- We know that the shoulder dart is in the front - we finish drawing it at the chest line.
- We know that the lower edges of the armholes also follow the bust line.
Well, no, of course, you don’t know that yet. I will give all these simple rules when we start drawing. And now I just want you to know that when drawing many elements of a pattern, you can simply focus on the chest line (and there is no need to painstakingly put down these letter-number dots).
As you can see, there’s a lot of everything!! Therefore, go ahead - study, sew and enjoy life)))
WHAT TO DO NEXT - WITH THE PATTERN BASE? - you ask
And we will start sewing according to the base pattern of the TOP. Namely tops, T-shirts, tunics and then dresses.
You might ask, “Hey, why not just dresses?” I give the answer to this question in the first article of the series. So to be continued)))
Happy sewing!
I will explain how and why this dress will fit on different figures, and you decide for yourself whether to sew it for yourself or not.
The fabric is flat, but the figure is not. To ensure that the fabric fits the figure, for example, a dart is placed in the chest area. The larger the bust, the larger the dart. The smaller the bust, the simpler (dartless) the cut can be
And what is important: the larger the chest, the greater the difference between the measurements Front Length to Waist and Back Length to Waist. If we make the front and back of the dress the same length, then along the front there will be tension, and at the waist of the back there will be excess fabric sagging
If you don’t make a dart, and there are no darts in this dress, then all this fabric that needs to be put into the dart will fall into a fold from the chest diagonally down
There's nothing scary about it, but some people don't like it. This, by the way, also happens when the dart is too small for that bust.
If you sew from knitwear, there will be fewer folds. The more stretchable the knitwear, the fewer folds and creases there will be. And the softer the fabric (silk, thin cotton, linen, chiffon), the softer the excess fabric will be laid.
Of course, no one is canceling the cut with darts.
I propose to wear the dress that we will sew with a wide belt, and thus emphasize the figure. And the absence of darts will be hidden in the overall volume of the overlap and folds in the waistband area
Here's my jersey shift dress.
In general, a straight-cut dress without darts looks great on a figure with a small bust. Girls with large breasts: try on a ready-made dress in a store, and let’s start sewing
The construction of the front and back pattern is as follows:
1. build a right angle at point O. Draw the line of the shoulder (to the right) and the middle of the dress (down)
2. To the right along the shoulder line we put aside the shoulder length measurement plus 10-12 cm
3. put down the Length to the hips, draw a horizontal line to the right (this will be the hip line).
Then set aside the Length of the dress (+5 cm for the overlap above the belt if you wear it with a belt), draw a horizontal line to the right (bottom line)
4. At the hip level, set aside the hip circumference plus 0−10 cm (depending on the fabric) and divide by 4
In the picture with the brown dress, the increase is 10 cm, no more.
On my knitwear (with spots) there is no increase in the hips (increase 0).
From the resulting point we draw a vertical line up to the level of the sleeve and down to the level of the bottom.
That is, from the hip line to the bottom, the dress is even. You can fit it a little later during fitting
5. Shoulder bevel - 3 cm for the back and 5 cm for the shelf.
The bottom of the sleeve is at right angles to the shoulder line. We set aside 18-25 cm, depending on the fullness of the hand and the desired width
6. set a perpendicular to the sleeve hem line to the left
7. From the point where the lines intersect, we lay off 3-4 cm along the bisector. And through the resulting point we draw a rounding of the side
8. Cut out the neckline of the shelf and back - according to the drawing.
Are you thinking about making a dress and are unsure which style to choose? We offer straight 3/4 patterns as well as other patterns. A short sleeve will show off your graceful wrists to others, a straight skirt will help make your waist slimmer and your legs longer. After reading the article, you can safely go to the store to buy fabric for a fashionable new thing.
Loose dress
This thing is at the peak of popularity today. Fashionable oversized dresses look incredibly feminine. Wide, cropped batwing sleeves will highlight beautiful wrists and elegant hands. A baggy top will help draw attention away from your chest and focus it on your hips. So if the bust is not your main advantage, then this dress model will definitely appeal to you. This outfit can easily be made into a formal weekend outfit if you accessorize it correctly.
Let's move on to the pattern of a straight dress with 3/4 sleeves. Print out the diagram above and scale it. Now you need to transfer the pattern to the fabric. For this dress, you should choose a light, well-draped material. When the blanks are cut out, you can begin the sewing process. First you need to lay the side seams, and then the shoulder seams. Now you should process the hem, neck and sleeves. This can be done either using or by tucking the fabric.
A-line dress
This outfit looks complicated only in the pattern. It will be easy to make a dress, and most importantly, the final result will pleasantly surprise you. The dress turns out to be all-season. It can be worn both on a cool summer day and in a well-heated room in winter. The trapezoid style is suitable for girls with wide shoulders and narrow hips. The dress will visually eliminate the difference between the upper and lower parts of the body. Also, a trapeze is suitable for girls who want to look more feminine. After all, in such an outfit, any woman seems like a pretty doll.
Located above. We print it out and adjust it to the proportions of our body. Now you need to decide on the fabric. We cut out the parts from the material and proceed to sewing. The shoulder seams should be sewn first. We sew a sleeve into the open armhole, and then connect the side parts of the dress. All that remains is the hem and sleeves.
Long dress
This formal outfit can look incredibly feminine if you know how to wear it. Today midi length is in fashion, but many girls consider it very dangerous. And for good reason. After all, if the dress is too voluminous, it will cut off the girl’s legs, and if it is too tight, it will turn its owner into a “sausage.” The ideal option is when the dress is slightly fitted, but still quite loose and does not fit the silhouette. To make the outfit more informal, you can sew pockets into the product.
Let's start manufacturing. To sew such a dress, you need to take a dense material, for example, jacquard or suit fabric. Print out the pattern and cut out the pieces. The first step is to sew the pockets and stitch them to the front shelf. Now you should connect the two large parts of the product along the shoulder seams. The next step is to put the sleeves in place and process their edges. Now you need to make the side seams. All that remains is to process the edge of the hem and the neckline.
Straight dress
This outfit is considered a classic. Girls choose a straight dress as a win-win option when they don’t know what to wear. Why did this style win the hearts of millions of women? The fact is that a straight dress may not emphasize the figure, but it perfectly hides all the flaws. The outfit does not restrict movement, which allows the girl to feel confident. It is enough to complement a straight dress with suitable jewelry, and you can wear it both to a nightclub and to the Philharmonic. How to sew such a universal thing? You should print out a pattern for a straight dress with 3/4 sleeves in a classic style and transfer it to the material. What fabric should you prefer? It doesn't matter much. This model will look good both in knitwear and thick suiting fabric. The pattern of a straight dress with 3/4 sleeves is quite simple, so even a novice dressmaker will not have any problems. After all the parts are cut out of the fabric, you should begin assembling the product. First, you should sew the front and back shelves together, then you need to sew in the sleeves and process the edges of the product.
Long sleeve dress
This model could be considered an office one, if not for the interesting cut of the sleeves. It looks like it’s double here, which can’t help but attract the eye. In addition, the dress is quite short, which hints that the outfit is more suitable for informal meetings than for office everyday life. This dress can be sewn either from plain fabric or from something printed. Moreover, it is desirable that the drawing be small and chaotic. In this case, it will not distract attention from the girl’s slender figure, because this style of dress advantageously emphasizes all the curves of the body.
How to sew this outfit? The long sleeve dress, the pattern of which is above, is sewn from two parts. We cut out the front and back flanges, and then sew them together along the sides and along the shoulder seams. All that remains is to process the edges of the product.
Short dress
This outfit is very informal, light and summery. The dress will look great on young girls. Moreover, such an outfit can even be made for the beach if you sew it from thin fabric. The pattern of a straight dress with 3/4 sleeves (it will not be difficult to convert it to full size) is presented above. We transfer it to the fabric, cut out the parts and begin to sew them. You should lay out the darts, then connect the front and back fronts, sew in the sleeves and finish the edges.
Good afternoon, dear reader!
I propose to sew a very simple, but very effective straight dress with three-quarter sleeves. The style is very democratic and is suitable both for daily trips to work and for going out in public. And the pattern of a straight dress with sleeves is done in literally 5-7 minutes. Time it!
What you need to know to create a pattern
To create a pattern, you need to know only three measurements (I told you how to take them using drawings from “Burda Moden”):
- neck circumference,
- hip width,
- shoulder width,
- length of the product
In my case it's:
That's all!
Constructing a straight dress pattern
On a piece of paper (it’s convenient to use graph paper or wallpaper, for example), mark point 0 in the upper left corner. from it we draw a vertical line - a fold line.
Divide the shoulder width measurement by 2 (in my case 40/2 = 20 cm), move it from point 0 to the right, draw a vertical line - the side line.
Divide the neck circumference by 6 plus 1 cm (I got about 8 cm), set it to the right of point 0;
We put 2 cm down from point 0 (the depth of the sprout);
We connect points 2 and 8 with a smooth line - this is the line of the neckline of the back of the dress:
On the side line from point 20 down, set aside 3.5 - 4 cm, connect this point (4) with point 8 - draw a shoulder line.
From point 4 downwards we set aside 17 cm and draw a horizontal line through point 17 until it intersects with the fold line. On it we put aside a measurement equal to the circumference of the hips, divided by 4 plus 1 cm for the fit (in my case 102/4 = 2.5.5 + 1 = 26.5 cm):
Connect points 4 and 26.5 in this way:
From point 26.5 down, draw a line parallel to the fold line - the hip line.
From point 2 downwards we set aside the measurement Length of the product (in my case - 90 cm) and draw the Bottom Line. All!)
Front neck design
I almost forgot - the front neck of the dress is deeper than the back. To create a beautiful neckline:
- on the dress pattern, set aside 8 cm from point 0 down,
- connect the 8 points with a curved line. You can use a compass - place the leg at point 0 and draw part of the circle from 8 to 8:
Construction of a sleeve pattern
The base of the sleeve is a rectangle 40*15 cm.
From point 0 down we lay 2 segments: 11 cm and 17 cm.
From point 11 to the right we set aside 12 cm. From point 17 to the right we draw a line until it intersects with the seam line, put point 17.2, for example. All that remains is to connect points 0, 12 and 17.2 with a smooth line and cut out the pattern along the contour.
