Pattern Making, Draping and Garment Construction
Pattern Making, Draping and Garment Construction
This domain tests three-dimensional thinking: converting a body and a design into accurate two-dimensional shapes, then back into a garment that fits and hangs.
Blocks, ease and darts
- A block is a fitted, un-styled master pattern drafted from body measurements plus wearing ease. Design ease is added on top to create the silhouette.
- Darts turn flat cloth into curvature; they point at the bust apex but stop 2–3 cm short of it.
- Dart manipulation relocates the same volume: pivot (hold the apex, rotate the dart) or slash and spread (cut and open). Moving a dart changes the design line, not the fit.
Truing and marking
After any manipulation, true the pattern: walk the seams, equalise adjoining seam lengths, correct dart legs, square corners at hem and centre front. Then add seam allowance (commonly 1 cm, 1.5 cm at side seams, 4 cm at hems), a grainline parallel to centre front, notches and all internal markings.
Draping
Work on a stand padded to the measurements and taped at centre front, bust, waist and hip. Keep the warp vertical and pin-block the fabric before cutting. Bias garments need about 24 hours to hang before the hem is levelled.
Construction and fitting
Typical order: interfacing → darts → seams → closures → collars and cuffs → lining → pressing → hem. Toile in calico, fit on a live model, record the adjustments, then transfer them back to the pattern. Press at every stage; pressing is not ironing.
Worked example
Move a bust dart to a princess seam: mark the apex; draw the new seam from shoulder through the apex to the hem; cut from the shoulder along that line to the apex; pivot the released section until the original dart closes; true the seam, add 1 cm allowance, notch the waist curve.
Traps
- Adding seam allowance twice, or forgetting it entirely.
- Not truing, so side seams pucker at the armhole.
- Grainline drawn at an angle, so the garment twists after washing.
- Adding ease twice - once in the block, once in the design.
- Overlocking raw edges before the fit is approved, making correction impossible.
- Levelling a bias hem immediately, then finding it drops unevenly.