The first stage of the skirt draft is measuring yourself or your friend. You or your chum should just wear your normal underclothes,
normal pantyhose and normal bra as you might when you wear the top layer of the skirt.
Print off the Picture chart below to help you record the actual measurements. It will enlarge and then become A4 size.
For measuring stand with feet together and be relaxed, but do stand straight and be upright in your posture. Take
the tape measurement by neither having the tape too slack or too firm. If
too slack the toile garment when made will be too loose. If too
tightly measured the end garment won't fit. So be realistic about the
numbers you see on the tape measure and use a quality fibreglass tape
measure rather than a cloth one which may be stretched with usage.
Open weave cloth ones are often given free with magazines and soon lose
shape. A tape measure costs about £1.
To measure the hip use your tape measure to
measure around the fullest part of the hips which is usually about 23 cm
below the waistline. Take the tape measure around that fullest hip part
until you have the hip measurement. But if your fullest part is much
higher or lower than 23cm down make a note of that when you take the
measurement.
This is not difficult, but may cause you to
debate a little. I usually use a measurement which is to the knee.
In my case this is 56cm as I am the average UK height for a woman.
Generally you may wish to make the block up to 70cm long dependant on
current fashion.
But if you will mainly be making longer
skirts and adaptations of this block, it's useful to have a to the knee
block and also a mid calf or above ankle block. I leave you to decide.
In the main don't worry too much about it at this at this stage because
you just need to understand and be able to follow the method. The
point of making the initial block is to get a good fit around the waist and
hips.
The length is something you can always adjust
later. Also when you make up a cotton or muslin or calico toile mock
up of the pattern you have drafted from these instructions, you are better
having one to the knee so you can adjust the side seams easily if required.
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