Read on Twitter
Transferring draped patterns to paper thread !
I start by pinning my drape down to a blank sheet of paper. I start by pinning my straight grain line as straight as possible, then smooth out the rest of the drape gently to avoid stretching it
Next I'm going to trace all relevant lines, darts, seams, hems, grain lines and notches with my tracing wheel. Before I had access to a tracing wheel I would use a pin and prick along the lines
After tracing I have this left. I pull off the fabric drape but I keep it close hand because I'm def gonna forget what all the lines are
The first thing I do is take out my straight ruler and trace my grain line. This is the CF of a dress and the grain line is directly down the middle
I'm also gonna mark any seam I know needs to be a straight line. On this particular drape, that's only the shoulder seam
With the straight grain marked and all the straight seams drawn, it's time to break out the curved ruler!
I'm gonna start tracing all the curved seams now. I find the best fit on the curved ruler, changing it's angle every few inches or so to get the best curve
There are lots of little overlaps where I change the angle or orientation of the ruler to continue the curve. I come back to those overlaps and smooth them over the get the smoothest line possible
I'll do this for the rest of the curved seams and darts. I'm gonna follow my traced lines as closely as possible when it makes sense, though occasionally I'll defer to the curved ruler when it looks like I've made a mistake or had a wobbly hand, like in the tracing below
After my darts are traced, I'll pull out my take measure to make sure both sides of the dart are the same length. If they aren't, I'll make small adjustments to the curvature until they are. Usually they're only off by at most 1/4"
All my tracing and trueing is done on the left side, but this is an asymmetrical piece and I'll need a full pattern rather than a 'cut on fold' pattern. The piece is symmetrical from the waist up, so I'm going to trace the left side waist up directly
I start by cutting out the left side from the waist notch up, including darts
I've folded the pattern carefully along the center front line and trace it to the other side of the pattern
It's looking pretty good! There are a few adjustments I need to make with the assymetrical seam to make sure the waist notches match up, so I'll grab that curved ruler again
And after I've trued the right side, I cut everything out and the center front is ready to go! I made some alterations to the torso length based on my msmts but that's not something I'll go into detail here about lol
And now I'm going to repeat this whole process for the center back piece! See u in a few hours :)
