How To Make Sewing Skirt Patterns? With Techniques and Examples

The skirt is one of the most worn attire by females. However, we can also find some male actors wearing skirts on the red carpet in today’s fashion world. To design skirts of any kind, you need to understand different techniques of sewing skirt patterns. Skirts are made from different types of fabrics, such as denim, linen, cotton, or any other lightweight material. Some varieties of skirts, such as pareos, are made from a single piece of fabric. But the story of every skirt that you see in today’s world starts with designing its basic pattern. 

What Is Pattern Making?

Pattern making is a technique that several cloth manufacturers use to gain a basic idea of the cloth that they are going to manufacture. However, making these patterns is not an easy task. Various methods have been employed over the years to make this process easier. Any technique that can sketch a dress is viable in the fashion world. Similarly, while making skirts too, designers use various techniques in sewing skirt patterns.

Techniques Employed in Sewing Skirt Patterns

Creating a good skirt pattern is indeed a tough task and requires a high level of precision which comes by practice. A designer may come up with a beautiful sketch, but if they could not realize it into an actual piece of clothing, it’s of no use. Three techniques are used in sewing skirt patterns by clothing manufacturers 

Flat Pattern Drawing

This method involves taking a basic pattern and translating them into 3D shapes using muslin fabric. This type of pattern is used to enhance the comfort of the person wearing it. Every base pattern of women clothes consists of the following components - 

• Neckline 
• Sleeves 
• Fitted skirt 
• Front and back bodice

These elements, when accompanied with darts give the right shape to the clothes. 

Drafting

This process is used to design the cloth initially. These initial designs are made using sizing presents or can be drawn by using a model. Drafting involves creating markings on the clothes to make the process of manufacturing clothes easier. Some of the major drafting techniques used in skirt manufacturing are 

• Manipulating Darts - The darts in a dress are manipulated to get the desired sewing pattern. 

• Slash and Spread  - This drafting method involves slashing patterns and spreading them to obtain the desired style. 

Draping

This is the final technique used in sewing skirt patterns. In this stage, designers try to create a 3D pattern in the clothes. In this technique, a mannequin is used to draw patterns. Once the patterns are finalized, they are noted on the paper to make the final design. 

Drafting is the most important step in creating a skirt pattern, therefore, let’s understand this technique in a much better way by using some examples. 

Drafting A Skirt By Manipulating Darts

Darts are very essential in sewing skirt patterns and imparting shape to the fabric. Darts may seem old-fashioned to some fashion designers and hence, they seek to avoid them. But darts form the base of cloth patterns and cannot be removed. However, if one cannot remove darts, one can surely manipulate them to get the desired style of the bodice. 

One example of manipulation of darts is a princess seam. This seam is sewed by amalgamating the darts of the shoulder and the waist dart.  

Example of Drafting A Skirt 

To draft a skirt by manipulating darts follow these steps 

1. Draft the front - After pinning the pattern paper around the hip area, you will find bagginess in the waistline of the dress. This is fixed using a dart that will be stretched halfway across the center front and the side seam. Once you have placed the dart at the right place, pin it and draw on the waistline. 

2. Draft the back - Similarly, we will now draft the back of the dress. Remove the bagginess by placing darts in the right places. Finally, mark the darts and pin the center of the back.

3. Finishing the pattern - After sorting the back and the front of the dress, decide the length of the skirt and mark the hem by drawing a straight line. And to make the darts more visible, draw them on the pattern paper. 

After following all these steps, you have a beautiful skirt pattern ready to be transformed into a real skirt. 

Using Slash And Spread Technique For Sewing Skirt Patterns

The slash and spread technique is also one of the most widely used techniques for sewing skirt patterns. In this method, pieces are cut out from the basic pattern and rearranged inside the slashes of the pattern paper to spread the pattern of the skirt. 

Example Of Drafting A Skirt Using Slash And Spread Technique  

This method, as discussed previously, is used to imbibe fullness into a skirt. Several steps employed in this technique are - 

1. Chop off the sides - The sides of a pattern meant to create the A-line shape are to be chopped off to add the fullness in the right place. 

2. Slash the hem - In this step, the pattern piece needs to be cut, on the inside, from the hem to the waist.

3. Cut the cut-out pieces - The pieces removed in the previous are meant to be slashed again in the same number as the slashes done on the main piece.  

4. Arrange the pieces - pieces that were slashed in the 3rd step are arranged between the gaps left in the main pattern paper after the 2nd step. This results in the formation of a curved hem that has a symmetrical length on all sides. 

The piece obtained after employing this technique of sewing skirt patterns will have fullness spread evenly across the body and the sides of the dress. You will obtain perfect side seams, which can now be easily hemmed to obtain a beautiful dress. Moreover, this technique will also improve the waistline of the dress and impart a beautiful curve symmetry to it. 

Skirt Patterns For You To Try

Now that you have understood different techniques of sewing skirt patterns, you can make any of the following skirt patterns for your latest collection.

Gathered Skirt Pattern 

It is one of the easiest skirt patterns that you can start with. In this method, you need to sew straight lines and reinforce them with elastic around the waist.

Circle Skirt Pattern

A circle skirt pattern is probably the most commonly used skirt pattern. This type of skirt can also have a zipper and buttons on its front.  

Apart from these types of skirts (pencil, pleated, wrap, etc.), there are numerous other skirts that you can make using these techniques. You can experiment with these types to sharpen your pattern-making skills. 

If you are a retailer and have a hard time sourcing clothes to make skirts or any other apparel, you should contact Fashinza. Fashinza is a B2B apparel manufacturing platform. We help clothing brands to manufacture their collections by connecting them with suppliers. We overlook the entire production process, from design to delivery - our partner brands only need to place the order.