gore skirtLearn to make skirt patterns according to your measurements; and they’re guaranteed to fit! To give you an illustration of how easy it is to make a pattern, let’s make a 8-gore skirt like the model is wearing. For the example, we’ll use a waist measurement of 32 inches, hip 42 inches and skirt length of 24 inches. Remember, when you make the skirt for yourself you simply use your waist, hip, and skirt length measurements instead of these sample ones.

Let’s establish your height parameters.

draft1

Square across the paper to make a “T” shape. This will be the waistline.

Then measure down 8″ [20 cm] and draw a parallel line squaring from the centerline. This is the hipline.

Measuring from the waistline, draw a second parallel line equal to your desired skirt length and square from the waistline. This will be the hemline.

Now that you have your grid set up, it is time to use your body measurements to set the girth parameters.

Start by deciding how many gores you wish to create. Even numbers (4,6, 8, 10, etc.) will make your skirt symmetrical, but I like to use the “rule of 3s”. Odd numbers (5, 7, 9, 11, etc.) makes for a more interesting look. Either way, the number of panels used will create a gore skirt that will fit.

For the waistline, take your waist measurement divided by the number of panels desired.

For example, to create a 8-gore skirt to fit a 32″ [81.5 cm] waistline.

32″ divided by 8 = 4″[10 cm]

The hipline is normally 8″ [20 cm] below the waist, so at that point you’ll make a horizontal like equal to hip divided by number of panels desired + ¼” [6 mm].

Our sample hip measurement is 42″ [107 cm], so the horizontal line is 5 ¼ ” [13.5 cm] plus ¼” [ 6mm] = 5 ½” [14 cm].

With a straight yardstick, draw in the outside lines of the skirt, connecting the waist to hip to the hemline and draw in the bottom line.

At the top of the”T”, measure down ¼” [6 mm] and make the slight waistline curve.

The outside edges of the bottom are measured up ¼” [6 mm] each and the slight hemline curve drawn.draft2

Make your waistband to equal your waist measurement plus 1 ½” [40 mm], and the width is 2 ½” [65 mm] (your finished waistband will be 1 ¼” [32 mm] wide).

Remember you have not allowed for seams yet, so after making the skirt pattern, mark the 1/2″ seam allowance all around and add a 2″ hem. The seam allowance will be drawn around the skirt as well as the waistband.

Remember you will need to cut multiples of this pattern equal to the number of panels desired. Eg. cut 8 of the skirt pieces, since it is a 8-gore skirt.

The vertical center line of the pattern will be used as the “straight grain” line, when placing the pattern on the fabric.