Pattern Drafting for a Summer Dress

Finding a summer dress that fits your specific body measurements perfectly can be tricky. This year, why not make one instead? Ashley Hough shares pattern drafting tips and shows you how to draft an easy summer dress pattern based on your own measurements.

Measurements

The first and most important part in pattern drafting is taking accurate measurements. It is important to get your measurements right since this will dictate how the end garment will fit you. Ashley shows what areas need to be measured and gives several tips for taking measurements. She demonstrates how to take the measurements on a dress form as well as how to take the measurements on herself, in case a second person is not available to help take measurements.

Pattern Drafting

After all of the measurements have been taken and recorded, Ashley shows the basic math that is needed prior to drawing this particular dress pattern. This is due to the fact that this easy summer dress pattern is made from two basic pattern pieces that are cut on the fold. Ashley then shows how to begin drafting the dress pattern by drawing the first long line, which is the fold line.

From there she shows how to use the numbers given from doing the basic, easy math to mark points around the initial line and then connect the points to make the pattern piece. After showing how easy pattern drafting can be for this simple summer dress, Ashley shares how to construct the dress by simply sewing the two long side seams and the shoulder seams together. From there you can finishing the seams and the edges as desired, and just like that you have an easy summer dress made from your own measurements. Once this dress is finished, check out our other fun sewing projects!