Draping 101

Week one;   introduction to draping

Wikipedia Madeleine Vionnet era 1920

Draping also known moulage, modeling and more recently I saw draping referred to as fabric sketching. Draping is a technique used by designers, where designs are created on a dress form and then transferred onto paper to make a pattern.

The design development begins with a concept, producing sketches of designs, cutting patterns, making toiles or muslins, adjusting the pattern and design to fit on the body.

This class is about designing directly on the dress form, having made no prior sketches, no premeditated ideas as to what the final outcome will be.

You are used to sectioning the body into parts –

                                             bodice –   center front and back

                                                              Side seams and darts

                                             Skirt -      center front and back

                                                             Side seams and darts

You have the blocks!

Zac Posen draping pinterest

Also by experimenting with different weights of fabric both woven and knit. One design draped in a different fabric weight can look totally different as can mixing a knit with a woven. . (This is a good way to use up all those fabric stashes.)

Alexander McQueen-Plato's Atlantis-2010
Shape and scales

Draping is also used by designers to figure out a pattern or print placement. That check, stripe or over sized print, when placed on a dress stand at different angles, manipulated and reduced in size will look totally different to the original piece of fabric. 

So let’s take a look at a dress form.

PGM Pro 605A Womens Ladies Professional
Head to Toe Dress Form & Stand at AllBrands.com

There are both full and half scale stands available. ½ scale stands don’t have collapsible shoulders while most full scale stands do. Both can be raised and lowered.

When working on a full size stand lower it of raise it up so that your shoulder matches to the stand.

Tape can be used to mark the bust, waist and hip lines on the stand. Tape is used to mark style lines.

Tape or yarn is pinned or stuck to the dress form to mark the bust, waist and hip lines. It is also used to mark the style line. 

So how let’s have some fun and start to drape.

Creating drape from a straight piece of fabric, project 1

 Begin with a piece of fabric, if working full scale 36 inches by 18 inches and half    scale   20 inches by 10 inches, or just a square of fabric. The size of the fabric will change as you as you start to experiment with more designs start to develop.   Mark 2 notch points approximately 6 inches down from the raw edges on both ends of the fabric. The notch point is going to determine the length of the drape up to the waist

Fold the fabric in half matching the notch points; pin together, right side to right side.

Machine stitch up to the notch points, securing both ends of the stitching with a back tack.  Press the seam open and flat. The size and length of this drape is going to change with the size of the fabric you cut and your choice of fabric, muslin, crepe, knit jersey, stiff, e.g.

Now take your prepared fabric to the dress form and decide where you want the drape to fall.  This can be down the princess line, center front line or between these two lines on the dress form. Pin in place at the notch point where the stitching finishes on the waistline.

Now decide where you want the end of the drape to be. This can be straight down from your first pin or angled. Pin the point of the drape to the dress stand.

From the pin on the waistline, smooth the fabric out with your hand towards the side seam and pin to hold.Repeat on the other side.  Play with the drape moving it around the body until you like the design.

Don’t cut anything at this point.

If you like what you have smooth the fabric around the waistline – pin and fabric onto the waistline approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) along from the first pin; clip the fabric above the waist line down onto the pin, smooth the fabric across the waistline and pin; clip down to the pin and smooth the fabric again …. Pin and mark down the side seam, center front and waist line.

But keep working this drape on the form

The drape has now become a sleeve.  The machine stitched seam has become the shoulder seam. The fabric has been pinned to the center back and front. It has been pinned to the side seam and down the under arm to form the sleeve and bodice. This has not been cut so I can keep experimenting with this drape. 
Take photos or sketch these experimental drapes as a reference, they could be something you want to revisit.

        

Back to the skirt again -

Evening ensemble House of Dior  
(French, founded 1947)
Designer: John Galliano 
(British, born Gibraltar, 1960)
Couture Line: House of Dior 
(French, founded 1947)
 Date: spring/summer 1998

This skirt is one piece of fabric. As it drapes around to the back the fabric at the waist has been pulled up so that the center back fabric grain is now on the full bias. It is also the some drape just a long piece of fabric folded back on itself and machine stitched together.
A crepe fabric would work perfectly for this skirt.

As you pull the fabric up smooth it around the waistline and pin in place and cut down to the pin.  Repeat until you come to the center back seam. The back will form a water fall effect.  This is the same drape as in the first image just continued around the body

photos from John Galliano Autumn/Winter 2017 Ready-To-Wear
 British Vogue . vogue.co/uk

Same drape, different fabric type and weight.  

Look at the drape from all angles as this is now we see garments. Make any adjustments to the drape. Now mark around the waistline, center front, side seams, hip line, around the bottom of the stand with a pencil. Add notch points. The drape is now ready to be removed from the stand and copied onto paper.

Charles James, evening dress, 1946. from the Brooklyn Museum Costume collection 

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/80097100

Charles James draped a high waisted skirt with a built in hip yoke from the straight line drape. The yoke has dropped down onto the waist line as it extends around the body to the center back. Look at the pattern on the fabric, it is showing you all the different directions of the fabric grain .  The fabric James used is a woven metallic silk.

 Start the drape by marking up the dress form with the style lines.  (the red lines) Note that the position of the style line from the center front over towards the side is nearly on a 45% angle, so the fabric that drops down once you cut is going to be on the bias.

Decide the length of your skirt and the fullness of the draping. This is once again going to vary with your choice of fabric. Charles James used a soft silk fabric for this dress, and of drape.

Mark in a 1 inch (2.5cm) extension line down one side of your fabric that follows the straight of grain of the fabric. Mark as center front, and pin down the center front of your dress form with the first pin being placed about one inch down from the top of the fabric right on the waistline

Smooth the fabric across to the style line and pin. Cut or slash down onto the pin on the style line, adjust the fabric and pin to hold in place approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) down from the first pin.  The flare that is falling down from the pin can be made more or less by pulling the fabric back up  making the slash smaller or by opening the slash more which will let the fabric drop, creating a larger flare. Continue to work down to the end of the style line.

Fold the fabric back on itself up to the first pin. The length of fabric from the last pin at the end of the style line fold will affect the drape so experiment by lengthening and shortening until you like the drape that has formed.   

Smoothing with your hand pin from the fabric fold back along the style line to the top point above the waist

Cut and clip along the marked waistline to the side seam, smoothing the fabric across the hip to the waistline to form a yoke. Repeat around the stand. 

  Comme de garcon also draped the side of this pant back in the early 90's These would be amazing made in cotton gauze for summer or a knit fabric. 

Think of turning this drape into a dress

ixosofficial.com

Or make the drape into roses as in the now famous Alexander McQueen dress. Yes, you can use this drape to copy this dress.  To bodice of the McQueen dress is rows of tucks. This gives lots of fabric fullness to pull up to start manipulating the rose. There is also an under skirt to attach the rose too.

https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/12121/
this-new-exhibition-explores-alexander-mcqueens
-love-of-flowers-roses-2019-2020

I pleated or tucked the fabric onto the waist line of the dress form to get the fabric fallness needed for the rose.