Skirt Pattern Continued

I decided to make a scaled down pattern of the A-line skirt to make it easier to take photos.

The front and back of this skirt are identical, so I only need to draw one pattern piece. Also the pattern is symmetrical. The right and left sides are an exact mirrror image of each other. So instead of drawing out the whole pattern, I'm only going to draw half of it. To get the whole thing, I'll fold the fabric in half--along the grain line--and place the pattern piece on the fold. I'll do this twice--one for the back and one for the front piece. So I'm really only drawing out 1/4 of the skirt pattern.

OK: I've got four basic measurements to work with. For all the horizontal lines I'll use 1/4 of the measurement. The vertical lines are as measured.

1. The waist is a horizontal line near the top of the page--1/4 of the waist measurement.
2. Next I need to draw a vertical line on the far left of the page--that's the finished length of the skirt. This is the line that will be placed on the fold to cut out the skirt.
3. Place a mark on this line to show where the widest point is.
4. Then the second horizontal line is for the widest point--again it's 1/4 of the measurement.
5. Third horizontal line is the same measurement again, but at the bottom of the line for the finished length of the skirt.

That's the basic skirt outlined on the page, but there are a few things to add.

• I'm going to need some extra fabric at the top of the skirt to hold the elastic. So I added another line 4 cm above the waist line. This line needs to be wider than the waist because it will be folded down. So this line is tapered out to match.
• Now I still need to add extra to allow for the seams all around. I think 1 cm is an ok seam allowance. Most commercial patterns use 1.5 cm. There's no seam allowance on the folded edge, since there's no seam there, so only on the side of the skirt.
• Plus I need to make sure the skirt isn't skin tight. So there's another extra allowance called "ease" The ease makes sure the skirt is actually wearable. I'm working on a pattern that represents 1/4 of the skirt and I think 4 cm ease should be enough, so I'm going to add another 1 cm to allow for ease.
• One more thing to think about: how am I going to get this skirt on and off? I'll either need to step into it, or put it on over my head. So the finished width at the waist will have to be at least as wide as my widest point. That might mean I need to allow a bit more ease.
• And right at the bottom--it will need a hem, so I need to add a couple of centimetres there.