Drafted my first sloper!

Last night I got to work on my planned beige and burgundy plaid skirt idea. valleyviolet* cautioned me against a wrap style, so I searched around for simple directions on the Internet to making a basic skirt. I came across a really excellent BurdaStyle tutorial for drafting your own basic skirt sloper. It's very cool, teaching you how to use your measurements to draft two pattern that reflects the front and back of your body by quarters, which are then cut on the fold to make two halves.

Due to only having a fourteen-inch-wide piece of fabric, that required me to shorten the length of the skirt from eighteen inches, and I prefer wearing my skirts at hip-height anyway. So in order to alter it to my purposes, for the front I did not include any shaping, such as darts, that would not come down to my high hip line, and I moved the waist curve down. For the back I drafted it according to the directions in order to get the side shaping right, again moved the waist curve down, and then just cut off everything that came above the high hip.

It was fun and precise, I enjoyed doing it a lot. I used my French drafting curve for the firs time making the side and waist shaping! I was really impressed at how meticulous and well-though-out this design was for even a simple skirt sloper. Fit is one of the most challenging aspects of garment making, so this level of precision with the use of measurements is really great.

The last thing I did was cut the fabric. I added a one-inch seam allowance instead of a half-inch to give myself a wider margin for error. When I held the pieces up to myself they seem to have come out right, like they will take on the shaping they're intended for. And I really love this print.

I need to get a beige zipper before I sew it. I am going to be super careful, since going slow and following the directions precisely has served me up to this point. I really hope I can maintain the really good fit that I think I achieved on the sloper.