♥ Portrait Sisters♥ Costuming - Drafting The Dress Pattern

Stephanie Gets Her Sailor Dress!

The first step is to make a simple pattern for the sailor dress.  I use normal paper to make the initial pattern and then transfer it to card stock to make it sturdy and easy to trace around.

I start by studying the dress in the photo. It is a simple classic & timeless sailor type dress.  It consists of a yoke, slight puff sleeves, a collar & flare skirt that according to the customer is above the knee.  There will also be embellishments of white cuffs on the sleeves, a white insert in the yoke and a red "tie' and red trim.  The Collar will also be white trimmed in red.

You can either lay the doll down on paper and trace around her to get an approximate size and shape of the pattern or you can fold a small piece of paper in half and just "eyeball" the pattern.
I initially make the pattern without the seam allowances and add them in later in the final draft.  You can see in the photo that the length is also longer than needed, but that is not important at this time.

Here you can see that I have altered the pattern to fit Stephanie.  I lowered the "V" in the neckline and added the seam allowances I think I will need.

I have come up with basic patterns for the dress that I think will work.

Pictured from Left to Right:

Bodice back, Bodice front, Collar, Skirt & Sleeve.

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