Six Gore Skirt Drafted From a Two Gore Skirt

This is from the book, “Dress Design, Draping and Flat Pattern Making”, by Hillhouse and Mansfield.

I never new it could be this simple to draft a gored skirt correctly! Step one is to make a master two-gore pattern with only a slight flare at the hem. I probably had one of these in my stash but didn’t even bother to look for it since it’s so easy to draft.

I also enjoyed the illustration below as a referral to flattering panel spacing.

Original half of front skirt, dotted line indicates where the slashes will go

Center front on fold, with added flare

Side front with added flare at side front and a spread in the middle. Waist is corrected by adding to the side front.

I only have two yards of fabric and I want a long skirt. So not too much flare can be incorporated.

Then I found out that the fabric was torqued off the bolt, maybe due to the glitter that looks like it’s glued to the fabric... and it wasn’t a very generous cut to start with! It’s light silk Charmeuse and it was teared off, so the grain was easy to see. I made it somewhat better by stretching it on the bias. But I still needed to separate the two yards to be able to lay out the pattern to its full advantage.

Here the torque is visible.

Using the ruler I extended the pattern as much as the fabric would allow.

Break point line (where the flare starts.) I placed it at 8” below my waist for a fitted hip.