Draping Fabric to Create a Garment

Background
Fabric draping is the process of positioning and pinning fabric on a mannequin or dress form to develop the structure of a garment. Fabric drape is defined as the way that fabric falls to the floor. Fabric bias, rigidity, stiffness, type of fabric, weight, and thickness can all be factors in determining drape. Many professional fashion designers use fabric draping to design garments (and then usually leave the dirty work to interns or other workers!).

Description
Your assignment is to create a Couture garment using drape. You may choose to do a dress, pants, blouse, skirt....essentially -- any garment. The theme of your garment is "texture in nature." Please TRY to use the fabric I have extra in the classroom. 

Steps

1. HW: Find 5 different textures in nature. Pin them on your Pinterest board.
2. Sketch out your croquis.
3. Use your sketch as a basis for the draping. You may also want to use photographs of your texture or photographs of similar garments to see how draping works.
4. PLAY with the fabric. Experiment with different positions of the fabric to understand how it will lay.
5. With masking tape, tape parts of the mannequin to define your garment and/or the body.
6. You may need to create a foundation piece to hold your textures together. Think of this as the lining. 
7. Pin the fabric to the mannequin. Here, you will want to use a fabric pencil or chalk to mark the fabric. 
8. When you are satisfied with your garment, baste the fabric together with a hand needle and begin sewing on your machine -- you may need to do this in pieces.  

Grading Criteria

• Creativity/Risk taking
• Design
• Technical Quality
• Participation

Resources
Read this article about drape factor

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