How to Design Your Own Dresses
Designing your own dresses can be a fun and rewarding project. While sketching a dress can be fairly easy, the more challenging part is translating those designs into real fabric. If you’re not ready to make your own dress patterns from scratch, you may want to start with a dress pattern (or patterns) and modify them to create your dream dress. When looking at dress patterns, make sure to look at the line drawing of the dress style and not just the illustrations or photographs, since you may be distracted by liking or disliking the color or fabric of the dress and not notice the actual cut of the dress. Read on to learn how to design your own dresses. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Look through the dress styles in a pattern catalog or pattern website to get ideas. You may find one pattern that matches what you want fairly closely, or you may want to combine the features of several patterns. For example, you may like the sleeves of one pattern and the skirt of another.
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Choose a length for the skirt. You may want a cocktail dress or work dress to be just above, at or below the knee or hit mid-calf. A formal evening dress or casual summer dress might come to the ankles, and the most formal dresses might reach all the way to the floor. Decide if you want the bottom of the skirt to be straight, be cut at an angle or have handkerchief hems.
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Decide if you want the skirt to be closely fitted or loose and flowing. A formal evening dress may include a sheath, mermaid-style, A-line or full ball gown skirt, while more casual dress may include an A-line, pleated or gathered skirt. You may want the skirt to have slits, multiple layers of fabric, godets or other unique features.
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Choose a sleeve style for the dress. You may want a summer or evening dress to be strapless or off-the-shoulder, or have spaghetti straps, cap sleeves, bell sleeves or be asymmetrical with a single strap. A work dress might have short sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, raglan or close fitting long sleeves, possibly with slits or cuffs.
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Choose a neckline for the dress, such as low-cut, scooped, scalloped, square, v-neck, mandarin, turtleneck or sweetheart style. The back of the dress can also be a place to choose a unique neckline or design. You may want the dress neckline to include a collar or lapels.
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Draw a sketch of the dress, including each of the features you’ve picked out. Some combinations may work better than others, so you may have to draw a number of different sketches until you get a look you like. Add any extra details you want to make your dress unique.
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Pick a color and fabric type for the dress. Although the design of the dress itself is very important, the fabric you choose will also have a huge impact on how the dress looks. A dress design with spaghetti straps and a mid-length gathered skirt may make a casual summer dress if made from printed cotton, or a fancy cocktail dress if made from black satin.
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Tips & Warnings
Once you have a design you like, you may want to find a pattern that matches the overall fit of your dress as closely as possible, then make or modify other patterns to match the other features. You may want to cut out and pin the pattern pieces together and try them on to see how they fit, being careful not to poke yourself with a pin or rip the patterns.
After you’ve modified the paper patterns, try making them from muslin or cheap cotton fabric. Try on the muslin dress, then adjust the patterns as needed and cut the dress pieces from the real fabric.
