Date: 7/11/07 8:52 PM

There used to be free patterns for making skirts with the curved or J shaped gores on the net and in magazines. Are there any out there? I googled "spiral" skirts and got all sorts of interesting links, but not anything that was helpful. Adding to say: an adult size. I guess the basic drafting instructions wouldn't be all that different no matter what size....

TIA

Benita
-- Edited on 7/11/07 8:56 PM --

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Reply to beanssews
Date: 7/12/07 1:03 AM

Actually, it wasn't free, she asked if you used the pattern to send her $5. I remember seeing them in Threads around 1995 or 1996. Full page ad with the instructions and pattern pieces on the page.

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Mary Lynn (Who's finally sitting up and taking nourishment)

Design Degree??? I prefer my artistic license

"A woman who works with her hands is a laborer; a woman who works with her hands and her mind is a craftsman; but a woman who works with her hands and her brain and her heart is an artist." (St. Thomas Aquinas, modified)

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Date: 7/12/07 1:37 AM

This isn't free, but you can buy a spiral skirt pattern from Birch Street Clothing. The PDF of the pattern back page (available from the web page below) gives a pretty good picture of what the individual gore pieces look like.

Birch Street Spiral Skirt

CMC

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Reply to beanssews
Date: 7/12/07 1:47 AM

Butterick have just released a new pattern B5042 with curved gores.
It is shown in the NEW RELEASES on their website.



McCall had one too, but it is OOP now.
There was also one in BWOF about one year ago.
Vonne

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Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age and dreams are forever.
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

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Subject: Free Pattern for Spiral skirt? Date: 7/12/07 8:11 AM

A friend of mine had one that she had printed off from somewhere to make for her 5 y/o, but the print (instructions,we think) is impossible to read. She can't find the site again. The pattern used an individual's measurements to draft the gores. I was hoping that maybe someone had used the same site and had it bookmarked.

Marylynn, I do remember the one from the Threads pages. Maybe I should look through my old Threads and see if I can find it.

CM_Sews, the Birch Street pattern came up during my search. Since I was looking for instant gratification and an individual fit, I kept searching.

Vonnevo, I'll check my Burda mags. and see what I can find. As I said earlier, it was one of those "I wanna do it now" things.

Thank you everyone.

B

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Date: 7/12/07 8:27 AM

It's really not difficult to draft a pattern for one of these on your own. Here's how:
Start with a big pieces of paper. Draw a narrow rectangle, about 6-8" wide and as long as you want the skirt to be. Now, cut two pieces of string the exact length of the long edges. Tack the tops of the strings to each top corner of the rectangle.
Now, take the other end of one string and gently draw it to one side, forming a curve. The deeper the curve, the more swirly the skirt will be.
Take the end of the other string and draw it to the same side as the first, except not as sharply. You want this edge to be more gentle.
Using this string method will ensure that both edges are the same length -- this is vital to being able to sew the skirt together!
When you're happy with the shape, trace the strings' paths. Now join the ends with a gentle curve. Add seam allowances. Your final pattern piece should end up looking like this:

Since you have to cut all the pieces facing the same direction, this skirt wastes a LOT of fabric. Cut as many gores as it takes to go around your waist; if you're planning on using an elastic waist, make sure there are enough gores to go around your hips.
Sew the gores together, with the gentle side of one gore meeting the sharp curve side of the next. I serged the curved edges of mine and it came out fine.
I hope this is enough information for you to make your own!

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View my sewing projects: http://thereshesews.blogspot.com

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Reply to Welmoed Sisson
Date: 7/12/07 8:37 AM

Thank you, Welmoed!

Is there a "formula" for the top - or middle of the gores - related to waist and hip msmts.? (sorry if this is all obvious to you- have a spatial reasoning challenge here ).

I don't really want/need the bulk around the hips, so should prob. deal with a zipper opening vs. elastic waist?

Off to grab my pencil and paper....

Again. thank you!

Benita
-- Edited on 7/12/07 8:45 AM --

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Date: 7/12/07 9:12 AM

Benita, I don't know of any real "formula". Think of it this way, though: fewer gores will give you less swirl, so the more gores, the more swirl. The skirt I made for myself has 11 gores and I have a 35" waist, so each gore is a bit over 3" wide (hmm; didn't think they were that skinny when I wrote the instructions...). I put an invisible zipper and a waistband on mine. There is no real "front" or "back" to the skirt, so it doesn't matter where you put the zipper.
To make the skirt lie correctly, you do need to pay attention to the grainline and make sure it is the same for each gore.

Also, you can see on my pattern piece that the top of the gore is tapered in from hip to waist; this gives the top a more tailored fit and reduces bulk. If you go the elastic waist route, keep the top rectangular and draft to the hip measurement.
--Welmoed
-- Edited on 7/12/07 9:14 AM --

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View my sewing projects: http://thereshesews.blogspot.com

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Reply to beanssews
Date: 7/12/07 10:10 AM

Els put up instructions for drafting a gore skirt from a darted skirt pattern.

http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/draft-a-skirt-with-godets/

But I might start with waist measurement plus ease divided by 6 and hip measurement plus ease divided by six, and just wing it. Don't forget the seam and hem allowances, and you should be successful.

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Reply to beanssews
Date: 7/12/07 12:56 PM

Beansews, (and for anyone else who looks up this discussion in the months and years to come) the Birch Street pattern produces very full skirt. The suggested fabric is rayon, which gives a lovely drapey look and lots of movement to the skirt.

I have the pattern (somewhere in my stash) and they instuct you size up or down by simply adding more gores to the skirt. It's very basic: you stitch the gores together lining up the pattern markings so that the tip of the "J" lines up at the right spot on the next gore, then you do a fold-over elastic waist band. There is only one pattern piece, which you must cut with all the fabric layers right side up. There are no mirror image pieces. If you fold the fabric and cut, you end up with gores going in opposite directions. I imagine this would be true for any spiral skirt pattern - a rather nasty "gotcha!' if you run out of fabric.

If you are looking for something more fitted, then the Birch Street skirt wouldn't work for you.

CMC

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