Draping :•Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) the way in which fabric hangs •Hang or cover with flexible material or fabric, usually in folds; adorn•Place casually and loosely; (Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) (often plural) a cloth or hanging that covers something in folds; drapery

MATERIALS Materials Muslin fabric, the most common material used for

draping, is inexpensive and falls loosely over the dress form, making it easy to manipulate to create different looks. The fabric used in draping must be similar to the fabric that will be used on the final garment: Using a completely different fabric won't give the correct vision of how the final fabric will fit on the body when it's shaped and darted. A large supply of pins, scissors for cutting fabric, and markers or pens for identifying seams are also important supplies for draping.

Instructions

1 Prepare your dress form. Determine whether you are designing for yourself or for another. While a dress form is the perfect way to drape fabric for your own styles, include your model if you are designing for someone else. Get comfortable with the measurements of your dress form and compare them to your final product; your dress form should match the body you are designing for. It also helps to mark the center line of your dress form for clear and accurate draping.

2 Purchase a light fabric to begin draping and avoid more rigid fabrics until you are comfortable with the methods of draping; a light fabric is easier to work with. Consider starting with a simple design. Sleeveless dresses or tops are a good starting point. Draw your design or have a clear pattern in mind before you begin.

Power Jacquardeasy to use&maintain,adaptable with power/rapier/projectile looms

3 Begin draping your fabric; just as it sounds, draping is literally a free hand placement of your fabric on the dress form and adjusting or cutting into a pattern of your choice. Before you imagine a shape, wrap your fabric in the style of your future garment and be sure you have enough fabric.

4 As you lay the fabric over your dress form, make sure your center seam line is accurate and any pattern or grain in your fabric matches up on either side. Use pins to secure your fabric in place, but never pull or tug at it. Cut and pin pieces of fabric into a pattern, based on how you see the fabric fitting on your dress form. As you proceed, your garment will take a shape.

5 Using a fabric pencil or chalk, draw on the seams and other sewing instructions, like darts. Taking your fabric off your form, use your markings to trace a pattern on your pattern paper and include the space of at least 1 inch for your seams and other technical allowances. Cut your fabric to match your pattern, and re-pin onto your dress form for adjustments. Use a temporary stitch until you ensure the fit of your garment, and then machine stitch your final garment.

TYPES OF PLEATS 1. Hand Pleating – This method would

encompass folding a piece of fabric pleat by pleat to other hand techniques like shibori which employs the use of ropes to bind and compress fabric.

Hand pleating fold by fold becomes much easier with tartan, plaid or striped fabric since the repeat in fabric is used as a guide to assist in the folding.

Today this process of hand pleating is still practical but only in certain situations.  Below is an example of pleating being draped on a dress form for a particular style.  This is most common during the designing process when a designer is experimenting and draping on a form.  If the dress will be duplicated a special pattern can be created to speed up the process during production.

When the bodice of a dress is pleated and very contoured around the body a seamstress will pin the pleats one by one on the dress form with a piece of bias fabric.  The side pleated bodice below is an example of difficult hand pleating and cannot be duplicated by machine or pattern pleating.

Pattern Pleating – This method of pleating employs the use of a cardboard pattern or a tool referred to as a “pleaters board.”  Pleating boards are still used and sold today but mainly for the home sewer.  Fabric is stuffed into spaces on and then pressed with a steam iron.

Below is an example of a DIY pleaters board.  (For instructions how to make one visit Lex.)  They are fairly simple to make but can be rather limited in use.  For smaller pieces or trimmings I can understand there use but for larger projects like skirts or dresses they can be very cumbersome.  If you are not very accurate you can start pleating the fabric off the grain.  When that happens your seams will be very difficult to sew from puckering and your pleats can start to curl.  If you  are the type of person that wants to do everything yourself then my advice is to go for it.  However, the pleat you can make with a pleater board is so basic we can save you a ton of aggravation and just pleat it for you for around $10 dollars per yard (depending on the fabric).

Today the majority of profession pleating is done with the use of large pleating patterns spanning up to 4 yards in length.  Some of the more complex ones can take several months to make.  Certain types of irregular pleating can only be done by pattern pleating.  An example would be sunburst pleating or when a combination of two different types of pleating are used.  Below is an example of an accordion and herringbone (or chevron)  combination pleating pattern.

Machine Pleating – Last but not least is pleating with the use of a machine.  There are several different ways these machines are built to accomplish the task of pleating.  The machines we use at our factory have long blades that pinch the fabric across the entire width of the fabric and then folds it.  Generally speaking machine pleating  is the least expensive when making simple pleats like side pleat, box pleat or crystal pleat because they require less labor than other pleats. Another advantage to machine pleating is that the entire roll of fabric can be pleated and used for a variety of applications.  There are other couture type pleats that we make by machine as well.  These higher end pleats are usually a combination of two or all of the process just described.  The possibilities of mixing different pleating techniques are virtually infinite, and experimenting with then different techniques is something we love to do.

IMPORTANCE OF DRAPING Draping is considered an important skill for up-and-coming

designers because it teaches the art of putting a piece of clothing together on a dress form before creating a sketch.

The art of draping teaches a designer how darts and seams give a garment shape and a perfect fit.

Knowing about darts and seams helps a designer recognize what's wrong with a garment and quickly figure out how to fix it.

A designer who experiments with draping also has more options open to her than she would by merely sketching the look, as she can play with different darts and drapings to see if they work on a body right then and there.

USES The art of draping is often used in high fashion and

couture: Because high-fashion pieces are expensive to create — and often one of a kind — it makes sense for designers to use draping to get the design right the first time. Lingerie is also draped before the final design is documented on paper. Lingerie is typically made of delicate material, so it's important to perfect the look and fit on a dress form before putting together the final sewing pattern. Using a dress form to design evening wear offers the opportunity to make unique dresses that fall and drape in a variety of ways.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES* You don't have to know from experience how much wearing ease isnecessary where. You can just add more ease until it looks right.

* If you are using a fabric that relaxes/stretches, you have to dofewer iterations than with flat patterning. just use your fashion fabric to drape instead of muslin.

* It's easier to see how the stripe/pattern in the fabric will lookof on a figure if you drape with the fabric.

Disadvantages include: * For more complicated designs, you have to have a general sense ofthe shape before you start, in order to cut the right size of fabric.* you need an accurate dress form. Kathleen has some really excellentarticles on that subject, too.* If you want a paper pattern (you don't need one if you drape with astable fabric), you'll have to copy the whole thing over.