Drafting the trouser front

Ok, Sorry for the delay, but one of my job prospects has come through and I had to stop everything and make a toile for a fitting on Tuesday.

So when you are drafting, the paper is on the table in front of you and the tops of the trousers will be to your left and the hems will be to your right.

I am going to follow the instructions and rewrite them to suit my explanations.

One more bit of terminology:

Square a line, square out: this means to draw a perpendicular line to another line at a specific point on the draft. Be accurate, a 90 degree angle is required.

First step.

The first instruction is 1 from 0 equals the body rise, 13 inches. Stop.

Obviously you have to have a line to start from, not just an arbitrary point hovering in space. Point 0 is on the crotch line, so your first step is to draw a line that will be the crotch line. This line is perpendicular to the table edge.

Now pick a point on the line to be point 0. Label it.

Now square a line perpendicular to the first line, from point o extending the new line to your left.

Measure up from point 0, the rise, 13 inches, and mark point 1. This is the top of the waistband.

Measure down 2 inches from 1 to find point 2. This is your waistline.

Measure up from point 0, 1/6 scale to find point 3. This is your hip or seat line level.

Measure up from point 0, 5 1/4" to find A. That is a guide point for drawing the centre front curve.

Stop.

Now, you will need to square out from point 1, point 2, and point 3. You should do that now.

Next step.

measure from 0 along crotch line, 1/6 scale to find point 4. This is the mid point of the leg.

measure from 0, along crotch line, 1/4 total hip measurement to find point 5.

measure from 3 along the hip line, 1/4 total hip meaurement minus 1/4" to find point 6.

measure from 2 on the waist line, 1/4 of the total waist plus 1/2" to find point 7.

measure from point 1 along the top line, the distance 2-7 plus 1/4" to find point 8.

measure from point 0 along the crotch line (towards yourself) 1/6 scale to find point 9.

Stop.

You will need to square a line down from point 4.

Measure from point 4, along this new line, the inseam plus a seam. (a seam allowance here is 1/4inch), so 31 1/4 inches total, to find point 10. This is the hem line.

Find the halfway point on line 4-10 and make a mark, then measure up 2 inches to find point 11. This is the knee line.

Just to clarify, the measurement from 4 to 11 will be 2 inches less than the measurement from 11 to 10.

Stop and square out in both directions from point 10 to make your hemline and from point 11 at the knee line.

At the hem line, measure 1/4 of the bottom (hem width) from point 10 in both directions to find points 12 and 13.

At the knee line, measure out 1/4 of the knee measurement from point 11 in both directions to locate points 14 and 15.

Measure up from point 10, 3/4 inch and mark point Ax.

Measure from 9 on the crotch line 1/2 inch to locate point D for the dress.

Okay, now you are going to join the points to make the pattern.

I think in this case, you could join the points with a ruler for guidelines. Do this lightly in pencil.

You can then draw in your pattern lines with this thought in mind:

Generally speaking, there are very few areas of a draft of any kind that have straight lines. so my advice over and over will be to draw nice lines. Even if you are using curved rulers, it is a good exercise to draw your lines by eye and train the eye hand connection.

Draw beautiful lines. period.

I'll continue tomorrow with drawing in the lines and working toward the back