Drafting: things to think about first

[TTailor]

In regards to drafting, there are a number of considerations to make before starting. These are some of mine.

Measurements and photos.
Take good measurements. Have the person being measured wear a snug fitting tshirt.
Pin twill tape or an elastic at the waist when measuring. Take balance measurements of your choice.

Take photos, with the waist tape in place. Take front, profile and side photos in good light.
Look at the numbers. I usually make a chart. Height divided into 1/2, 1/4, 1/8,
Chest, waist and hip divided the same. Calculate working scale 1/3 of chest plus 6 inches or 15.2cm.
Compare the measures against standard proportions.
      For instance, back length is usually 1/4 of height. Is the measurment you have longer or shorter?
Was the waist tape in the correct position? (Hint, elbows are usually at the same level as the natural waist).

Be familiar with the draft you are using. Try the draft a couple of times uing the sample measures, make sure you understand it before embarking. I actually have my own draft that I have developed over many years, but I often look at other sources for inspiration and refinement.

Analyse the figure.
The profile photo is usually very helpful here. Is the figure old or youthful, slim, average or bulked up with exercise, bony and angular, thick, soft, portly, stout or corpulent? With figures who carry excess weight, I think about their frame and what size they would be without the excess weight.

Start with the neck. Is the measured neck small or large in comparison to the chest size?
     For instance, I have three gentlemen who measure 38" chest. One has a 16 1/2" neck(larger than proportionate) one a 15" neck (proportionate)and the other a 13 1/2" neck (smaller than proportional)

Look at the profile of the back. Is the upper back built up, or average,  is the head forward?

Look at the stance, posture. Hip forward? Straight and balanced, stooped or erect?

Look at the seat. Prominent, averge or flat?

At the front of the body look at the position and shape of the chest. Is it prominent, or average?

Look at the front position of the waist. Is it in the same plane of the chest, or does the waist protrude beyond the chest plane?

Shoulders. Look at whether they are average, sloping or square. Is one side lower than the other?
If one side is dropped look at the hips too. Often one hip is higher than the other.

Legs. Straight, bowed or knock kneed?

all of these things need to be taken into consideration before drafting for the individual figure and help in the fitting process as well.

[Henry Hall]

Superb post.

Without one-to-one guidance and examples to emulate, most of the things you list are things that only get accumulated after having made errors and correcting the deficiencies (if they get perceived at all).

The business of organising the measures - finding the 1/2, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12 of the chest and other measures and pre-preparing everything to make drafting run smoothly was something I did from the start (I have an autism spectrum disorder and like classifying things), but taking photos and observing figuration, aside from obvious deviations, more-or-less passed me by; as I'm sure it does quite a few who merely take people's measures.

I thought recently about all those books which start with an overview of the tools you need for tailoring and no-one ever has a camera among the carefully arranged needles, thimbles, squares and shears. It's really an indispensable reference tool.

People should print out your post and hang it over their cutting table so they can read it again and again.

[Schneiderfrei]

Oh, thank you so much Terri, that's great.

[Greger]

Henry, now that you mention camera, which is a new tool (not that long ago, it was not a practical tool). So I might as well add another- a laser level, that also does plumb. Nowadays, carpenters use them. Not sure how the new ones work. When they first came out they spun around. This certainly beats the "looking glass" ones of the past. Of course, there is the water level method using a hose. If it can be raised and lowered uneven shoulder, or high and low hip, is easy to measure. It can be set to waist height, chest height. If it has plumb, that would be handy, too. Finding strap or blade measure would be easy. How stooped, erect, sway back and even normal. It would assist with taking a number of measures.  Carpenters can afford it, then tailors can to. Not to mention that it is a tax write off.

[TTailor]

I think the digital camera has allowed for so much more refinement in my first drafts. It has saved so much time and money.
For instance, the other day I was drafting a 3 piece suit for an actor and by the measurements his waist about 2" smaller than his chest. Ok, so obviously that is a larger than proportional waist measurement for that chest size, but what the photos show was that he carried most of his weight in the front waist. So it was not evenly distributed and in making the pattern, I was able to make corpulent adjustments. If I was just following a draft, I would not have allowed enough in the front waist because by the numbers his waist is not bigger than his chest but in the photo, his waist was far in front of his chest in profile.

Another was a gent with shoulders that had virtually no slope to them, and another gent with bowed legs that no one had indicated on his measurment sheet.

I could go on and on about it, but it is also important to take the photos properly. Stand far enough away to get the whole body in, and take the shot from about waist height, so I kneel down to take the pictures, and that way the image is not distorted by angling the shot upwards or downwards.

[Henry Hall]

Using a camera is in some ways better than making figuration and stance notes (though doing these too are a good idea) because you see immediately in an image what's going on; and things you might not have noticed at first.

I took some photos recently and already knew that the fellow had a hips forward and open stance, but what I hadn't noticed was how turned out his feet were. I hadn't noted it and would likely have missed it without the photo record.

[posaune]

when I do photos I add to the person a thing which measurement I know, maybe let her stand on a piece of paper DIN A 4. (Nice is a person before tile walls) With the help of a designer software (Inkscape) I can correct the distortion of the camera lens and with some math can check measures. And can measure some which would be difficult to measure on the person.
lg
posaune

[Schneiderfrei]

Hi posaune,

Thanks for mentioning inkscape, is that the program that Schneidergott and others use to put arrows on an image?

[hutch--]

Thanks for mentioning Inkscape, I have been after a decent vector drawing program for a while as my Micrografx oldie no longer works and this one looks good. Have not had time to learn how to fly it yet but it looks like a very useful tool.

[Henry Hall]

I use Inkscape to make svg images from the bitmaps in many of the draft scans.

[TTailor]

Take a balance measurement.
I think it is very important and there are various methods.

This is what I do.
Have the person being measured wear a close fitting t shirt, so you can see their shape.
Pin a one inch twill tape or elastic around the natural waist level. That means to me, at the navel in the front and the tape should have a slight rise towards the back.
I do not attempt to make the line level with the floor.
I measure then from the nape to the CF waist.

When I am drafting, I set up the basic skeleton of the draft chest line, waistline etc. I draw in the back neckline.
Measure the back neckline setting the tape on its edge to measure the curve. Lets say that measures 3 1/2 inches.
I mark a short line 1 inch below the waist construction line at the centre front.  I put the measuring tape at that point, and starting at 3 1/2"  I then measure up towards the neck point of the draft . I can then see whether the draft needs additional length, and I can make decisions on how I am going to add the length.

Another useful two mesurements are back length ( nape to cb waist) and front length (base of throat to CF waist)
If you set up your draft using the nape to waist, you can mark the short line 1 inch below the waist construction line in the front, then apply the front length to find the base of the throat, then apply the neckline depth as given in the draft. That should also give you an indication of whether you need to make adjustments.

[Tailleuse]

Terri,

These suggestions are extremely helpful.  I imagine an individual drafting for herself or himself could apply them by using a camera or even a cell phone camera on a tripod.

[spookietoo]

I recently discovered the timer on my cellphone camera. I haven't bought a tripod yet, but I've established a couple of spots where I can set the camera on existing furniture, in good light, next to a wing wall ( which is a good indicator that the photo was taken at a level position.)

This has quickly become my best fitting tool.

[Greger]

Consider the video ability of cameras. A standing figure is one part of good clothes. Clothing that moves with you well are even better. And videos will help you achieve this (if you move in them). Clothing that are fluid in motion are a great sight to see see.