24th September 2017 How To Drape A Fabric Into A Garment

Instructed by a professional seamstress and pattern cutter with couture experience, discover the exquisite design technique in this practical day event using gorgeous, luxury eco textiles from Offset Warehouse. You’ll leave the event with an understanding of how to work practically with fabrics, skills such as how to use the grain of a fabric to beautifully manipulate a textile to enhance your design, and your very own draped garment!

Los Angeles: Sunday Jul 30th, 2017 - 17:00pm
London: Monday Jul 31st, 2017 - 01:00am
Kolkata: Monday Jul 31st, 2017 - 05:30am
Sydney: Monday Jul 31st, 2017 - 10:00am

Learn how to drape a fabric on a mannequin and transform it into a spectacular, wearable piece of art.

Draping on the stand (sometimes referred to as modelling, or moulage) is a pattern cutting technique used by many designers, where garments are created on the stand and then transferred to paper to make a pattern. By draping, you can literally watch a garment come to life in front of your eyes in a matter of minutes. This quick technique gives designers freedom to play with fabric and adjust details, creating many variations in style, quickly and simply.

The process of draping also allows you to see the effect that gravity will have on a fabric, which is vital to any garment construction. You can see how the fabric will shape and mould when the grain of the textile is placed in different directions. With flat pattern making, it can be harder to picture how a fabric will fall or hang on a section of the garment.

The Day

In this Sunday session, your tutor, Laura Mackay, a professional seamstress and pattern cutter with couture experience and owner of Laura Alice Dressmaking, will take you step-by-step through the fundamental techniques of draping. Then, once you've played with some of the techniques and after a spot of lunch, you can have a go at draping a garment on a mannequin yourself using beautiful ethical fabrics from Offset Warehouse - and you get to take home your creations! Book a mannequin for yourself, or book one mannequin between two people for a slightly reduced price per person (you'll have to decide who gets to keep your gorgeous creation... or you may have time to drape two).

You’ll leave the event with an understanding of how to work practically with fabrics, skills such as how to use the grain of a fabric to beautifully manipulate a textile to enhance your design, and your very own draped garment.

Your Tutor

Our Guest of Honour and your tutor for the event is the incredibly talented fashion creative, Laura Mackay. With a background in Fashion Atelier, Laura trained in heritage construction techniques and has in-depth technical knowledge of 2D and 3D pattern cutting and couture dressmaking. Today, Laura and is a freelance pattern cutter and seamstress, creating bespoke dresses for individual customers, alongside teaching pattern cutting and sewing classes in her own studio, Laura Alice Dressmaking, in Kent.

All of the fabrics for the event will be provided by the online ethical fabric shop Offset Warehouse. Offset Warehouse has one of the largest ranges of ethical textiles available online, and a goal to sell the most beautiful, hand-crafted and fairly-sourced fabrics, trims and threads from across the globe.

Experience Required

Suitable for beginners. From home sewers to fashion designers, all creatives are welcome.

The Size of Garment You'll Make

There are five mannequins to choose from: two expandable mannequins (size 10-16 and 16-20) and three set size mannequins (size 10). All of the mannequins can be padded out to a slightly bigger size, but please note that we will not be able to create garments smaller than size 10. Please email in advance if you would like to reserve a specific size.

What You’ll Need

We will provide all of the materials you will need including the fabric, dressmaking pins, tape measures, fabric shears, paper scissors, rulers and tape - and of course, the mannequins! But please feel free to bring your own equipment too. We also recommend you bring a pad, paper and camera, to record your learnings.

Lunch

We have included a 45 minute lunch break for the session. Please feel free to bring your own lunch, or alternatively, there is a gorgeous vintage tearoom located upstairs, ideal for a relaxed lunch over a cafetière of fresh coffee and delicious food.

The Venue

Sun Pier House is a fantastic community-interest art venue based in the heart of Chatham. Providing riverside artist studios and shared creative office space for local businesses and talent, they run wide range of events and workshops regularly for the arty, crafty and active types.