What is a pattern sloper?
I’ve had quite a few requests for pictures of my pattern slopers, and also for an explanation of what they actually are!! Fair enough! I guess it was kind of unfair to talk about them without explaining what they are.
A pattern sloper or block is a basic paper pattern, with no seam allowance, that is used to draft all other patterns. There are 5 basic pieces to a sloper set.
- Bodice Front
- Bodice Back
- Skirt Front
- Skirt Back
- Sleeve
If you were to put all these pieces together what you would get is a very basic long sleeved dress. The idea behind this is to mimic your proportions (or the dress forms) in order to create other patterns, making drafting your designs easier.
It is a bit of an undertaking to create your own slopers, lots of tedious measurements, rulers and tracing paper, and even after you’ve drawn it all out and you think you’re done, there are still a lot of adjustments to get them closer to your body shape. For example the picture at the top of this post is of my bodice front and back slopers. As you can see there are lines drawn all over them, they’ve been cut up and stuck back together, for all the various adjustments (and mistakes!) I made. I was going to put pictures of my skirt blocks up too, but they are less interesting as they are pretty much a pattern for a pencil skirt.
When I first made them, I was skeptical of whether I could actually use them to create a pattern for any design. But now from experience, I can confidently say that you can create a pattern for any design from a basic sloper set.
Though it is a lot of effort, I think it is well worth it. I cannot believe how useful mine have been already. It’s taken a lot of stress out of trying to sew my own designs, and I feel it has left me much more in control.
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This looks incredibly useful. I’ve been taking baby steps to figuring out how to make my own patterns and have found myself scavenging pattern pieces from older patterns to help me get the right measurements.
Can you by slopers? Is that super lazy? :) the idea of making my own seems a little daunting.
LOL! yes you can buy slopers, and no it’s not super lazy to buy them!! Making them yourself does take some time, but I guess I really wanted the challenge of doing it myself. Thankfully, the large pattern companies have fitting shell (sloper)patterns that you can buy based on your size. Here are some you might like to check out:
Butterick B5746
Butterick 6092
Mccalls 2718
Vogue 1004
Just remember though, these are standard slopers, so you will more than likely need to make alterations to them, to get them close to your body shape. For example, if you are anything other than a B cup you will probably need to adjust the bust, if you have a sway back, scholiosis… etc etc… you get the idea! But I’m sure the patterns come with instructions for that :)
[...] creating the bodice pattern. Now luckily the bodice shape I want isn’t too dissimilar to the original bodice slopers that i drafted a while back… all I really needed to do was change the position of the bust [...]
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