How To Drape a Dartless Skirt

Hi guys, it's Nick Farios and welcome back to Fashion School with Nick Farios. In today's video, I'm going to show you how to drape a dartless skirt. Okay, so I know how much you guys loved my how to drape a dartless bodice video, so I thought, um, wouldn't that be interesting if I showed them how to apply that Yes, so here we go. Pay attention because this is going to be a good one. Now, this is really kind of a haute couture tip and trick that I learned after reading many books. Particularly, this was something that Yves Saint Laurent, the Yves Saint Laurent, did, as well as Chanel for the Chanel suits. Now, this really only works with more pliable, spongy fabrics such as wools with a big weave, a wide weave, kind of like a tweed or a boucle, something like what I have right here. That's why I have this right here. It works much better with this as opposed to something like a stiffer fabric like a muslin or a stiff cotton or a neoprene. All right, what normally when we drape a pencil skirt, what we do is we drape it and then we have to put a dart right here. We sometimes put two darts, but that's kind of old school, so we really just normally put one dart. See, like if I were to drape this, see, watch. I'm just going to do this. I'm going to like drape. I'm draping a skirt and all of a sudden it's like, oh my god, dart, right? But what they do in haute couture, the tailors, is they get rid of it and I found out how to do it. So, I'm going to show you how to do that. So, first things first, you will need kind of an open weave fabric like this, like this wool, this tweed, this houndstooth, kind of a boucle because it works much better with that, all right? So, I've got the fabric. Now, you want to cut out two pieces, one for the front, one for the back. Yes, the back will also be, shh, dartless. Yes, all right? Now, it's going to be about 14 to 15 inches wide by about 25 inches long, all right? Now, away from one of the edges, one inch away, you want to draw a grain line or what I have here is I did the tape as you can see. So, this is where you can place for the center front and for the center back and I did it this way because if I marked on this, I really couldn't tell even with my sharpie, all right? So, here's my center front mark. So, pin your skirt a little bit higher than the waist. Do you notice the waist is right here at the tape and so I went a little bit higher, okay? And then I pin. This is the center front. Do you see that? So, keep pinning down the center front, all right? So, just keep pinning. You want to make sure you keep this straight, all right? We're keeping this straight. Now, the next step normally is you would smooth, you would drape the skirt. Don't pull, okay? You want to smooth. Maybe add a little bit of ease. Just pinch it a little bit. You want to smooth to the side seam and you can feel the side seam here. Let me show you. I'm going to flip this over. Side seam, all right? And you want to keep this straight. Don't forget the center front straight and this will be parallel to the floor. Now, this is great when you have a fabric like this because why? There's horizontal kind of stripes so I can tell, see? So, if I was draping this pencil skirt and I was going like this, I'd be like, oh, that's wrong and you know how you can tell also? What's going on here, right? Uh-uh, not good, all right? So, keep draping. So, what you do is now go to the side. Smooth it to the side. Make sure that this is parallel to the floor and then pin. Pin at the side seam. I can feel it out. So, I'm going to pin right there at the side seam, just like that. So, guess what, guys? The next step normally would be dart right here. Do you see that? You got to pinch that excess, but you ready? Pay attention. Here's the trick. Take your fingers and your thumb and your finger right here. Pull at the side seam. Just smooth at the side seam, all right? Carefully and watch. Look, look, look. I just want you to pay attention right here. Okay, we go from dart to oh, it's gone, okay? So, now carefully with your fingers, pin at the waist right there just lightly. See, just kind of walk it, walk it, walk it and just spin and smooth and I'm keeping, look, look, look and this is still straight and look, I'm smoothing, I'm smoothing. What, what the hell? It's gone. The dart is gone. Look at that. Look, all right? And then smooth it to the side seam, but notice I'm still keeping this straight. I'm not going down. I'm going to double check my center front seam and kids, it's straight, okay? So, smooth. Look, look, look, all right? Now, what Saint Laurent and his tailors also learned is they steam that. So, if you want even go further is you steam it. You go, what does that do? It shrinks it. So, it's another way of getting rid of any excess right there. So, this is how you do a dartless front skirt. You smooth it, you smooth it and I think that's good. Now, I'm going to just stop because now I'm going to drape the back and then I'm going to pin the side seams. So, let's just see, let's just see. Put another pin here. Okay, let's just reflect on the fact that there's no dart and why? Because I didn't want to ruin it. I didn't want to ruin this beautiful houndstooth print and it's gone. Now, it's time to do the back. Okay, guys, we're ready for the back. We draped the front, now time for the back. You have your second piece, 15 inches, about 14 to 15 inches wide by about 25 inches long and then mark one inch away from the edge. I did it with the tape, all right, and I'm using this wool, this houndstooth wool, all right, open weave, perfect. Now, normally, the first step of draping a back pencil skirt is you place the straight line, the straight grain right there, the center back, straight on the center back. Here's the center back. Do you see that? And here's your waist. So, the rules in all the draping books, they tell you to just go straight right there. Now, go a little bit above the waist. So, that's what I'm going to do is I'm going to do that and I'm going to pin right here at the waist and it's straight. I'm going to keep this straight, keep it straight, keep it straight, and pin the center back, center back. I'm going to add one more pin right there and now we're good. All right, the next step normally is you smooth, you drape just like the front. So, you drape it, you drape it, and then look, watch what happens. You keep this straight and you drape and you drape and then dart. All right, see this excess? That's the back dart. So, what are we going to do? Well, with the front, what we did is we just smooth and smooth and smooth, but see, there's kind of a lot of excess here. So, here is my Nick tip and trick. Don't tell anybody. Okay, okay, maybe, yeah, tell them and tell them to watch the video, all right? So, watch. What you want to do is go back to the See how it's straight? It's not going to be. You're going to smooth it over like that, about half an inch over, all right? Now, here's the trick. This really shouldn't be straight. Why? Look at the body. It comes into the back and then out. It's not straight. So, why should this be straight? It goes in and out. So, that's why this center back should actually go in and then out. So, again, instead of having the grain line right here be straight with the center back, I want you to pin it a little bit away from it, just like that, all right? Just a little bit, all right? Notice, but then keep the rest of it straight. So, notice how it's a little bit going that way and the rest is straight. Now, here comes the dartless part. So, smooth the skirt over, smooth it over, make sure that the hip area is parallel to the floor, all right? And you're going over to the side seam. So, I'm going to go over to the side seam right here, all right? Come over here, smooth and drape. Let's see. I'm going to eye it. Okay, that's straight right there. Now, watch. Now, take the rest of it and smooth, smooth and pin, smooth to the side seam and pin. Look what's happening, guys. Look. With my fingers, my magical fingers, the dart is gone, all right? I've put some of it here and then because of the fabric and because of my draping, careful draping, I've just smoothed it, all right? I've smoothed it, smoothed it over to the side, all right? And now, another trick to relax it is what? Clip and ah, all right? So, get your scissors. This will relax it. So, go back up to the waist and clip. See? Voila. Okay. Dart? What dart? Nothing right there. Now, again, this really works well with this kind of fabric, wool, spongy, tweed, boucle, smooth, smooth. Use your fingers if you want to keep going, all right? Just tap it, tap it. Tap draping, all right? And guess what? We are done. I just taught you a couture trick right here, all right? Finally, let's pin the side seams to finish this pencil skirt off, okay? So, I'm going to take these pins right here, take them out, all right? And I'm going to get one side and I'm going to pin first at the waist right here and then just continue on down. Make sure that you do it right at the side seam. So, I'm taking this excess and just keep doing it and then don't do it too tight. This is something that a lot of students make a mistake. They make it too tight. You want to add some ease. You want to add a little bit of ease at the waist. So, basically, what that means is if your waist size is 26, make the waist 27 or 26 and a half. You want to add a little bit of room. If your hips are 38, your hips on the skirt should be about 39 or 40. You want to add a little bit. You don't want them super tight. You want a little bit of ease to what? To sit, to move, all right? So, keep going. I'm keep pinning. I'm going to keep pinning right here on the side, all right? And this is very important part of draping. So, just keep pinning, keep pinning. Now, I could go straight, but what I want to do is go in a little bit. So, I'm just going to keep going to the hem, all right? Keep going until I get that pencil skirt shape. Oh, that's looking good, all right? So, just keep doing it and keep doing it right here, all right? So, right here, and I take a look. I look at my shape. I like it. Now, see this excess? What do you do? You cut it. You cut it off. You don't want to cut right to there. You want to cut about an inch and a half, okay? So, you have a little bit of extra, just a little bit of extra for the seam allowance right there, just in case you made a mistake. So, keep cutting, keep cutting, keep cutting. Okay, that looks good, all right? Now, you can also clip if you want and then cut a little more. Cut closer, all right? And that looks, oh, look at that, okay? So, then just keep finishing it off. Cut, cut, cut. All right, cut. Fabulous, all right? Now, if you want, you can also clip the front a little bit right there. See? Just like that. Now, I'm going to trim, trim the back. I'm going to show you what I'm doing right here. See? Here's the back and just trim to about an inch above the waist, okay? Just a little, look at that, dartless, all right? Then, I'm going to turn it around and there we are, dartless pencil skirt, front and back. Where are the darts? Bye-bye. Thanks for tuning in to Fashion School with Nick Varios. I hope you guys liked my Nick tip and trick video. Hello! Make sure to like, subscribe, and share. And don't forget, get my book, A Passion for Fashion. It's available on Amazon.com.