Fabulous Free Pattern Friday/The Eight Gore Skirt

Happy Friday Everyone!

Today's pattern is the eight gore skirt, an incredibly easy skirt to draft. There are three measurements that you will need;

1. Your waist measurement

2. Your hip measurement

3. The length that you would like your skirt to be

That's it.

You will want to add one inch to your waist measurement and two inches to your hip measurement. This is for ease. So, if your waist measurement is 31, add one inch which will be 32. Divide this number by eight(the number of panels in your skirt), and the resulting number will be 4. If your hip measurement is 46, add 2 inches, which will be 48. Divide this number by 8 and the result will be 6 inches. We'll use 30 inches for the length. Now you are ready to draft. Begin by drawing a line down your paper that is a little longer than the length that you would like for your skirt to be.This line will become your grainline. 

Draw an intersecting line for your waistline. Nine inches down from this line draw another line for your hipline.

The divided number for our waist measurement was 4 inches and the divided measurement for our hip measurement was 6 inches. Divide both of these numbers in half. From the center line, measure over your divided waist measurement (we're using 2 inches for the example, 4 divided by 2 is 2). Draw a cross mark. Do this on the other side of the line as well. Then do the same on your hip line, (for our example the divided hip measurement divided in half will be 3). Draw in cross marks on the hipline.

Now it's just a matter of connecting the dots or cross marks.

From your wasitline measure down the desired length of your skirt and draw a line.

At this point, add your seam allowances. This skirt does not have to be made from a knit fabric. If you use a woven fabric, you will need to insert a zipper into either the side seam or the center back seam. For my skirt, I was especially lazy. I added 1/4 inch seam allowances to the skirt and I added 1 1/2" to the waistline as this is the size of the elastic that I used. Rather than have to hem the skirt, I drew in an angled line like you see in the picture below.

I first serged the hemline angles, and then I used the serger to sew the seams of the skirt together and I serged it so the sergered edges would be on the outside of the skirt.

Rather than use my waist measurement, I used my high hip measurement as I wanted the skirt to rest below my waistline.

The panel that you drafted will need to be cut eight times so you have the number of panels that you need for your skirt. This skirt can be done with 6 gores, 12 gores, it's your choice, just divide your waist and hip measurement by the number of gores that you wish to have in your skirt.
You'll never have to buy another gored skirt pattern.
Good luck!