Project 001: How to draft gathers

Today we'll be talking about ratios while we learn how to draft gathers.

Hello friends! Today we're digging into how to draft gathers. This post is the second exercise in our Elastic Waist Tiered Skirt project. If you missed our first exercise—How to Draft an Elastic Waistband, you can read it here.

In this post, I’ll discuss what gathers are, compare different ratios of fabric, how to draft your own gathered pattern piece, and some design considerations. Plus, just for fun a little extra math. Let’s get started!

Update 01/2025: This post is now archived for paid subscribers. If you are interested in this project but don’t want to subscribe, you can purchase a pdf version of this project in my shop.