basics of draping with the types of pleats and importance, uses and advantages of draping included.

1. Draping :
•Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) the way in which
fabric hangs
•Hang or cover with flexible material or fabric, usually in folds;
adorn
•Place casually and loosely;
(Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) (often plural) a
cloth or hanging that covers something in folds; drapery

2. MATERIALS
Materials
 Muslin fabric, the most common material used for
draping, is inexpensive and falls loosely over the dress
form, making it easy to manipulate to create different
looks. The fabric used in draping must be similar to the
fabric that will be used on the final garment: Using a
completely different fabric won't give the correct vision
of how the final fabric will fit on the body when it's
shaped and darted. A large supply of pins, scissors for
cutting fabric, and markers or pens for identifying seams
are also important supplies for draping.

3.  Instructions
 1 Prepare your dress form. Determine whether you are
designing for yourself or for another. While a dress form is
the perfect way to drape fabric for your own styles, include
your model if you are designing for someone else. Get
comfortable with the measurements of your dress form and
compare them to your final product; your dress form should
match the body you are designing for. It also helps to mark
the center line of your dress form for clear and accurate
draping.
 2 Purchase a light fabric to begin draping and avoid more
rigid fabrics until you are comfortable with the methods of
draping; a light fabric is easier to work with. Consider
starting with a simple design. Sleeveless dresses or tops are
a good starting point. Draw your design or have a clear
pattern in mind before you begin.
 Power Jacquardeasy to use&maintain,adaptable with
power/rapier/projectile looms


4.  3 Begin draping your fabric; just as it sounds, draping is literally
a free hand placement of your fabric on the dress form and
adjusting or cutting into a pattern of your choice. Before you
imagine a shape, wrap your fabric in the style of your future
garment and be sure you have enough fabric.
 4 As you lay the fabric over your dress form, make sure your
center seam line is accurate and any pattern or grain in your
fabric matches up on either side. Use pins to secure your fabric
in place, but never pull or tug at it. Cut and pin pieces of fabric
into a pattern, based on how you see the fabric fitting on your
dress form. As you proceed, your garment will take a shape.
 5 Using a fabric pencil or chalk, draw on the seams and other
sewing instructions, like darts. Taking your fabric off your form,
use your markings to trace a pattern on your pattern paper and
include the space of at least 1 inch for your seams and other
technical allowances. Cut your fabric to match your pattern, and
re-pin onto your dress form for adjustments. Use a temporary
stitch until you ensure the fit of your garment, and then machine
stitch your final garment.

5. TYPES OF PLEATS
 1. Hand Pleating – This method would
encompass folding a piece of fabric pleat by
pleat to other hand techniques like shibori
which employs the use of ropes to bind and
compress fabric.
 Hand pleating fold by fold becomes much
easier with tartan, plaid or striped fabric since
the repeat in fabric is used as a guide to assist
in the folding.

7.  Today this process of hand pleating is still
practical but only in certain situations. Below is
an example of pleating being draped on a dress
form for a particular style. This is most
common during the designing process when a
designer is experimenting and draping on a
form. If the dress will be duplicated a special
pattern can be created to speed up the process
during production.

9.  When the bodice of a dress is pleated and very
contoured around the body a seamstress will
pin the pleats one by one on the dress
form with a piece of bias fabric. The side
pleated bodice below is an example
of difficult hand pleating and cannot be
duplicated by machine or pattern pleating.

11.  Pattern Pleating – This method of pleating employs the use of a cardboard
pattern or a tool referred to as a ―pleaters board.‖ Pleating boards are still
used and sold today but mainly for the home sewer. Fabric is stuffed into
spaces on and then pressed with a steam iron.
 Below is an example of a DIY pleaters board. (For instructions how to make
one visit Lex.) They are fairly simple to make but can be rather limited in
use. For smaller pieces or trimmings I can understand there use but for
larger projects like skirts or dresses they can be very cumbersome. If you
are not very accurate you can start pleating the fabric off the grain. When
that happens your seams will be very difficult to sew from puckering and
your pleats can start to curl. If you are the type of person that wants to do
everything yourself then my advice is to go for it. However, the pleat you can
make with a pleater board is so basic we can save you a ton
of aggravation and just pleat it for you for around $10 dollars per yard
(depending on the fabric).

13.  Today the majority of profession pleating is done
with the use of large pleating patterns spanning up
to 4 yards in length. Some of the more complex
ones can take several months to make. Certain
types of irregular pleating can only be done by
pattern pleating. An example would be sunburst
pleating or when a combination of two different
types of pleating are used. Below is an example of
an accordion and herringbone (or
chevron) combination pleating pattern.

15.  Machine Pleating – Last but not least is pleating with the use of a
machine. There are several different ways these machines are built
to accomplish the task of pleating. The machines we use at our
factory have long blades that pinch the fabric across the entire width
of the fabric and then folds it. Generally speaking machine
pleating is the least expensive when making simple pleats like side
pleat, box pleat or crystal pleat because they require less labor than
other pleats. Another advantage to machine pleating is that the
entire roll of fabric can be pleated and used for a variety of
applications. There are other couture type pleats that we make by
machine as well. These higher end pleats are usually a combination
of two or all of the process just described. The possibilities of mixing
different pleating techniques are virtually infinite, and experimenting
with then different techniques is something we love to do.

16. IMPORTANCE OF DRAPING
 Draping is considered an important skill for up-and-coming
designers because it teaches the art of putting a piece of
clothing together on a dress form before creating a sketch.
 The art of draping teaches a designer how darts and seams
give a garment shape and a perfect fit.
 Knowing about darts and seams helps a designer recognize
what's wrong with a garment and quickly figure out how to fix
it.
 A designer who experiments with draping also has more
options open to her than she would by merely sketching the
look, as she can play with different darts and drapings to see
if they work on a body right then and there.

17. USES
 The art of draping is often used in high fashion and
couture: Because high-fashion pieces are expensive to
create — and often one of a kind — it makes sense for
designers to use draping to get the design right the first
time. Lingerie is also draped before the final design is
documented on paper. Lingerie is typically made of
delicate material, so it's important to perfect the look
and fit on a dress form before putting together the final
sewing pattern. Using a dress form to design evening
wear offers the opportunity to make unique dresses that
fall and drape in a variety of ways.

18. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
* You don't have to know from experience how much wearing ease is
necessary where. You can just add more ease until it looks right.
* If you are using a fabric that relaxes/stretches, you have to do
fewer iterations than with flat patterning. just use your fashion fabric to
drape instead of muslin.
* It's easier to see how the stripe/pattern in the fabric will look
of on a figure if you drape with the fabric.
Disadvantages include:
* For more complicated designs, you have to have a general sense of
the shape before you start, in order to cut the right size of fabric.
* you need an accurate dress form. Kathleen has some really excellent
articles on that subject, too.
* If you want a paper pattern (you don't need one if you drape with a
stable fabric), you'll have to copy the whole thing over.