Slopers have always been a bit of a mystery to me. I theoretically understood what they were, but never how to use them. Not having serious drafting abilities, I also felt that I would never actually be able to create a sloper to use.
Well, have I got news for me (and you)! I’m taking a semester-long pattern making class at the local Stitch Lab, and I have new-found knowledge to share with you that makes the whole sloper thing much simpler! So let’s dive in to the magical land of slopers.
What is a Sloper?
I am going to quote the wonderful Adele Margolis here, from her book Make Your Own Dress Patterns.
“It is used as the basis for creating new designs..It has no fullness, design details, or seam allowances.”
At the risk of repetition, I will summarize in my own words. A sloper is a building-block for a pattern, and it has just enough room for it to fit your body and for you to be able to breathe. They are also sometimes called:
- Blocks
- Foundation Patterns
- Basic Patterns
Types of Slopers
There are bodice slopers…
[source: pattern.stringcodes.com]
[source: pattern.stringcodes.com]
[source: pattern.stringcodes.com]
With those three things, you can mix and match to create just about anything. So a dress would just be your bodice sloper + a skirt sloper, for example.
How Do You Use a Sloper?
The two main ways you can use a sloper are to:
- Design new patterns. My pattern teacher, Tina, describes design textbooks like cookbooks. You basically open it up and say, “I want to make a cowl neck sweater” and it gives you a recipe for modifying the bodice sloper to do that.
- Perfect fit. If you compare your sloper to the pattern you are working on, you can see where you’ll need to make adjustments to make it fit you. Just don’t forget your sloper doesn’t have seam allowances. Threads has a great article on using a sloper for fit.
My guess is that for most of you, #2 is where a sloper is going to come in most handy. Essentially, it takes some of the concepts I outlined in the body graph method of fitting, and allows you to have a flat dressform to work with.
How Do You Get a Sloper?
So, let’s say that you’re completely sold on the idea of a sloper. How on earth do you go about getting one? You can draft your own, Madalynne has a great tutorial on drafting your own sloper, but I think it’s best to start out with a simpler route to focus on using the sloper first.
Easiest: Purchase a Custom Sloper from String Codes
Site: http://pattern.stringcodes.com/
This is the method we are using in class, and by gollies, it’s amazing! All you do is send your measurements to String Codes, tell them what kind of sloper you’d like to have, and they will send you back a custom-made sloper! The prices are even pretty reasonable.
BONUS! The size on your sloper is your name! That’s pretty neat.
Once you have that, you:
- Trace the pattern onto tracing paper, freezer paper, or something similar.
- Stitch up the sloper to make sure everything fits you properly. My changes were extremely minimal, and others in the class had zero changes.
- Make adjustments as needed to create your final sloper.
- Mount the final sloper onto a sturdy paper. We used tag board, which is about the weight of a manilla folder.
- Cut out the pattern, including the darts.
- Start using your sloper (methods outlined above)!
For more information on using Pattern String Codes, Kathleen Fasanella from Fashion Incubator has a great series. There are a few quirks I’ve discovered along the way that Kathleen helps to explain. Mainly, depending on your cup size, the CF may be too short because they’re using your CB measurement.
Easy-ish: Purchase a Fitting Shell Pattern
The major companies have a pattern that is like a sloper that they call a “Fitting Shell.” They come with instructions for how to alter the garment to fit you properly.
[source: Stitch Lab]
A Couple of Pointers on Buying from String Codes
- There are varying levels of custom. We did standard custom fit. This means you have a sloper based on your measurements for bust, waist, hip, center back length, and waist to ankle. My teacher didn’t recommend full custom fit unless you had a professional take all the measurements. See the FAQ.
- They have a few different types of pants slopers. Here’s the differences between those:
- Trousers fall down at the back from the waist.
- Slacks hug the rear, then fall down from there.
- Jeans are the most fitting and hug the body all around.
Do you have other questions? Do you think you’d use a sloper?
I’m a sewing instructor and I don’t recommend sew-ers make a sloper unless they have a great deal of experience sewing, because it is a waste of their time until they have enough experience to inform their design of the tool. Instead, most sew-ers are best served by choosing patterns of the garments they want to have and working to perfect them to “Tried and True “ (TNT) pattern status. (If you are not familiar with the concept of TNT patterns, see the blog “Diary of a Sewing Fanatic” at sewingfantaticdiary.blogspot.com for an good example of it in practice.)
What inexperienced sew-ers do not realize is that a sloper pattern is not a garment pattern, but a precision tool for refining the fit of a garment pattern. A garment pattern is a tool, too. Therefore a sloper is a tool for refining another tool. It isn’t appropriate for an inexperienced person to design tools that refine tools: That way lies madness, or at least frustration and burnout.
Let me try an analogy:
If you were learning to sculpt clay instead of fabric, would you expect to be taught how to make your own tools for casting molds before you had learned how use all the tools and techniques available to you for sculpting clay?
P.S. A sloper and a fitting shell are the same thing.
Thank you for a great article. I’ve invested in some sloper patterns from String Codes because of it but I’m stuck on what to do next! I was wondering if you could either write an article on how you converted your sloper to fabric (i.e where you added seam allowance etc) to check it fits correctly, or could point me in the direction of a good resource for assembling the sloper in fabric.
Thanks 🙂
There is a lot about slopers and pattern making in the air these days, I’m no different. I still think your best bet is taking a pattern from an existing pair of pants that fit you. Work the details out from there.
I am finding the best luck looking for information on pants fitting on Pinterest. Partly because I am visually minded and looking at a lot of images is easier than reading, and mostly because it hasn’t been gamed for results like most search engines. Not yet, anyway. Look for little pictures of pants patterns. That’s how I spent today, anyway.
Great post! I’ve made some pants slopers – jeans, slacks and leggings ones and they are fantastic! It takes so much of the guess work out of sewing pants and pretty much guarantees a well fitting pair of pants every time I sew a pair up.
I made up a bodice sloper last year from an article in Threads and used it to cover and stuff my dress form to my exact shape, I keep meaning to make a few up and use them like I do the pants ones to adjust patterns.
The idea of a jeans-fit sloper is pretty tempting! I didn’t know those existed!
Yeah, neat, right? I got the slacks sloper, and it was pretty close fitting, so I’d be curious to see how tight the jeans one is. I feel like it would practically be a second skin!
Did you see that Style Arc released a flat-butt pants pattern? I’m crossing my fingers hoping that means they’ll soon release a curvy butt version – I love their pants!
I’m so excited!!! I have a flat bum and finally someone’s made pants for me 😀
Yay! I’ll look forward to you posting about them – I’d love to see them next to a regular Style Arc pant for comparison.
First of all, you quoted Adele. I love you. I would say anyone who has challenges with fitting in sewing patterns from Butterick will also have challenges with fitting the sloper. I love that there’s a company that will draft custom ones! Such an excellent post.
I love Adele! She’s so great at explaining things, and can be a bit sassy.