Ever look at a pattern and think, “I wish that came in my size!”? Or maybe you’ve made several muslins of a pattern only to find it still doesn’t work for your body? Want to design your own patterns? These are all situations where using a sloper could be the answer to achieving a better fit with less frustration! Today, I’m hoping to provide a look into how to make a sloper and in future posts explore how to use it.
Back in the early days of the CSC, Lauren of Rosie Wednesday wrote up a post on the basics of how to make a Sloper. Today, your options are even more diverse as a starting point.
- Still available are sloper patterns from Butterick, McCall’s, and Vogue dress/pants. The upsides to these are that they are pretty easy to acquire (if you live in the US) and they’re physical patterns rather than PDFs. Butterick’s offering even has an expansive size range, going up through a size 32W (54/49/56). The downsides are that each envelope only includes one size, which can make personalization more difficult, and that the size ranges from McCall’s and Vogue are not terribly inclusive.
- Burda has a few different sloper options including knit dress and swimsuit options. These are great if you like PDF patterns and come with a selection of sizes nested. The downside is the size ranges are hit or miss, often only coming in a range of 3-5 sizes per style. Burda also offers a couple of online courses to create your own sloper from either patterns or drafting: Slopers 101 and Draft Your Own Personal Sloper Collection
- Connie Crawford has extensive options for slopers going up to a size 6X (74/69/76) and breaks out the pattern options by cup size A/B through H/I.
- Craftsy has a whole series with Suzy Furrer on drafting a custom sloper based on your measurements. They also offer a course on draping a knit sloper.
- There are many tutorials on making your own sloper, including a popular post from Madalynne.
As for me, I’m a home sewer looking to use a sloper for my own personal projects. If you’re looking to create a professional pattern line, then you might want to look into other options, but for the average home sewer any of the above options would work. For this post, I used the Butterick sloper for the simple reason that it was already in my pattern stash. The pattern even came with darts pieces for size C and D/DD busts! Helpful as a starting point! Additionally, it came with step-by-step directions on how to use the sloper, as well as diagrams on common fit issues.
Once you’ve picked a size, I highly recommend measuring each piece before cutting a muslin. This ensures there is enough seam allowance to manipulate during fitting. For mine, I also rotated the side dart to the shoulder so my block can more easily transition to a princess seam block as well. Once your first pass pattern changes have been made, it’s time to cut out your muslin pieces, sew any darts in the pattern, then baste your seams together in a mock-up.
And this is the catch with making a sloper for yourself…it is much easier and more accurate if you have a partner to help. Getting a good set of measurements is nice for starting with the best size, but it also makes fitting so much easier at this point. My progress paused for a few weeks until I could arrange for a friend to help measure the changes I would need.
Round one of fitting went pretty well overall, but there was some pulling across the bust, in the upper back hip, and over my lower stomach.
Note: I highly recommend that you either make your sloper open in the front or the back. For some stupid reason I make the bodice open front and the skirt open back and it made the fitting process much harder. Please learn from my mistake!
After implementing the changes from round one of fitting, the second mock-up worked much better. With a few further improvements in that round, I was happy enough to add the sleeves.
I started without the sleeves for a few reasons:
1) It is easier to see the shoulder line without the sleeves attached.
2) It is easier to mark where you want the sleeve to sit.
3) Sleeves, ugh.
Is this sloper perfect? Nope. But muslin is notoriously unforgiving and I used a lightweight muslin which did not help. That’s why it is good for fitting your sloper. You want to see all the issues, but some things will disappear once you add style ease and use a different fabric. I will revisit those sleeve caps specifically, but with summer ahead I felt okay moving forward after the third fitting so I could knock out some sundresses.
Bodies change, skill sets improve, and slopers will need updating with time. It is okay to fit it to a happy, but imperfect place and come back to it again once you’ve tried out a few designs. Odds are good that a decent sloper will get you better fitting results than buying ready-to-wear clothing and will also help achieve a better fit with commercial patterns.
To go from muslin to permanent pattern, it takes a few simple steps. After marking the seams with a permanent marker, I took out all the stitching, carefully pressed each piece, then traced them onto oak tag. Make sure to true the seams and double check everything transferred well. This seam allowance-less block can now be traced off to make any number of designs including dresses, blouses, skirts, tunics, and more!
Great post, I’m looking forward to the rest of the series! I feel kind of dumb, but how exactly are you supposed to use a sloper if you aren’t planning on drafting your own patterns? I took one of the Craftsy courses and made an upper-body sloper with it, but now I don’t know what to do with it. It seems like it must be incredible obvious since no one mentions it, but I must admit that I’m lost. How can you use it to identify/make fitting adjustments to pre-existing patterns? I would love if this could be addressed at some point in the series…
Hi Lindsay! Definitely planning to address this sometime soon. Just need to put it together.
Hallo Jessica
Have anybody used the Surefit Designs? I bought the dress- and shirt kits, but only did a shirt for my husband. The shirt fitted so well! The only issue was that the neck was a bit narrow, but he likes open collars anyway, so that is not such an issue.
I can’t wait to try both on myself.
Glenda has a video out on how to measure yourself when you don’t have any help. I’m going to watch it this weekend.
I would love to see in the future series how to use your sloper to make other designs, although the Surefit kits come with design options/methods included.
Hi Isha! Making your sloper into other designs will be a part of the series.
What a happily timed series! Have several patterns that I’d love to make but am out of the range for and several designs I want to draft myself.
Yes, it is hard when a size range doesn’t fit. Any particular patterns?
Very happy to see this. More than 25 years ago my neighbor fitted me a dress sloper. I had no idea at the time what a treasure it was. Now I am literally twice the woman I was then and would love to make slopers for my new body shape. Being isolated makes it harder, but there isn’t any real rush. If I have to fit it to myself I’ll somehow manage. I’m looking forward to reading the coming posts on the subject. Particularly pants/trousers. I used to think of myself as fairly advanced at my sewing, but then I tried knits, and had never made slacks/pants. Perfect timing for learning to fit the body I’m in right now.
Hi Karen! I hope this series is helpful to you! I will say that I don’t wear pants myself so it is unlikely that type of post will come terribly soon. Maybe some day once I run through the topics already on my list.
Great post and just what I need now in my sewing career. I felt so frustrated not to be able to get a good fit around the bust and do not need another skirt but dresses now. Looking forward to the rest of your series
Being the Connie Crawford groupie that I am –and for good reason — I love her sloper patterns. They are focused on plus sized body types and come with lots of written and technical support. I usually need very little adjustment using them and have made several basic patterns from these slopers. I struggled with pants patterns for years because of a heart shaped booty and kangaroo belly (lol). I was able to minimally adjust the pattern (extend the center back and the front crotch seams) for a perfect fit. I hate making fba’s so her bodice slopers are great since they go up to I cup.
Hi Robin! I was very tempted to order a Connie Crawford sloper just to see how it would line up with the sloper I had already made. The idea of having so many cup size options is quite attractive. Would you ever be willing to write up a review of her sloper patterns? I’ve thought about trying out a few other methods for the site, but it might take me a while to get to it.
Great post! I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
Thanks Dana!
What a great topic, and so timely! I’m just now working on fitting Connie Crawford’s CS1201 blouse sloper. Right out of the package it was way closer than other things I’ve tried. And yet there are still things to fix. If this is going to be a series, and I hope it is, here are some specific issues I’d love to see discussed:
– What order to tackle fitting issues in.
– How to recognize fit issues. I often see that it’s not right but I’m not sure why. An adjustment technique for a rounded back, for example, doesn’t help because I don’t know if I have one.
– Any tips for self fitting? I can’t afford paid help, not that there is any out here in the boonies anyway. I don’t have local friends that sew. Pinning out excess along side seams is pretty tedious. So if anyone has a good idea I’m all ears.
– !! Special issues when making large adjustments. A lot of times, the typical directions for certain adjustments don’t really work when the adjustment is large. And example CSC already addresses is the Big Honkin’ Dart.
– How much ease. I know that it depends on personal comfort level, but help with a starting point would be great. And this is a sloper, not a moulage, right? So it should be wearable with no changes.
– How and where to add fashion ease. I know I will want to create looser garments than the sloper. But where the heck do I add the ease? And how?
Anyway, thanks for an interesting article. Hope I’ve given you some ideas for the future.
Hi Ann! Thank you so much for writing such a detailed response. I do plan to address at least some of these points.
I think recognizing fit issues might be a good series in general. I’ll talk to the editors about it.
Self fitting is quite tedious. Part of what took so long in making this sloper was having to find time when someone could help. I think it might be worth posting on the Facebook group if you are looking for a fitting buddy. CSC did have a review of a Craftsy class on self fitting and it got okay marks, but it truly isn’t not an easy process. http://wp1094.hostgator.com/~waezmq0ac6rs/craftsy-review-easy-fitting-the-palmerpletsch-way-shirts-and-tops/
Making large adjustments is likely to come up along the way, but I’ll certainly keep an eye out for opportunities.
Yes, ease will be a part of future posts. This is indeed a sloper and has some wearing ease built in unlike a moulage which is meant to be a second skin. Since this is for my personal sewing rather than a company a sloper makes more sense.
Does this help in any way?
Well actually, I was trying to help YOU, ha ha, and at the same time help myself when your follow up articles came along. Glad to hear that you’re already thinking about these things. I’m afraid self-fitting is my lot. I live in the boonies, have no local sewing friends, and can’t afford to pay for help. Even Craftsy is not an option because of the cost of rural internet. They would blow our data cap in a single lesson.
Oh that’s too bad Ann! Usually when I have no fit help available I make my 5 year old take pictures for me. Not ideal, but whatever gets the job done!
Sometimes one can ask your regular dry cleaner (if they do alterations) to help with the pinning and adjustments. They will get the business of your future sewing projects and maybe you can use them in the future and pay them to mark & sew a gem on a dress or pants, etc.
Mrs. F, this is a very creative suggestion. I once asked the fabric lady in WalMart to measure my bust and high bust for me and she did! People watched but so what, they were sewists, too. Thanks for your creativity!
Great post! I’d just like to add a suggestion for those (like me) who don’t have a sewing buddy to help with the measuring/fitting process: find a good seamstress/sewing teacher in your area and pay them for the time to help fit your sloper. It’s expensive and might take more than one session, but if you do the sewing yourself you can save some money. I struggled to get an even half-way decent fit on my own – too many issues in my upper back and shoulders that affected everything in the front and down below. But with a sloper that fits, even with weight fluctuations of 20+ lbs,, I can sew anything I want and get a good, flattering fit. Shoulders and upper back stay pretty much the same when your weight goes up or down, and everything else stays basically in the same proportions.
I’ll help you if I can! I live in Maryland.
Rebecca you are so right. If you have the means hiring a sewing teacher works really well. I made my first sloper in a class setting and the information and confidence I gained was incredible.
This is a great article! I want to dig right in I have the sloper pattern – Simplicity or McCalls – and will dig it out and get started. Wonderful explanation and photos. Thank you.
I hope it works well for you Nellie!
You omitted to mention above in your listing, the customised/semi-customised block(UK)/sloper(US) patterns produced *to your own individual measurements and proportions* by Lekala and Bootstrap Fashion – and at totally bargainaceous prices.
While not a perfect solution, I find these give me, and others who are way, way out of the ‘standard’ size and proportion ranges, a much better place from which to start. An acquaintance who is well over 190cm tall uses them, at my recommendation, with as much success as do I, at 150cm soaking wet and stretched out.
I was about to comment about that too. Here is the link to the basic block on Bootstrap : http://patterns.bootstrapfashion.com/index.php/sewing-patterns/women/basic-silhouettes.html
Thank you Caroline!
Oh gosh! I meant to look into Lekala and Bootsrap and forgot. Thank you for mentioning both companies! You are right that both can provide a closer starting point than a pattern made for standard measurements.
I had been sewing for over 20 years before I found out about slopers. I was so surprised to learn that you could make almost any design from the basic blocks. I felt a little deceived by the pattern companies for a while -lol. Then I launched myself into learning this whole new world of design and fit. It’s been a wonderful experience.
Slopers are so useful but I think there is a place for using slopers and using patterns, even sometimes both at once. But yes, using a sloper can feel so freeing! You can really make yourself anything!
I think the Burda plus sized swim suit sloper is a free download. At least it was a couple of weeks ago. Nice article. Thank you for all that you do at Curvy. It has been emancipating for me.
Thank you Chris! Yes, some of the Burda options are free which is really nice!
Hi Jessica, this tutorial is great! Really easy to follow and understand. 🙂
Do you have any tips or other resources for modifying commercial patterns to your sloper? Maybe it’s because the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet this morning (haha!), but I’m having a hard time visualizing some trickier scenarios, like darts.
Thanks!
Kat
Hi Kat! There is more to come in the series. This first post was just about making the sloper. Next will be how to use it.