Sloper vs Pattern
What is a sloper?
The Sewing Assistant Explained
Also known as a ‘Block’, the sloper is the foundation used when creating fashion-design patterns and other slopers. The basic starting slopers consist of a front and back bodice, sleeve, front and back skirt, and front and back trouser. This bare-basic tool used in conjunction with patternmaking fundamentals to create sewing patterns.
Basic slopers aren’t there for designing purposes, but rather just for fitting and to start the pattern design and manipulation process. This means there is minimal wearing ease, and the process only includes darts for fitting the garments to the body. Patterns, however, include:
Straight or bias gran
Specified pattern pieces
Numbering for how many times a piece should be cut
Center front
Center back line, folds, cut outs, and darts
Horizontal lines indicating the waist, hip, hem lines, etc.
Size or body measurements
Angle references (in some cases)
Seam-joining notches – single meaning front and double meaning back
Button, pocket, and embellishment arrangements
These extras added to the sloper are what transform your design into a pattern that you can use to sew your creation.
But that’s not where it ends. Once created, these basic slopers can be used to design derivative slopers, including an extended line dress, jackets, coats, sleeveless options, and more – all of which are making their way onto the Couturease app!
When you consider the fashion industry, the sloper gets a little more complicated. In this case, patternmakers use these slopers to design patterns for their unique clothing lines, which will look quite different depending on their target audience.
For example, a sloper for plus-size clothing will look very different from curvy or slim-figured slopers. Therefore, it’s only natural for every clothing line to have different measurements for their unique slopers. Where do they get their measurements? Well, if they’re not tailored boutiques who take specific measurements of the person who’s going to wear the garment, they have to make do with anthropometric data – A.K.A. general human body measurements.
With this in mind, it makes a lot more sense that ready-made clothing often doesn’t fit well, because how could clothing lines accommodate each individual’s body type, while still mass-manufacturing all the garments for retail? That is why creating something that “fits perfectly for the targeted body type” is nearly impossible. Or is it…?
Couturease was born to give individuals and fashion designers the option of creating custom-fit clothing that fit any unique figure. It also allows fashion designers to easily and effectively create pattens from custom-fitted slopers, rather than creating each pattern from those “general human body measurements” and grading them to various sizes or even creating every sloper from scratch every time – which is not a simple or quick task.
So, the basis of Couturease is to allow for the creation of personalized slopers used to create well-fitted clothing that standard slopers cannot always provide.
The Reason Behind Using Slopers
Are they really necessary?
Unless you plan on draping each of your patterns – which can be very time-consuming – slopers are the primary way to create patterns. Slopers are the little assistants that streamline the sewing process. In other words, using a sloper is the start of creating the pattern that brings your garment into life.
Using Couturease to Generate Your Sloper
The Faster, Easier Way to Create Custom Slopers
Couturease simplifies the pattern designing process by automating the creation of custom-fit slopers. Using our app, you can enter the measurements of the figure or profile, select the type of sloper you want, and instantly download your very own sloper.
Our goal is for you to have a set foundation from which you can create your fashion design patterns, with a custom-fit, each time, without starting from scratch each time.
Using Slopers to Create Patterns
Once your Couturease sloper is created, you can use it to create patterns for almost any type of garment, be it a skirt, blouse, or even an entire gown. In fact, from a single Couturease Straight Skirt Sloper with two darts, you can create patterns for a six-gore, eight-gore, yoked, or even A-line skirt.
Creating, saving, and having digital slopers at your fingertips not only saves you time, but also makes your sewing experience so much more “seamless”. Couturease slopers give you the easily customizable templates you need to deliver the perfect fit for yourself or your client, every time.
Yours in Excellent Fit