Draping cover

Draping

by Karolyn Kiisel

Draping is the art of using cotton muslin to create a fashion design directly on a mannequin. It is an essential skill for fashion designers. In this book, Karolyn Kiisel presents a series of step-by-step projects, creating real garments in classic styles, that are designed to develop skills from the most basic to more advanced techniques, starting with the basics of choosing and preparing the dress form for draping, moving through pinning, trimming, and clipping, and creating shape using darts and tucks, to adding volume using pleats and gathers, and handling complex curves. Advanced skills include how to use support elements such as shoulder pads, under layers, and petticoats, and how to handle bias draping. The book culminates with a chapter on improvisational skills.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?