Blog Archives
Bra Pattern Drafting Course – Kristen Kemp Instructor
This comprehensive video course is part of a drafting bundle that includes purchase of the Third Edition of Bare Essentials: Bras, this video course, and access to Kristen as an instructor through the drafting and fitting process.
Jennifer has broken all the videos into small steps. Videos may be as short as 30 seconds but as long as 10 minutes depending on what the discussion is about.
A note from Jennifer: "While I do my best to provide the most professional presentation possible, I am doing everything - teaching, filming and editing. As a normal human and a mother, I often mix up my words. I have done my best to note on the screen when I was using the completely incorrect term. I am far from being a Craftsy class, so know what you are getting yourself into - a real human teacher who makes real human mistakes."
This is advanced drafting material. If you have never drafted anything in your life, you will likely struggle with some of the basic terminology and drafting concepts. This is precisely why we have collaborated to offer access to an instructor, so that you have the ability to talk it through with someone, while you're drafting. As part of the bundle, you will schedule a 10 day session with Kristen where she sets aside that time for just a couple students, so she isn't overloaded and can get to your questions.
Once your coaching session is over, you may comment with questions at the end of the lesson you have a question on and Kristen will respond and keep the comments live so everyone can benefit from the questions and answers. While Kristen would love to provide unwavering and complete support for everyone all the time, it's physically and mentally possible to do so.
We encourage you to join the Facebook group: Support for Bare Essentials (click here) to post pictures and receive feedback on your progress from your peers. Jennifer and Kristen both follow the group and comment when available.
To register for this class, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
January 2021 Live Draft Along
The January 2021 Live Draft Along is hosted by Jane Ramsay and Kristen Kemp, moderators of the Support Group for Bare Essentials. Both women have a unique style and way of presenting material, so you are encouraged to watch both presentations.
This course is no longer available for purchase. If you purchased this course, you have forever access to this course.
Fashion Illustration Course
This illustration course was originally designed as training material for instructors teaching at Porcelynne's Design Institute. The book Drawing Fashion was created from the original outline we taught from. This course is instructed by Han Vu, one of our instructors and an instrumental individual in the development of the book.
Drawing Fashion was passed over to Vasanthi Puttigampu for completion. While, Vasanthi's and Han's techniques vary, this course shows a different approach to fashion illustration. Every teacher has their own techniques for instructing and many techniques are easier to explain by the physical act of demonstration. We altered the book for the easiest approach to achieve a similar result.
This course was not filmed with the intention of creating a course, but the information is invaluable, so I opted to release it. Please note that this was filmed during business hours in my store and contain a lot of background noise. There is a lot of good information that is spoken, but if you are easily distracted, you can watch the video and listen to the audio and then re-watch the videos on mute to get the full experience.
To register for this course, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
PolyPattern Bra Grading Course
This course is designed as an accompaniment to the hand grading course. Not all grading information is provided in this course, as this is more on how to grade with the software and less about the grading itself. For professional drafters, the hand grading course may not be necessary, but just encouraged.
This course covers the 3 basic types of grading required for bra grading. A 4th method is introduced for grading a cup size for several wire sizes. This method is fairly unique in drafting, but opens the possibilities of fitting to many more users.
All grading is done with PolyPattern and includes importing into Illustrator from a scan, exporting into PolyPattern and exporting from PolyPattern to create a downloadable pattern. It is encouraged for you to take the hand grading course prior to taking the PolyPattern Bra Grading Course to fully understand the grading. If you are digitizing a pattern within PolyPattern, I have additional YouTube videos on that process as well as in the PolyPattern Training Course.
Other CAD programs likely have similar tools. This course may be useful for other software if you are proficient enough in those softwares to know how to translate these instructions for your use.
To register for this course, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
Bra Grading Course
Learn to grade bra patterns by hand. Most of these steps can be modified for grading in Illustrator. Pair these instructions with the Illustrator grading steps in the book to achieve the best possible grade. Due to the constant updates with Illustrator, it is impossible to create instructions for Illustrator without them going out of date too fast.
This course walks you through the 3 basic grades that a bra must be graded for. The first lesson is on grading the band for various band sizes. The second lesson covers grading the band for various wire sizes. The third lesson covers grading a cup for a cup size.
As an added bonus, I included a 4th type of grade that isn't in traditional bra grading. Grading a single cup size for various wires sizes. Whether you are trying to modify a pre-designed pattern or trying to create your own pattern set, this course is the ideal way to achieve either goal. The video course is broken down into small video clips of each step, some as short as 15 seconds and some as long as 5 depending on the information being explained.
If you are interested in grading a range for your own business, I would like to recommend our partner's software PolyPattern Design Pro. Their software makes grading a breeze. To make life easier, I also created a specific PolyPattern Bra Grading Course. This hand drafting course is recommended to act as a companion to the computer grading course.
To register for this course, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
Sloper Drafting Class – Wireless Bra – Difficulty Level 5
This is the non-wired cup draft demonstrated from the book Bare Essentials. If you have already purchased the Bra Drafting Course, this class has been added to the sloper manipulation lessons. The wireless bra is complicated in execution with a rating of 5 out of 5.
Utilize the sloper you created in the Bra Drafting Course or with the Eve Classic Sloper Creation Class to create this vertical seamed cup design.
This video course walks you through the steps of a draft with short video segments to make the information palatable. Note that not all drafters have success with the same drafts. This can vary based on breast shape and size.
To register for this class, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
Sloper Drafting Class – Band Design Modifications – Difficulty Level 1
This class teaches how to manipulate the band sloper for a back band strap placements and to create a frameless bra with the cups suspended by the bridge and side bands.
The band design changes are presented in short easy to digest videos in segments of 15 seconds to 5 minutes depending on the material covered. The complexity level is a 1 out of 5, meaning this is a good beginner lesson.
Utilize the sloper you created in the Bra Drafting Course or with the Eve Classic Sloper Creation Class to create this vertical seamed cup design.
To register for this class, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
Sloper Drafting Class – Bralette – Difficulty Level 1
The Bralette draft is demonstrated from the book Bare Essentials. If you have already taken the Bra Drafting Course, this class is a repeat from that course. I wanted to make this draft available for those who are manipulating a sloper, whether they have taken the drafting class or have created a sloper from the Eve Classic.
Utilize the sloper you created in the Bra Drafting Course or with the Eve Classic Sloper Creation Class to create this simple design. The difficulty level is a 1 out of 5 and is a great beginner lesson.
This video course walks you through the steps of a draft with short video segments to make the information palatable. Note that not all drafters have success with the same drafts. This can vary based on breast shape and size.
This sloper manipulation is one of the easier designs to adapt from a bra sloper. While this design is relatively easy to create, note that this design is not suitable for a large cup size. This design is better for cups up to a D cup size.
To register for this class, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
Full Bra Sloper Manipulation Course
Learn to draft your own designs with this Sloper Drafting and Manipulation Class. Prior to taking this class, you must first have a bra cup sloper either from your Bare Essentials draft or the Eve Classic. Please sign up and register for the Eve Classic Sloper Creation Course or draft your own pattern with our Bra Drafting Course, if you have not already created your sloper.
This course includes 11 bra sloper designs. Two of the designs included are duplicated from the Bra Drafting Course.
Because the 2 designs are repeated from the drafting course and many of you have taken the drafting course, those have not been factored into the pricing of this course.
To create a sloper from an existing pattern or a draft, please register for our free Eve Sloper Creation Class.
To register for this course, click here to add to your shopping cart and check out.
To register for a single class and not the full collection of classes in this course, click on the images below to be taken to those individual class pages.