Drafing the Torso Block

The Torso Block goes down to hip level and is used to make shirts, tops and blouses*.  Image 1 shows what the Torso Block looks like. The Torso Block is just an extension of the Bodice Block, and there are three ways you can make it.

• Using your Bodice Block and extending it down to your hip.
• Using your Bodice Blocks and Skirts Blocks; joining them together, and making adjustments to the waist darts.  It is then cut off just before hip level.
• Using the Extended Line Dress (ELD) Block.  If you have made this first, then you just trace out the ELD block and reduce it to hip length instead of knee length.**

I will be creating the Torso Block from the ELD Block.

*You can use the Torso block to make further more specific blocks for shirts and blouses; e.g. a Shirt Block would have a lowered armhole and more ease in the waist and hips.

*The ELD block is just an extension of the Torso Block, or alternately, the Torso block is a shortened version of the ELD block.

Darts

This Front of the Torso block has a bodice side seam dart and two waist darts that run through the waist.  The Back also has two waist darts. The reason that the Bodice Block has one waist dart and the Torso Block is because of the nature of shaping both the upper body and lower body in the one piece of fabric.  It is much easier to get better shaping (especially for larger busts) with a waisted garment, as the upper body and lower body can be shaped separately.  The one-dart in the Bodice Block can also be moved around (see manipulating darts), but that is not possible with the Torso Block; e.g. with the Torso Block, you cannot move the waist dart into the shoulder for obvious reasons.