The Extended Line Dress (ELD) block is used to make dresses without a waist seam. Image 1 shows what the ELD block looks like.
You don't need to make the ELD block from scratch - you can make it either:
- Using your Bodice Blocks and Skirts Blocks; joining them together, and making adjustments to the waist darts
- Using a Torso block. A Torso block finishes just before the hips, so it's just a case of extending the Torso down to the required (preferred) length for the dress.*
*Note: The ELD block is just an extension of the Torso Block, or alternately, the Torso block is a shortened version of the ELD block. If you make the ELD block from the Bodice & Skirt Blocks, you can then make the Torso Block from the ELD Block.
I will be creating the ELD block from the Bodice & Skirt Blocks.
Darts
This dress block has a bodice side seam dart and two waist darts that run through the bodice and skirt.
When making the ELD block from the Bodice & Skirt blocks, it doesn't matter if the darts on the Bodice & Skirt don't match up, these can just be redrawn.
Example
An example of a dress made with the ELD block is the princess-line dress shown to the right in Image 2. The dress on the left has a waist seam; it is made using the Bodice and Skirt Blocks. The dress on the right is made using the ELD dress block; there is no waist seam, the side-seam and waist darts are incorporated into the design line.
