Bodice Front Style 37
The bodice of this garment has a gathered waist. Since all the gathering is in the waist, it makes sense to use the 1-Dart Block. There is no need for dart manipulation; just some minor adjustments to the outline. Gathering is one of the dart-equivalents; you need the dart value to create the shaping, the dart value is converted to gathers.
Example: Outcome
Figure B shows the block being used on the left (1-Dart Block), and the pattern that will be created (Style 37) on the right.
The focus of these instructions is covering the theory and practice of manipulating darts and the exercise finishes after the dart manipulation has been done. For production ready patterns you would need to take further steps to add seam allowance, pattern labels, pattern piece numbers, the grainline, etc.
Instructions (Style-37) - Figure 1
Note that in the instructions, color is used for emphasis, so it can be seen more easily, particularly in the current step. You will be using a hard (4H-6H pencil).
- Trace the block onto your paper. You do not need to trace the dart value line, shown in red.
- Mark the Bust Point.
- Lift up your block (see Figure 2).
Instructions (Style-37) - Figure 2
- Join the existing lines with a smooth curve (shown by the blue line).
- Mark the gather in the method you prefer.
- Of course if this was a pattern, you would need to also mark cutting instructions, pattern piece number, number of pattern pieces, etc.
Instructions (Style-37) - Figure 3
This is the outcome of the dart manipulation.
