Video Transcript

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Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me...
 Hello, this is Maria from dresspatternmaking.com. 
 This video is a revision of the bodice instructions I uploaded in April 2021. This video uses Metric measurements and the background graphic has a cm grid. I have also uploaded an Imperial version. This video is the instructions for the Bodice Back. I have recently uploaded the Bodice Front video in both Imperial and Metric.

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    I have also recently uploaded 2 other videos; Planned Content for 2022 and Variations on a Silhouette. Unfortunately, the time schedule I had set out in the Planned Content video is a little bit behind so you can’t on that. If you find my content useful, please consider buying me a cup of coffee on Ko-Fi. The link can be found in my channel header. Regarding the bodice block booklet, that is the PDF or EPUB - 

00:00:56:08 - 00:01:18:01

    I have also recently uploaded 2 other videos; Planned Content for 2022 and Variations on a Silhouette. Unfortunately, the time schedule I had set out in the Planned Content video is a little bit behind so you can’t on that. If you find my content useful, please consider buying me a cup of coffee on Ko-Fi. The link can be found in my channel header. Regarding the bodice block booklet, that is the PDF or EPUB - 

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The Bodice Block Essentials videos can be found in my The Bodice Block Essentials Playlist. Part 6 covers the measurements needed to draft the bodice blocks front and back. In that Measurements video, there were a couple of measurements shown incorrectly, but that was explained in the updated Bodice Front video. That is the Bodice Front instructions uploaded in March 2022. There are now three versions of my bodice block instructions on YouTube.

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The first two are superseded, so make sure that the Bodice Front you drafted was using the instructions uploaded in March 2022 and not one of those previous versions. I will be using Didi again to show the measurements to the left while drafting to the right. On the left is one of the outcomes of this video. That is Didi’s back Sleeveless Block. On the right is Didi’s front Sleeveless Block which makes the Sleeveless Block set. I will actually first draft a Moulage for Didi, then make the adjustments of the Sleeveles Block, then make further adjustments for the Sleeved Block.

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My recommendation is that you test your Sleeveless Block first. This is a comparison to show you how different blocks can look so that you are aware that your block may look significantly different to the one I’m drafting for Didi. Didi’s block is to the left, mine is in the middle and on the right one is one top of the other to better compare them. As should be expected, the shape of the block shows you the shape of the person.

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Now, having said that, you really need the front block as well to get a complete picture of the person’s shape. For example, looking at Didi’s back block and mine, you may think Didi has a larger bust. And I have a squarer figure; ince Didi has 20 cm difference between her Upper-Bust and waist, and I have only 12 cm difference between my Upper-Bust and Waist.

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But this is not taking into account the Bust measurement and the Bust cup, and they are more obvious on the Bodice Front. I also have squarer shoulders than Didi and my torso length is shorter. Your block will have differences that will reflect your individual measurements and your body shape. In this video, I’ll be drafting the half back, which means if any measurements were taken across the full back, they have to be divided by 2.

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If you have an asymmetric figure, you may eventually want to figure out how each side is different and work with the full back instead of the half back. When drafting your patterns, I will be referring to the measurement chart which can be downloaded from my website. You will probably already have used it to take your measurements and draft the Front Block.

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If you need another copy. There will be a link in the YouTube description box below the video. Okay, so let's start drafting firstly on your paper, draw a horizontal line across the bottom of your paper to indicate the waist. No measurement as yet. This is a reference line and we'll start drafting from this point upwards. So the first measurement is the full length back.

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This is actually measurement number 23 on my measurement chart, it’s the first measurement in the back section. Using your Full-Length-Back measurement, draw a vertical line from point A on your waistline up to point B, make sure the vertical line is at right angles to the horizontal waist guideline. Mark points A and B. The measurement, as shown on Didi, is taken from the High-Neck-Point to the Waist in a straight line.

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The next measurement is the Upper-Bust-Arc-Back, measurement number 3 on the chart. The Upper-Bust-Arc-Back measurement is from side-seam to side-seam, at the underarm level. You need to divide the Upper-Bust-Arc-Back in 2 the for the half block. Using that measurement, measure across from point B in a straight horizontal line, making sure it’s at right angles to the A to B line and mark point C. Then finish the rectangle, drawing a line from C back down to the waist and mark point D. Make sure all the corners are right angles.

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Now, to be clear, this is just the body measurement, no ease. We will add the ease right at the very end. Next is the Center-Back-Length measurement, measurement number 24 on the chart. Using your Center-Back measurement, measure up from point A on that A-to-B line and mark point E. Then draw a line at right angles to the A-to-E line for about 10 cm and mark the end of that line point

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E2, this is just a guideline and will help us draw the neck curve later. As it’s a guideline, it doesn’t need to be an exact length, which is why I say for about 10 cm . Next is the Across-Shoulder-Back - measurement number 25 on the chart. Your Across-Shoulder is measured either from the Center Back tp the shoulder tip or from shoulder-tip to shoulder-tip and divided by 2. Using the half measurement from Center Back to the shoulder-tip, measure across from point B towards point C and mark point F. Then draw another guideline.

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Again, because it’s a guideline, it does not need to be an exact length, about 8 to 10 cm down from point F at right angles to the B-to-F line and mark the end of that line F2. Now the Back-Neck measurement. This is measurement number 30 on the chart. The Back-Neck measurement is one of those where you could take the half measurement from the Center Back to the High-Neck-Point or measure from High-Neck-Point to High-Neck-Point and divide by 2.

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But using that half measurement, measure from point B on the B-to-C line and mark point G. Draw another guideline from point G, at right angles to the B-to-C line and mark point G2. The length of that line can be about 8 to 10 cm long. Next to Shoulder-Slope-Back - measurement number 26 on the chart. Using your Shoulder-Slope measurement, measure up diagonally from point A on the waistline to touch the F-to-F2 guideline. Where it touches that guideline, mark point H. Now just a point here,

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Some instructions say to add a 1/4 of a cm to your Shoulder-Slope measurement for some ease. I just find that when you take those measurements 2 or 3 times, you can be out a 1/4 of a cm each time you take it. My opinion is just take the body measurement when you make the toile. It should be obvious if you need a little bit more and you can add it before you finalize your

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block. Now a few slides back, we marked the Back-Neck measurement from B-to-G. Now the issue is that we’ve taken the measurement of a curve. And if you look at Didi on the left, the curve is from the Center-Back-Neck to the High-Neck-Point. And we’re plotting it on the block as a straight line.

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So let’s look at the next slide to see what the problem may be for some people. Now the necl curve we need to draw is from point A to point G, for Didi. That curve from E-to-G ends up being much longer than the measurement from B-to-G. Now you may ask why then do the instructions plotted as a straight line if the curve ends up being much longer?

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Well, for most people, or at least those who fall into the Standard category, it won’t be a problem, it will work out - Didi actually happens to be Non-Standard. I’ll show you how it does work out for most people in the next slide with my block. In my case, the length of the curve from E-to-G on the right is only slightly longer than the straight line from B-to-G, which is my original measurement.

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And that bit of extra length gained in that curve is needed for ease. This is one of the rare instances where I fall into the Standard category, and that Standard is that there’s only about 1 and 1/2 cm between points E and B. What that means is I have only about 1 and 1/2 cm difference between my Centre-Back and Full-Length-Back measurements.

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The green shaded areas on this slide shows the depth of the back neck curve. You can see that the shaded area on the left - my neck curve - is quite shallow. With that shallow curve, the neck curve ends up being slightly longer than the body measurement and that slight increases is needed for ease. For those who have more than that 1 and 1/2 cm difference between the Centre Back and the Full-Length-Back, they’ll end up with a deep curve from E-to-G that ends up longer than their Back-Neck measurement, as it does for Didi

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on the right. She has nearly 3 cm difference between her Centre-Back and Full-Length-Back measurements. So if you fall into that category, with a large difference between your Centre-Back and Full-Length-Back measurements, you’ll need to do some adjusting and finessing so that you don’t end up with a gaping back neck, or that your High-Neck-Point doesn’t end up too far out on your shoulder.

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So basically you’ll have to draw that neck line curve in and measure it. If the measurement from E-to-G ends up being a lot longer or quite a bit longer than your actual measurement, you’ll need to move point G over to the left and try again. And you’ll need to finesse it until you get the curve from E-to-G to be about 1/2 cm longer than your body measurement.

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The next measurement is the Shoulder-Length. Measurement number 8 on the chart. Take your Shoulder-Length measurement and add 1 and 1/4 cm for a dart. Using that total Shoulder-Length plus dart amount., draw a line from point G at the neck to pass through point H the Shoulder-Slope point and mark the end of that line point I.

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I have actually put point I in brackets because the capital I looks like a 1 and the lower case seems to get lost. So that’s the only reason that it’s there in brackets. Now, mark the midway point on the shoulder line, so midway between point G and I and mark that midpoint J. Now the Waist measurement - measurement Number 7 on the chart. Moving down to your waistline, take your Waist measurement, that’s your whole body circumference and divide it by 4.

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I have actually put point I in brackets because the capital I looks like a 1 and the lower case seems to get lost. So that’s the only reason that it’s there in brackets. Now, mark the midway point on the shoulder line, so midway between point G and I and mark that midpoint J. Now the Waist measurement - measurement Number 7 on the chart. Moving down to your waistline, take your Waist measurement, that’s your whole body circumference and divide it by 4.

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This will help with the waist curving because the waist is not a completely straight line. Now using your Side-Seam-Length measurement, that’s measurement number 9 on the measurement chart - measure from point K2 just below the waist, up to touch the C-to-D line. Where it touches the C-to-D line, mark point L1. Then draw a guideline inwards for about 5 cm from point L1, at right angles to the side-seam line and mark point L2. So this slide is just to remind you that when we drafted the front, we did a similar thing, in taking the waist down below the waistline at the side-seam for a smidge, then curving that up

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to blend to the straight waistline. Doing this means that when we true the front and back, we end up with a smooth flow through as shown to the right at the top, rather than the angular line shown at the bottom. Now, in drawing that side-seam line up from the waist to touch the C-to-D line, we have now defined the underarm point.

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Point L1 is the underarm point. This means we can now draw in the Upper-Bust line. So draw a line at right angles to the Centre-Back line to touch point L1. You can write ‘Upper-Bust’ on that line if you wish. Next, take your Bust-Depth-at-Side-Seam measurement. That’s number 17 on the measurement chart. Measure down from the underarm point L1 and mark the Bust level.

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Draw a line from the Centre-Back, at right angles to the Centre-Back line, to touch this point. Now, I actually neglected to give that point a letter, but it should be okay because we are drawing the line there. So now the Across-Back measurement, measurement number 31 on the char.t In my instructions for taking the measurements, I said to take the A prospect measurement about halfway between the Centre-Back-Neck and the Upper-Bust line.

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So measure from point E - the Centre-Back-Neck point - to the Upper-Bust line and divide that by 2. Using that measurement, mark point M which is the placement for the Across-Back measurement. Then using the Across-Back measurement which is on your chart divided by 2 for the half block, measure inwards from point M and mark point N. Now you can take a French curve and draw the armhole from point I at the shoulder through point N at the Across-Back, down to point L1 at the underarm. For Didi,

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I can draw that in one pass with a curve. You may need to draw two curves and blend it, depending on your ruler. Now, if you end up with what seems to be a really large back armhole and you have a Rounded-Upper-Back, chances are you’ll have some excess ease in the back armhole. What you’ll need to do in the fitting stage is to pinch the excess ease out and measure it, then move that excess into the shoulder that we haven’t constructed the shoulder dart yet, but we’ll be doing that in a bit.

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However, that fitting does need to be done in the toile stage because is it hard to determine what size dart you need in the shoulder so you always start with the basic amount and in the toile fitting stage you can increase that shoulder dart width. Now we’re going to place the waist dart and mark the width of the dart and draw the centre line of the waist dart up to the Upper-Bust.

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Now if you’re unsure of where to place your Back Waist Dart, there are some general guides on the screen. Basically between 7 cm and 9 cm from the Centre-Back Waist. When you make, you will see if you like it there and move it accordingly if you don’t. So taking that measurement, measure across from point A on the waistline towards point D and mark point O. Then measure from point O for the width of the dart and mark point P. We allowed for a 3 and 3/4 cm dart when we marked point K, so from point O to P should be 3 and 3/4 cm. In the middle of that dart,

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Draw a straight line up to the Upper-Bust line and mark point Q. Make sure that that line, from the middle of the dart to point Q, is at right angles to the waistline. Draw the first dart leg from point Q trhough point O and go 1/2 a cm below the waistline and mark point O2. Draw the other dart line from point Q to go through point P, to go 1/2 cm below the waistline and mark point P2. Check that those 2 lines are the same length - they need to be the same length.

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Draw the waist curve in as shown. Uou will need to extend the mid-dart point line down below the waist. Then with the help of a curved ruler, draw a curved line from point A at Centre-Back to pass through point O2 and touch the mid0-art line that you’ve extended down. Then turn the ruler over to get the same curve from the midline through point P2. Then draw another curve from point P2 the to the side-seam point K2.

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In the measurement video, I suggest that you take your back, hold depth a number of ways for checking purposes. These are In the Measurement video, I suggest that you take your Back-Armhole-Depth a number of ways for checking purposes. These are measurements 27, 28 and 29 on the chart. So Centre-Back to Upper-Bust, High-Neck-Point to Upper-Bust, and Shoulder-Point to Upper-Bust on the Shoulder-Slope line. Now we didn’t actually use any of these measurements to get the armhole depth, but now it’s the time to check those measurements that they do work out. 27, 28 and 29 on the chart. So sent back to up a bust high neck point to upper bust and shoulder point to upper bust on the shoulder slope line. Now we didn't actually use any of these measurements to get the armhole depth, but now it's the time to check those measurements that they do work out.

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It would just give you an idea of whether you’ve made some major mistakes. Now, if you do actually plot those and they all end up on the same level but not at the Upper-Bust line, then what you’d need to do is check your Shoulder-Slope and Full-Length-Front before continuing. If after checking the Shoulder-Slope and the Full-Length-Front, you come up with the same measurements, then just drop the block and draw the lines on it and check it at the toile stage.

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Now we’ll construct the shoulder dart, draw a guideline from point Q - the Waist dart point - and point J on the mid-shoulder. From point J measure down that guideline for 7 and 1/2 cm, and the dart point R. Now when I say 7 and 1/2 cm, with all these things, that’s a starting point that need that may need to be finessed.

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It may be different from person to person. Didi needed a dart that was longer than 7 and 1/2 cm. Now draw a dart along the shoulder line with J at the Centre and make that dart 1 and 1/4 cm wide. Now draw a dart leg from point R through point S and go beyond point is for a 1/4 of a cm.

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Mark point U. Measure that dart leg from point R to point U and draw the second leg to match that length. So from point R to point T and mark point V. Also, to be able to finish off the shaping of the shoulder line, extend the mid-dart line out for a couple of cm. Then to draw the shoulder line, start at point I and draw a straight line to point V and continue until you reach the mid-dart line. Then draw from the mid-dart line to point U,

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then to point G. On the left is the final shape of the Moulage, because it still doesn’t have any ease. And the shape is from point A at the waist, up to point E - Centre-Back-Neck point - around the neck curve to point G at the shoulder, then to point I, through points U and V on the shoulder to point , the armhole curve down to L1, down to the waist K2. and then the waist curve back to A. And on the right in pink is the shape without emphasis on the points.

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Now this is basically your Moulage for the back. If you do sew this up and it doesn’t fit, part of that will be that you have no ease. You really do need a little bit of ease in order to be able to do it up. It will be difficult to pin up if it’s made to your exact measurements, so now will add ease to the side seam.

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If you look at the graphic on the right hand side, the pink line, the pink side-seam line is the Moulage side seam, and the blue line to the right is the side-seam line for the Sleeveless Block after ease is added. More ease is added to the Upper-Bust and that tapers down on an angle to the waist where less ease is added. The waist ease, which is the same for the Sleeveless and Sleeved Block, is 2 and 1/2 cm across the whole block.

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We’re not going to distribute that evenly, just because 0.63 of a cm is not that easy to measure. We added 1 cm of the front, which leaves 1 and 1/2 cm for the back. That’s 3/4 of a cm for the half block. So move out from the waist side-seam point K2 for 3/4 of a cm and mark point X. For the Upper-Bust ease, the Sleeveless Block will have 7 and 1/2 cm and that’s across the whole block.

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We’ve already added 2 and 1/2 of that to the front, so that there is a remainder of 5 cm ease to add to the back. That is 2 and 1/2 cm for the half block. We will also lower the armhole 1 and 1/2 cm. So firstly, measure down from Point L1 on the L1-to-K line to drop the armhole 1 and 1/2 cm.

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So measure down 1 and 1/2 cm, then at right angles to the L1-to-K line, measure at 2 and 1/2 cm and mark point Y. Draw a line from point Y to point X. That is the side-seam line for the Sleeveless Block. You will then need to redraw the armhole from point N point Y with a French curve.

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So I suggest that you measure the Bust line to see how much ease you’ve ended up with at the Bust level. You need to exclude the dart, obviously. Now you need to compare this measurement to your body, Bust-Arc-Back and see what the difference is, to see how much ease you’ve ended up with. So the standard amount, so the amount that you’re aiming for or hoping for 2 and 1/2 to 5 cm for the Sleeveless Block.

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And later on you can check again for the Sleeved Block. That’s 5 to 7 and 1/2 cm for the Sleeved Block. Now, again, this is for the whole block. Two things here. You may end up with more or less ease than this. And in the next slide, I’ll show you how Didi and I end up with very different amounts of ease in the back, at the bust.

00:23:16:23 - 00:23:41:23

But even if you end up with the standard amount, it may be too much. And even if you end up with a standard amount, it may not be enough. I plan on doing another video on Ease, but I’ll quickly cover 4 reasons why it’s difficult for me to give instructions that will give you the exact amount of ease that you need. (1) You may have taken your measurements to loosely.

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So, rather than your body measurements, you already have ease built into your measurements, and therefore you will end up with two ease. (2) The smaller you are, the less ease you need. We’ve added a set amount rather than a proportionate amount of ease, and that is customary for block making instructions. But 5 cm on a Size 4 is a lot more proportionally than 5 cm for someone who is Size 20.

00:24:08:06 - 00:24:30:09

So the smaller you are, chances are, the more ease that you will end up with more ease than you need. Third reason: the more fat you have, the more ease you need. Fat spreads and your body shape changes with movement. So for example, when you sit down, your fat will move around and something that is loose under the bust when you’re standing can become tight when you sit down.

00:24:30:16 - 00:24:55:05

So again, the slimmer you are, the less ease you need, the more fat you are, the more ease you need. And (4), the most important, ease is a very individual preference. Some people like things tight. Some people cannot stand tight things. All of these things taken together mean that it’s not possible for me to give instructions for adding ease that will suit every single person.

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So that is why I have this system where you fraft a Moulage. You can see where the ease is that you’re adding and you can choose to shave bits of that ease off if that ease is too much and you’ll also be able to add ease if it’s not enough. So now I want to show you how Didi and I have ended up with very different amounts of ease at the bust, even though we added the same amount of these at the Upper-Bust and the Waist.

00:25:20:23 - 00:25:42:04

Now Didi and I have very similar Bust measurements, but very different Upper-Bust measurements and very different Arcs. If you look at Didi’s block on the left, her Upper-Bust-Arc that is from A-to-B is larger than her Bust-Arc - that is C-to D. Note that D ends up to the left of the rectangle of her block.

00:25:42:15 - 00:26:08:12

So the orange square indicates how much ease she has in the bust. She has some ease within that rectangle that is her block base, plus some ease outside of it. She ends up with 1 and 1/2 cm ease in the half back, which means 3 cm for the full back. My Upper-Bust-Arc, A-to-B is exactly the same measurement as my Bust-Arcs from C-to-D.

00:26:08:17 - 00:26:34:23

So when I take into account that dart, it means D extends past my basic rectangle. So I end up with less than a quarter cm eases with 1/2 back. That means less than 1/2 cm for the full back. Compared to Didi’s 3 cm for the full back. Which is a significant difference. And you do need to add this to the front ease to see how much you got for your total block.

00:26:34:23 - 00:26:56:18

But I’m showing you that I have much less ease than Didi does at the Bust level, following the same instructions. On the right is my block from the last slide where I showed you that I ended up with much less ease than Didi. Now, if after I make a toile I decide that that ease is not enough, one way I can get some extra ease is to reduce the height of the dart.

00:26:57:00 - 00:27:17:16

So on the left hand side, you can see that if I reduce the height of the dart, I gain some extra ease. If that is still insufficient, I could also add some at the Upper-Bust and draw a line from that point down to the waist to gain a bit more ease at the Bust level. For those who may be wondering, isn’t it possible to add ease the Bust without adding ease at the Upper-Bust?

00:27:17:22 - 00:27:37:02

So on the left hand side, you can see that if I reduce the height of the dart, I gain some extra ease. If that is still insufficient, I could also add some at the Upper-Bust and draw a line from that point down to the waist to gain a bit more ease at the Bust level. For those who may be wondering, isn’t it possible to add ease the Bust without adding ease at the Upper-Bust?

00:27:37:11 - 00:28:06:01

In the graphic to the right, the red line is the curved shoulder-seam and the blue line is a curved side-seam for a jacket. There is nothing to stop you adding more ease at the Bust and leaving the Upper-Bust the same and having a curved side-seam. But I’m not going to do that, and so my all of my instructions will continue with a straight side-seam. So back to Didi’s Block. This is where we left off. The pink line is her Moulage and the blue line is her Sleeveless Block.

00:28:07:05 - 00:28:26:13

So I ended up with far less ease than Didi, and I talked about adding ease for my situation if it’s necessary. Chances are that Didi has more ease than she needs. So if you are like Didi and would like to reduce your Bust ease, come in from the underarm side seam for a 1/4 of an inch or so and remove the sliver shown in yellow, it goes down to nothing at the waist.

00:28:26:20 - 00:28:46:23

This will reduce the Bust ease by about half inch across the whole back. Of course, this also reduces the ease at the Upper-Bust. But as I said for Didi, this is probably necessary. She probably has no fat on her whatsoever. You do not have to reduce the front ease the same amount as you reduce the back. Do check though how much Bust ease

00:28:46:23 - 00:29:04:23

you end up with across the whole block and you may want to reduce the front a little as well. In the end, you should have at least 1 inch ease at the Bust level and that’s assuming you’ve taken your body measurements correctly - that is firmly rather than loosely. Now someone might ask, well, we started by adding the ease unevenly.

00:29:04:23 - 00:29:26:00

If we added the ease evenly to begin with, Didi’s back would have not had so much ease. Well, two things in response to that. (1) Didi’s ease would still need to be reduced. and maybe in that case, if the ease had been added evenly, rather than 2/3 to the back and 1/3 to the front, she would need to take some of the front and the back.

00:29:26:20 - 00:30:00:13

But number (2), well, that would work OK for Didi, but not my figure. Remember I ended up with very little Bust ease even after adding two thirds of the Upper-Bust ease to the back. The reason I chose the distribution of ease that works better for my type of figure is that my focus has always been on those who have large patternmaking Bust-cups, that is smaller Upper-Bust in proportion to the Bust because that’s where most block making instructions are lacking and don’t end up with good results for the small Upper-Bust and large bust figure.

00:30:00:13 - 00:30:26:14

So now I will add the ease for the Sleeved Block. I will just continue with Didi’s original Sleeveless draft. I suggest that you make your Sleeveless toile first and fit it, make any changes and then continue with these steps from the final side-seam line that may or may not include changes ,depending on whether you’ve reduced or increased the ease. The Upper-Bust ease for

00:30:26:14 - 00:30:47:10

the Sleeved Block is 12 and 1/2 cm. We have already added 7 and 1/2 for the Sleeveles Block, so there’s 5 cm remaining, will add 2/3 to the back and 1/3 to the front as we did before. So that means 3 cm to the whole back, and 1 and 1/2 cm to the half block. The Sleeved

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Block is also lowered a little bit. So from point Y will measure down for 1 cm and out 1 and 1/2 cm to point Z. So measure down from point Y on the Sleeveless side-seam line for 1 cm. Then that right angles to that side-seam line, measure out for 1 and 1/2 cm and mark point Z. Then draw a line from point Z to point K2 at the Waist. To draw the armhole for the Sleeved Block, you’ll need to add 1 cm to the Shoulder-Length and 1/2 cm to the Across-Chest as we did for the front.

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You will also need to draft the actual sleeve to go with a Sleeved Block. Now, before you draft the sleeve, you may also want to check the amount of ease at the Bust level for this Sleeved Block and make some adjustments so that you do only have between 5 and 7 and 1/2 cm ease at the bust level. If you are really thin with no body fat and you like things really closely fitting, you might want to reduce that down to between three and 1/2 and 5 cm.

00:31:50:16 - 00:32:13:04

You will also need to draft the actual sleeve to go with a Sleeved Block. Now, before you draft the sleeve, you may also want to check the amount of ease at the Bust level for this Sleeved Block and make some adjustments so that you do only have between 5 and 7 and 1/2 cm ease at the bust level. If you are really thin with no body fat and you like things really closely fitting, you might want to reduce that down to between three and 1/2 and 5 cm.

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I recommend you draw all the lines from the block on the while. Doing this means you can see where you’ve made mistakes and also it’s much easier to see where the adjustments need to be made. Now a note on the Shoulder-Slope line on your block. It’s not drawn to the shoulder tip because that’s your Across-Back measurement.

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And in actual in reality, when you saw up the dart then point I would end up being where point H is on the block. But when you draw that line on your toile, it makes sense to draw it from the Centre-Back-Waist to the actual shoulder-tip. From here on is some general information on truing the front and the back and finishing of your block.

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This was also included in the Bodice Front video. When we finish both the front and the back. we need to check that the lengths of adjacent pieces match and also check that there is a nice flow through in the curves. If you need to increase the length of anything, you may need to stick on little bits of paper.

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I’m not going to be doing that in my example, but just be aware you may have to. So firstly we’ll do the side seam. Put the back and front blocks together at the side-seam-waist. Check that there’s a smooth curve at the waist. Then check the Side-Seam-Length, firstly from the waist up to dart to the leg, then check that the remainder matches up.

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Check that there is a smooth curve through the armhole. Then match the front and back at the High-Neck-Point to check the neckline curve. While you’re there, mark the shoulder dart placement from the back block onto the front block so that you can check the shoulder length. Move the front block to the other leg and check the shoulder lengths are the same.

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This is especially important when drafting the three options together. The Moulage and the Sleeveless and the Sleeved. You may have traced off the Sleeveless Block on the front and then accidentally trace off the Sleeved version in the back. So definitely always check your Shoulder-Lengths match. Then check the flow through curve of the armhole when you have your final front and back blocks.

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Don’t forget to mark and notch the dart legs, label the block, put all the relevant information on it, maybe including the date you drafted it. Note whether it’s a Sleeveless Block or the Sleeved Block or the Moulage. Now, I did hear a patternmaking say that you don’t put the grainline on the block, you put that on the pattern.

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But I like to have it on my block to remind me, to put it on the pattern, sometimes I forget. And then I get to putting my pattern pieces on the fabric and realize I haven’t drawn the grainline on there. So yes, I definitely prefer to put the grainline on the block as a reminder. So here are some final blocks, not Didi’s, but this is what the final blocks look like.

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These ones don’t have the Bust line or Upper-Bust marked - that was needed during the drafting process for making the toile and getting the measurements right. On the actual blocks you don’t need them. So this is the end of the video. In April, I hope to get up the Bodice Booklet as the first of the Variations On A Silhouette videos - and that one is on Contouring.

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When I have finished the Bodice Booklet, I will put a link to that in the YouTube description box below the video. Now, if you find my content useful, consider buying me a cup of coffee on Ko-Fi. The link can be found in my YouTube channel header. 
 This is Maria from Dresspatternmaking.com 
 Starlight and dew drops are waiting for thee

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Sounds of the Rude World Heard in the Day
 Lulled by The Moonlight Have All Passed Away.