I started off by firstly tracing out the front and back of a basic dress block. I then had to look at my dress design and decide where the main adaptions were taking place, this was the shoulder and neckline area of the front and back.
I started by adapting the front of the dress. I had to make the neckline angled and straight, rather than smooth, and totally take out the shoulder altogether.
Here I have blocked off the part I will be cutting out with white paper. I closed the top dart and reopened one just under the arm which is where I wanted the dress to fit into the body slightly more. On the right I have angled the neckline to make it straight rather than rounded, and then on the left is the shoulder and underarm hole which here I have taken away the shoulder and drawn a straight line from the top of the shoulder seam to straight under the arm, taking out the shoulder completely and making the seam angled and straight like the new neckline.
This is the back piece, I have taken out the small dart at the top by taking off the same amount as the dart measured which was just over a center meter off the right side. Then, i kept the back neckline rounded and the same height as on the pattern but changed the direction of the back piece totally so that each point of the neckline on top of each shoulder was meeting in the middle of the back and then spreading out to the underarm seams, this totally took out the shoulder again.
I then had to add the length onto the bottom of the pattern to make it just sweep ankle length. I found someone at an average height in my class and then measured them from the knee to the ankle, as the pattern stopped at the knee and I wanted to make it ankle length. I then took my measurement of about 35-36 cm and added it onto the bottom of the front and back pattern.
As I was having inverted darts on the front of my front piece, I had to work out where and how many I was going to use. The dart on the front of the front piece I decided to take out and re work into the front evenly by measuring the original dart and then dividing it up by however many darts i wanted in the front of my dress, I opted for 5. So then I measured the original dart and split it into 5 equal parts and spread them out evenly making sure the middle one was going to be exactly in the center front.
The next part of my patterning was the add the crystal shaped panels onto each side. I decided with advice from my tutor to do the panels so their was a seam in between them, so 4 pieces were cut out rather than 2 to see what effect this gave. I drew on the panel shape starting from just above the knee point and going all the way down to the bottom, to get the same shape on both the front and back piece i traced the exact same panel shape onto each.
Then I had to cut out my patterns. I firstly decided to cut out the panels and I did this by tracing them onto a separate piece of paper and then adding a 1cm seam allowance all the way around each one. Now I had traced out the panels and I had the correct patterns with seam allowances, I could rub out the panels on my main patterns so they didn't confuse me or get in the way when I was putting on the seam allowance. The back pattern wasn't cut on the fold as it has a zip in the back, this patter had a seam allowance all the way around, the front pattern was cut on the fold, so the center front line didn't need a seam allowance but everywhere else did.
FRONT PIECE
PANELS
Now I could place my patterns onto my calico and cut them out, there was 4 panels, two back pieces and one front piece. I firstly started the manufacture of my dress by adding in the inverted darts to my front piece. I did the exact same thing I would usually do when placing in darts, although this time instead of putting right side to right side together and sewing in the dart on the wrong side, I did the total opposite and placed wrong side to wrong side and sewed the darts in on the right side to give this effect;
I was really happy with the effect of the darts on the front of my dress. There were also some normal darts, one on each side of the front under the armhole, and one on each side of the back at the middle top.
Next I started on the panels, as I thought it would be best to get those sewn in before I started on putting my main dress together. I made sure I had the right panels for the back and for the front, and pinned them in one by one and sewed them in with a 1cm seam allowance.
They fit really well and I was pleased by how they had turned out.
I did notice hear as seen in the above picture, that the two panels sewn onto the front piece were significantly shorted than the length of the dress, after speaking with my tutors I decided this could be corrected by the hem which was planned to be at about 3cm.
I then decided to insert the invisible zip into the back piece.
Now I just had the 2 pieces, the front and the back. I then sewed the 2 side seams together with a 1cm seam allowance.
I was really pleased with how the dress went together, especially the panels, I thought they fit in really well and looked very symmetrical.
I then sewed the shoulders at the top together and my dress was properly put together. As I looked at it on the mannequin though I decided I wanted to make some changes. Mostly to the neckline and shape at the back, the darts and panels and length of dress was fine. I drew on the toile where I would like the changes to take place.
I also wanted to take the dress in slightly by making the dart under the armhole a bit bigger.
I then drew the changes onto my pattern and re-cut the pattern out.
So now when I come to make my final garment, I know that the front and back will be just how I want it. I also made my interfacing pieces as I am going to interface the neckline and top of the back piece. I did this by tracing off the top of the back and front piece and making sure they were the same height and went down to the same part so that they fit together.
I will cut these out of the interfacing and attach them to my final dress.
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