flekka challenge: Challenge 12:: Blomma dress:: intro and drafting

Keeping with the sleeveless theme... this challenge will be a dress. As with the last three challenges, this one will be made using the Basic Block 1 free pattern.

So what is Blomma dress. This top is the inspiration:

Abaete

I don't have a sketch right now, so just imagine this top as long as her skirt (short dress) and then add straps. Of course, this could be made into either a long dress or simply a top.

So let's start. First, copy the basic block front on a separate piece of paper. Make sure you mark the waistline. Measure 7 cm down the midline and then 5 cm down from that point (notice I marked 6 cm on the pic below - I did originally, but then I changed it later to 5 when). So, the neck opening will be 12 cm deep.

Now, measure 12 cm from the first point (7 cm down on the midline) horizontally towards the arm opening. That will be the point where the straps will attach. Now reshape the neck and the arm opening to that point.
We are going to leave the bust dart where it is this time.

Find the hipline (usually about 21 cm from the waistline or measure).

Since this is a dress, we need to make sure there is enough ease around the hip. If you have copied and extended the midline and side seam line to the hip line, measure the width at the hipline. It should measure at least (hip)/4 + 3cm, where 'hip' is your hip measurement. In my case, I am doing this for size 38 (Burda size) which measures 94 cm around the hip. So with ease, the hipline should be 26.5 cm. Of course, you can add more ease if you wish. I was 0.5 cm short, so I redrew the sideseam.

I added 30 cm more from the hipline to the hem. Again, make it as long as you wish. Mine will be 51 cm from the waist

The side seam and the hem should meet at 90 deg angle. So, to reshape this part, draw a line straight down from the waist/sideseam to the hem. Then draw a line perpendicular to the sideseam towards the hem. Smooth the hem curve. (see pic below)

The front is finished. For the back, I copied the back right next to the front piece, such that the waistlines matched.

There is not much to the back. It is simply a straight line across from the back arm opening. I curved it slightly so that at the midline, it is about 1 cm below the horizontal line.

Draw the waistline and hipline as for the front (hipline is 21 cm below the waistline) and check the ease around the hips. The width at the hipline should be (hip)/4 + 1 cm, where 'hip' is your measurement around the hips. Again, for size 38, this comes out to be 24.5 cm. Again, I was about 0.5 cm short so I had to redraw the sideseam.

Finally fix the hem/sideseam point as for the front. See the pic below.

Front and back finished. Now onto the front/back ruffles - I am not sure what they are called, so I will go with ruffles. They are not really ruffles, not in the sense that you take a long strip of fabric and then you gather all around the hem or a seam or wherever... (like the bottom of a skirt). I do not want these "ruffles" to be very "ruffly" (oh gosh, this is getting bad), I want them to be flowy (again, not a word, at least not according to the spellchecker) and just a bit wider that the top part of the dress. So I am going to copy the top part of the dress and then add some volume to it... Maybe the pictures will be clearer...

Above, you can see I copied the top of the front pattern to get the full width of the front, because the pieces I am adding will not be symmetric. Then I drew in what I thought these pieces should look like. Below you can see the two lines going across the pattern. I am going with two additional pieces (the inspiration photo has three). Also I am only going with one back piece.

Then I copied over the pattern and here I the two "ruffles" for the front. You can see that they are not symmetrical. The top (#1) is wider on the left, and the bottom one is wider on the right.

I also have to do the ruffle piece on the back, so I did the same with the back pattern piece. I just had to make sure that the back piece will match up with the wider sides of the front parts at the sideseam.

Now, to add volume... I tried to divide each of these "ruffles" into equal parts, so I drew lines approximately 2 in apart

Then I cut along those lines from the "hem" up to the neck/arm seam but not through. You leave just a bit so that the pieces are still connected. Then you pull those pieces apart the amount you wish (see below). The more you pull them apart the more "ruffly" the piece will be. I separated about 2 cm (measured at the hem) at each piece. Repeat for each piece.