Challenge 15:: Gima tunic:: drafting front and back

Similar to the Challenge 14 top, I will enlarge the arm opening (personal preference) the same amount from the shoulder dart: 2/3 of the dart will be moved into the arm opening; 1/3 will go into the waist to add width (in Challenge 14 1/3 was incorporated into the yoke). 

OK, so mark points 1,2, 3 and 4 on the dart and draw a horizontal line from the dart end to the arm opening (point 6), and a vertical one to the hem (point 5). Trace around the pattern from point 1 counterclockwise to point 5. Put a pin in the tip of the dar and rotate the pattern counterclockwise until the right leg of the dart matches point 3 (we just closed 1/3 of the dart and moved it to the waist). Then trace from point 5 (on the pattern) counterclockwise around the pattern to point 6. 

Finally, rotate the pattern until the right dart leg matches point 1. Trace around the last part of the pattern - from 6 to 1. Remove the pattern, redraw shoulder seam and the arm opening. I also took another 1 cm down the sideseam to further widen the arm opening.

Extend the length you wish - I added 45 cm from the waist - based on a red tunic I bought last year at Zara. Measure the opening of the dart - in my case this was 2.8 cm. We need this for the top because we will be moving a part of the dart into the waist there as well, and we need to keep the balance between the front and the back, so we need to know how much we added in the back.

Draw in your side seam. Here, I used the Zara tunic again. I really liked how it fit, so why not. Finally, draw in the hipline (about 20 cm below the waistline), if your top extends below the hipline, and make sure that the width is at least H/4 + 4cm, where H is your hip measurement. 

The last thing at the back, is to fix the neck opening. See below.

The front will be a little more complicated. We need to draw the neckline, and distribute the dart into the waist and under arm, so we will need to do some tracing as well as cutting, so first, trace your sloper (if you do not wish to modify it).

Neck opening first. It's a square opening, but a deep one, with an insert - it might remind you of a "bib" front? So why not incorporate the dart into the seam of the neck? I tried, but the opening and the insert turned out to be too wide for my taste, too much as a "bib" (not a fan). So I decided to just keep the dart and move it under the arm. 

This is how I drew the neck (let's try to keep it simple):

a) open the neck the same as in the back (point 2)

b) measure how deep you want the opening to be (that would be to the top of the insert, point 4)

c) draw a horizontal line from 4 and a vertical line from 2, intersection mark as 5

d) measure how deep you want the insert - in my case it's 10 cm from point 4; draw a horizontal line

e) point 6 lies 2 cm to the right of 5

f)to get the side of the neck opening, draw a line from 2, through 6 down to the bottom of the neck opening. 

g) draw the top of the neck opening (the top of the insert) a bit lower at the midpoint (maybe 1.5 mm) - point 9

h) finally, since this is a deep opening, we need to take a bit at the neck, to prevent it from gaping open: point 7 is about 3 cm to the right of 6; 8 is about 0.5 cm to the right of 7. Connect 7 and 8 to the breast point (BP). BP, 7 and 8 make a little "dart" that will be taken in and transferred somewhere else.

Now before we start transferring darts we need to draw in the sideseam. Also mark 1 cm down the sideseam for the arm opening to match the back. Almost forgot - draw another line from BP - down to the hem. Cut the pattern out. Cut out the neck dart we just drew in, also cut out the bust dart and cut along the line from BP down to the hem.

 This is the mess you end up with... Close the neck dart and secure with tape. Also tape the midline to the bottom paper, that part of the pattern will not move any more. Draw in where you want the underarm dart to be. Here - 6cm below the arm opening. Cut along this line.

Now comes the fun part - distributing the dart. First of all, leave some at the arm opening - this should match how much we added in the back (forgot to mention this earlier - go back to the back pattern and measure how much you added at the arm opening in the back by moving the shoulder dart). Tape to secure. Then open at the waistline - again match the back. Tape to secure. This will leave you with a dart under arm. 

All that's left is to do some fixes... redraw the arm opening - don't forget to take that 1 cm down the sideseam. Redraw the neck opening. Finish the dart.

Add the length, draw the sideseam (below the waistline), draw in the hipline and make sure that you have enough ease there - it should be H/4 + 5 cm at least (H is your hip measurement).

Finally, match the front an the back an the shoulder seam to check the neck and the arm curve.

That's it. Next will be the sleeve.

Previous Challenge 15 posts:
Challenge 15:: Gima tunic:: intro

Challenge 13:: Pieve skirt:: finished

OK, and now for the finished skirt.

On the left is the inspiration from Boden and on the right is the skirt I drafted. It looks pretty similar - I don't actually know how much the Boden skirt flares at the hem - they don't give those measurements - but it looks pretty close.

And now for some details: skirt in the original pattern started at the waist and was about 56 cm long (22 in). I typically prefer skirts that sit a bit below the waist (the Boden skirt sits at waist) so I took off 2 cm from the waist. I cut the skirt using that pattern. Then I wanted to add the black "band", or maybe it would be better called a yoke, so I cut another 2 cm to use as the pattern for the "yoke". The second and third picture below show how I made the "yoke" pattern for the back.

And this is what it looks like on the form... I don't know if you can really tell, but it fits really well, slightly below the waist, to elongate the torso.

I was never very good at zippers, and I made an attempt to do an invisible zipper. It wasn't too bad, but in all honesty, It should be ripped out and put back in.

It's really hard to tell, but the picture on the right below is actually the back. Not very exciting, is it?

The fabric is a printed linen I bought downtown LA ages ago for $1/yard. I still have 2 yards left. The black yoke and the bias tape at the hem are also linen. 

I really like this skirt. I think it's just flared enough to be a little less formal then the straight skirt, but formal enough so you can make it as a part of a suit. I think a few variations are in order... 

Some techniques you might find useful:

Installing an Invisible Zipper

Previous Challenge 13 posts:

Challenge 13:: Pieve skirt:: intro and drafting

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.

And this is what the final patterns looks like (the only other thing you will need are the straps):

Just to give you an idea of what I am going for, I pinned the pattern pieces on the dress form. Maybe a little too "ruffly"? We'll see...

Sorry about the poor photo quality. I was loosing the light, and the laps were making awful shadows...

Next... do I have to even say it? The muslin...

Challenge 11:: Marina top:: drafting

So, in this Challenge, we are going to be modifying the Basic Block 1 (on the left) to get the pattern for the top on the right. 

As in the previous challenge, I printed and cut out the pattern for the Basic Block 1. There are two pieces, as shown below (remember, the pattern does not include seam allowances):

This time however, since we need to draft the french sleeve and move all the darts, instead of modifying these two pieces, we will trace them on separate piece of paper.

So, for the back (see the pic below on left), draw a line from the tip of the dart down to the hem. Place the pattern on a paper and trace from the shoulder dart (from the left dart leg) counterclockwise all the way to where the line from the dart hits the hemline. Then rotate the pattern counterclockwise until the right shoulder dart leg aligns with where you started to trace (where the left dart leg used to be). Then continue tracing from where you stopped (on the pattern) counterclockwise all the way around to where you started. This way you trace the pattern and move the dart at the same time. For more details see the Week 1 challenge.

Similarly in the front... Draw a line from the BP straight down to the hemline. Then trace clockwise from the top dart leg, around the pattern to the point where the line from BP hits the hemline. Then rotate the pattern clockwise until the bottom bust dart leg hits where you started tracing, or where the top dart leg used to be before rotating the pattern. Trace from the hem clockwise around to where you started. This was, as in the back, you moved the dart at the same time as you traced the pattern. More details in Week 1 challenge post (the only difference is the position of the bust dart, but everything else is the same).

Now the sleeves... In the front: redraw the shoulder from the neck point to about 1 cm above the shoulder point. Then extend by 8 cm (see pic below).

In the back: the arm opening is already wide enough, so just extend the shoulder line by 8 cm.

Then, drop the new shoulder point (the end of the shoulder seam) by 0.7 cm on both front and back and redraw and smooth the shoulder line as in pics below. Also, drop the under arm point (the start of the side seam) by 2 cm. I also moved the under arm point out by 0.5 cm, just to make the arm opening curve smoother at that point (where the under arm curve and the side seam meet). Then redraw the sleeve openings. This took a bit of trial and error. The french curve did not work, so I had to do this by hand. One important point, the sleeve curve should be perpendicular to the shoulder seam at the point where they meet. 

Finally - the neckline. I chose a V-neck, not too deep. I am not going to tighten it this time, because it is not that deep, or wide, and there will be the bow collar. Hope it works. So... measure 5 cm from the neck point on the shoulder seam, and 12 cm down the center line. Connect these two points with straight line. The neck curve should "go" about 1 cm to the left of that line, at about 1/3 of the length of the neckline (see pic below). This makes the V-neck lie flatter.

We will also need facing to finish this neckline so I drew it on this pattern too. When it comes to cutting the fabric, I will copy the facing on a separate piece of paper. I chose the facing to be 3 cm wide (remember, no seam allowances here). At the bottom of the V-neck, measure 3 cm and then curve the facing slightly to the tip (see pic above).

Finally, change the neckline in the back: 5 cm from the neck point on the shoulder, 3 cm down the midline. Also, draw in the facing.

Now you are ready to cut the patterns out and check the continuity of the neck and sleeve curves across the shoulder seam. As you can see, I had to redraw the back neck and facing a bit, but the arm opening were fine (not shown here).

Next... the muslin.

Previous Challenge 11 posts:

Challenge 11:: Marina top:: intro