Pattern cutting- 1

Today we started patterning for our first dress which is a 60s style dress. The design of the dress is a loose fit with a flared skirt that goes out below the hips, the features of the dress are going the be the short sleeves, the lined patch pockets and the pleats.

Moving a dart, adjusting the shape of the dress block and drawing pleats

To be able to do any of theses task I needed to use my dress block which is size 12 that I made a couple of weeks ago, my set square and a sharp pencil and a rubber.

 1. To start off we needed to draw around our dress blocks (front and back)adding in the waist line and hip line making sure they were labeled. We also needed to draw in the two darts on the front block and the back block.

This is what it looks like when you have done the basic outline and not added the dart.

Adjusting the block shape

 2. For the dress we are creating we needed it to be a loose fit so this meant we needed to adjust the fit of the block as its drawn to be a semi fit dress.

To do this we needed to aline our set square with the hip line and draw it straight up to the arm whole, this was carried out on both sides. We then just scribbled out the line we didn't need as this is just out 1st draft.

both sides done

 Adding pleat lines

3. Before adding the pleats onto the pattern we individually needed to decide how long we wanted our dresses to be, I chose for mine to be below the hips. 

From the hip line we drew down as long or short as we wanted it and squared it off. The bottom line is where the pleats are going to be places. Also in that square is where the lined patch pocket is going to be placed.

To add the pleats we had to decided where we wanted to place them , its best that they aren't to close the C.F (centre front) as they wont sit right. I chose mine to be just over half way, they needed to be 2 cm a part from each other in order for them to be equal.If you wanted to pleats on the back block you could,I chose to do this as I think it will add an extra feature to the dress.

Moving a dart

4.Moving the dart is easier than it looks! Working from the point at the end of the dart, we needed to draw a line to where ever you want the dart to be placed. In my case I needed it to be a bust dart so I drew to the left hand side (its best keeping it a bit away from the arm whole as it will get to bulky when the fabric is sewed together)

This is what my new dart line looked like

What my pattern looked like up to now.

5. The next step was to get a new piece of paper and trace out the outline of the block from the 1st draft (do this for front and back), we needed to make sure we had all the correct markings, including the c.b and c.f and the waist and hip lines labelled. the new dart line and the old dart needed to be drew as well. 

After this step we cut along the new dart line on the traced version of the block. Once that line was cut straight we then folded it over so that the old dart couldn't be seen any longer. 

like this...   

  

6. Stick a piece of masking tape to hold it down. This has moved the dart to under the arm which is where it needed to be to create a bust dart.

 What the old dart should look like

Back dart

7. To cancel out the back dart you need to measure the shoulder width on your block. From that measurement you need to cancel out 1cm from the arm whole corner, and then joining the arm whole with shoulder by using your set square to get it a lined correctly (see image- right hand side). Once this is done you can scribble out the dart as it know longer exists. 

Lined patch pocket

8. Under the hip line is where the lined patch pocket is going to placed. Its up to you where you choose to place it but again like the pleats its best kept away from the C.F line. I chose for mine to be placed above my pleats. 

All you need to do now is draw out a square depending on how big or small you want your pocket to be and curve over the two bottom corners to make it look like a pocket.

What it should look like

9. After we had drawn the square of our choice we got some more paper and traced the outline of the pocket so that we could make a final pattern for the pocket.

Traced out line

10. Around the traced outline we had to use our set squares to draw a 1cm seam allowance around the pocket shape.

The final lined patch pocket

11. We then cut around the 1cm seam allowance cutting neat around the edges. The arrow shown down the middle of the pattern represents the grain line. We then had to fill it up with information which included our names, what the pattern piece is for.. so in this case it was a lined patch pocket, how many times it needed to be cut on the fabric (also known as shell) and how many times it needed to be cut on the lining as it's a lined patch pocket.

Next week we will be continuing with this pattern cutting task!! 

oxo