DRAPING DIGITAL JOURNAL #1 - BODICE & SKIRT

This exercise involved draping a full-scale bodice and skirt (essentially creating a dress block) on a industry-standard size 8 mannequin. This block will have no ease, meaning that this block sits next to the skin. 

Something to take into account before starting this exercise is the measurements of your mannequin: despite this being a standard size 8, there are slight deviations between each mannequin. Also, ensure that the mannequin is clearly and accurately marked at the bustline, waistline, hipline, and neckline.

To start, I cut a strip from my muslin fabric that was 55 cm wide. With the fabric still doubled, I cut across the weft of the fabric 45 cm, so that I now had two pieces that were 55 cm x 45 cm, as well as the extra piece of fabric that was on the fold. The first two pieces will be used for the bodice, and the extra piece is for the skirt.

The fabric pieces may need correcting because ripping the fabric may often result in it being skewed. To correct this, stretch the fabric on the bias in the direction it needs to be corrected towards.

FRONT BODICE

Starting with the front bodice, I marked the center front line 10 cm parallel from the selvage edge in red pen. Then perpendicularly, I measured 21 cm up along the weft of the fabric in green pen. The point at which the two lines intersect is where the bustline and center front of the mannequin should match up. I placed a pin at this point to secure the fabric to the mannequin. From here, I pinned up and down the center front line.

It is crucial that this line is accurately pinned to the mannequin! If this initial step is not done accurately, it will throw the rest of the bodice off!

I placed some more positioning pins to temporarily hold the fabric up. There is one at the shoulder, near the bust point, and there must be a pin at the CF neckline.

At the current state, the neckline area will have a lot of fabric bulk. To make it easier on determining the neckline, trim away some excess bulk and leave 2-3 cm available for draping. Next, place pins at the neckline points by feeling out where the draping tape at the neckline seam is. Cut into the neck at a few points so that the neck lays flatter as this seam is a curve. After that, more fabric can be trimmed off around the neck for a cleaner look, but make sure to leave at least 1 cm.

The difficult part about this step is ensuring that the neck is smooth and that there are no drag lines going up into the shoulder area. Pins may need to be adjusted a few times to ensure the best drape!

Here, I experimented with a few dart positions: this first option is two waist dart and a large armhole dart. I kept the original bustline parallel to the mannequin's bustline, then pinched the excess fabric above and below the bust to create the darts.

Even though darts can be placed anywhere, it is important to try and find the most flattering angles for the darts. When trying to determine a place for darts, make sure that all areas are smooth and there are no drag lines in the bodice.

This dart positioning distorts the original bustline by lowering it. The two darts are placed at the waist, and they angle away from each other. This is not the most flattering position because the diverging darts make the waistline appear wider.

Finally, these two darts are placed more parallel to each other, with the first dart lining up with the mannequin's princess seam. Take note of where the ends of the darts hit: The first dart is just below the bustline and the second dart extends slightly above the bustline. This positioning of the darts along the princess seam will ensure that the darts made in the skirt will align with the bodice, making it easier to convert into a dress block.

*When pinning down the final dart positions, it is best to pinch the fabric outwards instead of tucking it in!

 It is also wise to ensure that both relatively of the same size. For example, a dart that is 3 cm and one that is only 0.5 cm is not the best distribution of the excess fabric. The darts may not sit very well, but this can usually be fixed by trimming down the bulk at the darts and cutting into them. Make sure that this is only done when the position of the darts are finalized!

I found this portion of the draping quite frustrating because it was difficult to feel out the princess seam from over the muslin fabric. Also, making sure that there were no drag lines takes quite a while of readjusting to fix.

Pin down the position of the new bustline, as well as where the side seam sits.

Once this is completed, use a black or blue pen to trace out the waistline, side seams, neckline, shoulder seam, the new bustline, armhole (approx. 1 cm in towards the metal plate in the armhole), and both sides of each dart. Trim any excess fabric and leave at least 1 cm at all edges. The front bodice is now finished!

BACK BODICE

The back bodice is done in a very similar way to the front, but make sure the lines are set up opposite: the red grainline is 10 cm from the right edge of the fabric, the green line is still 21 cm up from the bottom edge.

Make sure that this is opposite of the front set-up because we want both the front and back bodice to be draped on the same side of the mannequin!

After pinning up and down the CB line, and putting a temporary placement pin near the shoulder, determine the back neck by pinning along the neckline. Then, trim off the excess portions of fabric near the neck, as well as trimming into the neckline so that the fabric can accommodate the curve.

Remove the temporary pin at the shoulder, and from the cross-back point at CB, smooth across the back shoulder to place a pin at the mid-back armhole. The bustline will veer up slightly, but it is important to just allow the fabric to do what it wants to.

After this, we can see that the beginnings of the shoulder dart will start to form with some excess in the shoulder area.

Pinch the excess fabric in the shoulder area to create a small dart along the back princess seam. I found this part very difficult because of how small the dart is, and how the fabric fights against angling to the seam's position.

I was surprised by how this shoulder dart reached longer than I had originally expected.

Next, I continued smoothing the bustline to the side seam, pinned it, then smoothed the side seam straight down and secured it with more pins. It is very important that these steps are smoothed straight across and straight down so that sufficient excess is created at the waist for waist darts. Also, this way, the warp and weft of the fabric aren't distorted.

I gathered the excess fabric in the waist area to create a back dart along the back princess seam. Take note that the dart extends above the bustline, and that no drag lines are visible in the back bodice.

Finally, once the dart is finalized, trace out the side seam, waistline, the new bustline, armhole (approx. 1 cm in towards the metal plate in the armhole), shoulder seam, neckline, and both sides of the darts.

SKIRT

Do not take off the bodice when draping the skirt! This is so that the dart placements can be matched up along the princss seams. Start by taking the extra piece of fabric, drawing a red line right on the fold, then the green line 21 cm down from the top. The intersection of the red and green lines are then pinned at the side seam/hipline intersection.

Pin across the hipline towards the CF and CB. For the CB, make sure that you aren't pinning into the space between the bums, but smooth it straight across the bums. For the front and back, smooth up and down from the hiplines to determine CF and CB. At this stage I noticed where the darts at the waist would start to emerge.

Try to divide the excess somewhat evenly between the front (2 darts to match up with the bodice darts), side seams, and back. These darts need to be matched to the ends of the bodice darts, as well as continue following the princess seams.

You can see that in my drape, there are still some drag lines in the skirt. It is best to try and get surfaces as smooth as possible by continuing the ends of the darts as far far as it wants to sit (this may be difficult because of how narrow it gets).

Trace out the waistline, dart lines, and CF/CB in pen. It is best to step back a bit to observe how the drape looks at from afar. This is the finished front and back for the bodice and skirt. 

PATTERN

Be sure that all the lines have been transferred onto the fabric, and then remove all pins and lay the fabric flat. These are now the pattern pieces! It is important to note that the darts will not be even on both sides and that the angles may seen a bit odd. This is natural and should be left this way!

Also, smooth out the lines with the curve and ruler as they will appear quite choppy. Finally, transfer these lines onto paper using a sharp tracing wheel! This makes transferring the curves a lot easier than using a pin to poke through each individual section. Add seam allowance and the drape is finished!

The most difficult part of this drape for me was keeping everything properly aligned: I noticed that the way I pinned down the CF/CB lines did not always properly secure the line, and then my whole drape would go wonky because it was not properly aligned. Be sure that the direction of the pins at CF/CB result in a firm hold on those lines!

The darts were also difficult to pin because of how the fabric likes to fight against the direction of the dart. It is important to be patient in order to carefully mould the fabric how you want it to go.