How To Use Your Basic Bodice Block for Dart Manipulation

Okay my dear friends, now you have your basic bodice blocks and you are thinking what can I do with them?

In this post you will learn how to use your basic bodice block for dart manipulation. You will also learn what flat pattern making is and the principles that govern it.

You can click here to watch my video where I visually demonstrate the methods. You can also check out my post on how to start with patternmaking here.

So What can you do with my basic blocks?

You can adapt them to create endless designs of your choice. But how can you do this? That’s where flat pattern making comes in.

What is Flat pattern making?

Flat pattern making is the method you use to change your blocks into the design of your choice. If we know the basic principles of pattern making and how to apply them, we can create any design without affecting the fit of the original pattern.

So what are the 3 Principles of Flat pattern making?

The 3 basic principles of pattern making are:

1. Principle of dart manipulation
2. Principle of added fullness
3. Principle of contouring

In today’s post,

I will be explaining the principle of dart manipulation using the basic fitted front bodice block with bust and waist darts drawn. if you have not created your bodice block?

You can use the tutorial in my previous videos to create your bodice block. Links are here for the fitted bodice block and here for the dartless bodice block.

I will be making the demonstration using the half scale block of this bodice block so it will be easier to capture the full view on this video.

Also the half scale block is very useful for practising and developing your pattern making skills. I have provided you a tutorial to make your half scale block. Click this link for the tutorial on creating your half scale block.

Now lets get back to the focus of this video ….. dart manipulation….so what is it?

What is dart manipulation?

Dart manipulation is the process of moving a dart location to a different place on the pattern piece without affecting the size and shape of the original pattern.

These are some of the possible locations we can move the bust dart to;

so this bust dart can be moved to any locations around the apex and the garment will still have the same fit. So it can be moved to….show the locations on the half scale basic bodice block.

In this video I will move the bust dart into two different locations;

the Mid shoulder, and I will also go ahead and show you how you can use that to create a

princess dart from shoulder,

the waist dart to create the one dart block.

So How can we do this?

We can achieve this using two different methods; the slash and spread method and the pivot method.

Explanation of the slash and spread technique

Move Bust dart to waist to create the one dart block

• First trace a copy of your basic front bodice block up to the waist ensuring that you mark in the current darts.
• Slash through the centre line of the waist dart up to but not through the bust point
• Now close the bust dart, and the waist dart widens as the bust dart has now been transferred into the waist dart.
• we can go ahead and trace this unto a fresh pattern paper or just add paper underneath like so to complete the dart shape.
• Draw a new dart centre line.
• Fold the dart legs, with the inside dart leg over the outer dart leg or as desired
  • With the dart folded and in the cupped 3d position, trace across truing the waist line to give the right shape here and cut out

Move bust dart to mid shoulder

• First trace a copy of your basic front bodice block up to the waist ensuring that you mark in the current darts.
• Draw a guideline from the middle of the shoulder to the bust point
• Slash through this line up to but not through the bust point
• Now close the bust dart, and the shoulder widens as the bust dart has now been transferred into the shoulder as a dart.
• we can go ahead and trace this unto a fresh pattern paper or just add paper underneath like so to complete the dart shape.
• Draw a new dart centre line.
• Fold the dart legs, with the outside dart leg over the inner dart leg or as desired
• With the dart folded and in the cupped 3d position, trace across truing the shoulder line to give the right shape here and cut out

Explanation of the pivot method

I will be using this front bodice block which ends at the waist for this.

Move bust dart to waist

• We place the bodice block on a fresh pattern paper like so and we push a pin through the bust point. This is the pivotal point.
• We label the two dart legs of the dart we want to transfer as points A and B like so
• next we mark the mid waist, lets call this point C. Also mark in the current waist dart to the left of point C
• now trace from the dart leg at point A up to the waist at point C
• pivot pattern leg A to B to close the bust dart.
• Trace the other part of the block from dart leg B to C. Now mark in the current the waist dart to the right of point C
• The bust dart has now been transferred to the waist dart.
• Just like we did before, Draw a new dart centre line.
• Fold the dart legs, with the outside dart leg over the inner dart leg or as desired
• With the dart folded and in the cupped 3d position, trace across truing the shoulder line to give the right shape here and cut out.

Move bust dart to mid shoulder

• We place the bodice block on a fresh pattern paper like so and we push a pin through the bust point. This is the pivotal point.
• We label the two dart legs of the dart we want to transfer as points A and B like so
• next we mark the mid shoulder, lets call this point C.
• now trace from the dart leg at point A up to the waist at point C
• pivot pattern leg A to B to close the bust dart.
• Trace the other part of the block from dart leg B to C.
• The bust dart has now been transferred to the shoulder.
• Just like we did before, Draw a new dart centre line.
• Fold the dart legs, with the outside dart leg over the inner dart leg or as desired
• With the dart folded and in the cupped 3d position, trace across truing the shoulder line to give the right shape here and cut out
•  

We have now completed the dart manipulation and achieved the one dart block with one waist dart and

also the two dart block with shoulder and waist dart.

I have cut all these out on manila card and I use them as my starting point for flat pattern making depending on the design I am creating.

So I encourage you to go ahead and create yours ready for all the amazing flat pattern making designs I will be sharing with you in my future videos.