Bodice Flat Patterning Project | Fall 2024

Practices: Flat Patterning

Style/Era: Contemporary

A project to learn and apply skills of flat patterning starting from a bodice sloper.  Through this project I wanted to try and apply some elements of designing to create a bodice that had an accented ruffle along the shoulders and chest akin to an elegant night gown. Initially, I had wanted the ruffle to run across the body and terminate at the waist, however I changed that design approach and settled to terminate at the waist dart to simplify the seams for my first flat patterning project.. 

Points in which I was challenged:

• Patterning pleated section connecting to the ruffle's seam.

  • Figuring out the way to move the dart of the bodice and insert a pleat was a little bit of a tricky process but ultimately I discovered that I could turn the dart into the seam of the ruffle to create a seamless side to the front of the bodice. For the pleat, I decided to create two mirroring pleats that intersect at the ruffle's seam that did not have to be the dart as I was able to move as aforementioned, giving more freedom to the placement and angle of the pleat as desired to terminate at the side seam and waist intersection.

• Having the gathered edge lay flat against the weight of the gathering.

  • I was not entirely successful in having the edge not curve out with the weight of the gathered edge. My solution was to tack down the seam allowance of the bodice front and gathering to keep them together and inside, however I feel the proper solution in an actual garment would be to have the gathering be of a lighter material so that the tacked down seams can keep their orientation, and ultimately add interfacing to the bodice front as structural support if further support is needed.