Start drawing a contoured dress (=,block wit h darts and zero wearing ease), lengthen to ground or desired measurement.

On back, draw the new neckline from armpit to center back 3cm below armpit level.

On back and front:

• highlight waistline on front and draw the slanted one on back, dropping 4. to 6cm at center back waist (blue line)
• measure waistline including dart and divide back wasit measurement by 3 to find 2 points, square up and down (pink line), then repeat same process on front. The line closer to center front extends to underbust, the one closer to side is slightly slanted and ends at armhole. This way you get the panel division
• draw a horizontal line 5 to 7cm above knee and taper 1,5 to 2cm from sides and center back, blending to zero at hips (red lines).

A full explanation on drafting contoured blocks, corsets and cups is included in our basic blocks course/module 2.

Use the previously drawn pink slash lines to create the darts, drawing half width on each side of the slash line (total dart width should match previous darts, i.e. if you had 2 darts 3cm wide, now you should have 4 darts 1,5cm wide).

On front draw bottom half a circle (red line) as cup foundation: radius of the circle is half bust distance minus 1cm and center is bust point. Draw the center front neckline (bridge in between cups) as a short horizontal line at bust level, extending by 1cm from center front (green line). Draw the side neckline (green line) from armpit approx where panel slash line starts.

Erase original darts from bodice.

Draw the bottom skirt section (red lines) by flaring 15 to 20cm from side seams at hemline and 25 to 40cm from center back, then lengthen the slanted center back by 30 to 50cm past hemline and draw an S shaped curve for the train.

A full tutorial on drafting the basic cup is available here.

Trace bodice pieces with the new slash lines, then cut through the lines discarding the dart constructions to get separate panels:

• 3 back corset pieces, grainline is perpendicular to original waistline (or parallel to original center back)
• 3 front corset pieces, grainline perpendicular to waistline, center front can be cut on fabric fold.

Front pieces and side back are cut in foundation net (eventually consider cutting 2 layers) and lace, while center back and middle back do not have lace but are just sheer.