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Pencil dress with pleated bodice

4.5/5

Let's  draft the pattern for this elegant pencil dress.

It has accent on underbust and waist seams given by the use of piping, bust section has some pleats obtained with dart manipulation. It's an interesting pattern exercise!

You can sew it in basically any fabric - this is a brocade.

To draft the pattern, start from a fitted basic block with darts.

Step 1

Trace a copy of basic block. Draw the hem at mid calf, keeping the same width as hip line, then reduce 2-3cm from the sides.

Mark the waistline and discard back dart: take half of it from center back and half from side seam. On front, discard only the skirt dart from side seam (keep the underbust dart for manipulating it afterwards).

On both back and front draw the new neckline. On front only, draw the slanted underbust line, the straight piece in center front.

Step 2

Cut through the lines to separate all pieces. You get:

  • back bodice and skirt, both without any dart
  • front bodice (3 pieces) with bust and waist darts
  • front skirt, without dart.

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