From Sloper to Basic Sleeveless Top By: Zrinka

From sloper to basic sleeveless top By: zrinka http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/from-sloper-to-basic-sleeveless-top

1 This is another tutorial on how to draft a pattern for a sleeveless top starting from a sloper. As opposed to the A-line top from the first tutorial (From sloper to A-line sleeveless top) this one has less flare but it is still loose fitting enough to require no zippers or buttons. Also, the neckline is a bit deeper, both front and back. This top could easily be lengthen to make a dress – the dress would have some flare but would not be “tent

2 like” (as if you lengthened the A-line top). Ask, comment…

Step 1 — Front: step 1

Start from the front of your sloper. I used a sloper made using instructions from the â–Bunka Fashion Series, Garment Design Textbook 1: Fundamentals of Garment Designâ–: http://www.bunka.ac.jp/contents/en_gd_text.htm. But the same techniques can be used to modify any sloper. 1. No waist darts – they are included, blended in the design. 2. Add length to the bodice; position of the hemline depends on how long you want the top to be. 3. To move the bust dart under the arm, mark point A1 3cm below A on the side seam. Connect A1 to Bust Point. This is where you will cut and move to close the original dart.

3 Step 2 — Front: step 2

A few more things before we move the dart… 1. As I found out in the first tutorial, I need to take the side seams in a bit since we “blended” all the waist darts (if not, the top will be too wide around bust). In this case I took in 0.5 cm. Draw new seam line to the waistline. I added a little flair on the hemline (only 0.5) and drew the new seam line all the way to the hem. These values are arbitrary and will likely change after the pattern s first fitted. 2. Draw the new shoulder seamline: C to C1 is 4.5cm and C1 to D1 is 5cm. 3. Draw the new neckline. Since this is another deep neckline, it will need to be tightened – mark point E about 1/3 up the neckline from the middle. Then mark E1 approximately 0.5 cm from E. Also, connect BP to E and E1.

4 Step 3 — Front : step 3

Now we move the dart…

1. First we need to tighten the neckline: cut along the E-BP and E1-BP lines and then move the shoulder part clockwise, until E and E1 match. This will enlarge the original bust dart a bit. 2. Cut along the B1-BP line and rotate clockwise until the bust dart is closed. 3. Shorten the dart – along the line through the middle of the dart, measure 2 cm (or more if you wish) and mark the new dart tip. connect to side seam. 4. Finish arm opening, and the dart. That’s it

5 Step 4 — Back: step 1

There is not much to do in the back… 1. Lengthen the bodice by the same amount you did in the front. Draw the new hemline. 2. Take in the sideseam (same reason as in the front). Here I took in 1cm. 3. Add some width at the hemline – I added 1cm. Connect to draw the new side seamline. 4. Mark point A about 1/3 along the neckline from the shoulder seam. Connect to the tip of the shoulder dart. This is where the dart will be moved.

6 Step 5 — Back: step 2

1. Cut along the line from A to the tip of the dart and rotate clockwise to close the shoulder dart. 2. Draw the new shoulder seamline – connect points B and C. 3. Draw the new shoulder seam – match the front: B to B1 is 4.5cm, B1 to C1 is 5cm. 4. Draw the new neckline and arm opening. Done.

Step 6 — Testing and alterations...

7 After cutting (again from a thrifted sheet – can’t beat the price) and basting I found that while the top fit very nicely in the front, the back neckline was gaping. OK maybe not gaping, but definitely not laying flat. Two reasons I think… First, there was a bit of a leftover dart that I chose to ignore, and also I added a few mm to the side when I redrew the shoulder seamline. Ok, and maybe since the neckline is quite deep, I should have tightened it the same way as I did the front neckline. However, since the gap was not too big, I could fix that by taking in a little at the side of the shoulder seamline (will be clear later). I also took a bit in at the high waist (kind of eyeballed it) – see the third picture. I thought it might look less boxy. Now to transfer these changes onto the pattern…

Step 7 — Pattern modification: front - step 1

First I needed to modify the side seamline – so I had to fold the dart (see the tape holding it), mark the high waist and take in 1cm (arbitrary), then connect from the mod armhole to the new waistline. Then I taped a new piece of paper to the side because I decided to add just a bit more width at the hem – 1cm. The second picture shows an additional step you can skip if you wish to finish the neck and arms with bias tape. I decided to use facing this time, so I drew it on the pattern and then traced it on a separate paper. You can find a nice tutorial on how to draw the facing here

8 Step 8 — Pattern modification: front - step 2

You can skip this step too if you like the dart position. I thought I would like it to be a little lower, more from the new waistline. So I: 1. Marked the new position of the dart (about 1cm from the new waistline) and connected it to the Bust Point (BP). NOTE: on the pattern I marked the position of the BP so you can do this too if you download the pattern. 2. Cut along that line and cut out the old dart. 3. Rotate clockwise until you close the old dart.

Step 9 — Pattern modification: back

9 There is not much to do in the back… 1. Take in the same amount at the shoulder as on the test (muslin). 2. Mark the new waistline to match the front and draw in the new side seamline similar to the front (I added 1cm to the hem width here too).

Done. Cut out, test one more time and if satisfied (I was) finish…

From sloper to basic sleeveless top