Drafted Pepin Bodice Sloper

After I draped the bodice sloper the other week I thought it would be interesting to compare the shape and fit of a drafted sloper from the same book with the draped one.  I was surprised to find quite large differences in the two slopers and although both fit me, the drafted one feels more comfortable and is the one I am going to use going forward for my exercises and design work.

Drafting the sloper has the advantage of allowing you to see clearly how each body measurement interacts with others to create the whole as you are drafting it as well as underlining the key importance of reliable and accurate measurement.  I had to draft the back bodice four times before I got a shoulder line that looked human.

Key differences were:

Armhole in the drafted version is more suited to a sleeve being inserted.  I must have scooped the front armhole out too much when I did my draped version.  My dressform not being quite right in that area won't have helped things.  Both versions came out with similarly shaped armholes though, flat at the back and very curved at the front.

The darts are slightly better located on the drafted version.  This is quite subtle, only about an eighth of an inch in it in places, but it seems to make a big difference to the comfort and hang of the muslin.

The shoulder seam angle is very different yet both fit fine with no wrinkles.  Indeed if you lay them on top of each other (I couldn't get the photo to show this clearly enough to post it unfortunately) the shoulder, upper chest and armholes don't really match all that well.  I'm rather puzzled by this but haven't yet found an explanation for it.

The side seams on the drafted version are straight and only slightly angled toward the waist, most of the shaping is in the waist darts.  For my draped sloper, I did have straight side seams when I unpinned it but because I had too much ease, I had shaped the side seams rather excessively at a later stage to remove the ease and I don't think this was correct, nor do I think it improved the hang of the muslin.  I've straightened the side seams on the draped sloper a bit and will test that in muslin at some point.

The drafted version has a shoulder dart at the back which the drafted version didn't.  This creates, off the body, a rather bizarrely shaped garment.  However, my back is bizarrely shaped and it fits fine and doesn't look weird when its on.  Indeed, it seems to make the back more comfortable.  I am not sure I would want a shoulder dart in the finished items but I daresay there are instructions for moving it somewhere else, later in the book.

The draped version needed an armhole dart to make it fit nicely and as mentioned earlier, I had scooped the armhole out too much to add a sleeve.  However, this version hasn't been abandoned as it has merit as a sleeveless block.  The armhole and waist darts line up neatly to create the beginnings of an armhole princess line  so I will probably use it as the basis for drafting a couple of summer dresses.   I am vaguely planning to make a shift dress, a princess line, wide A line dress,  and a vintage inspired dress with a fitted bodice, waistline seam and circle skirt.  The latter to be made in the most fabulous cotton lawn in a shoe print which has been waiting for some years to be made into exactly this kind of dress.  Though I'm not feeling like making a summer dress right now as it has been raining solidly for a week and I'm back in my aran sweaters and thick socks again.