The start of pattern cutting...

A couple of weeks ago in class we started on what I though would be the dreaded pattern cutting, but I was soon mistaken! It wasn't as hard as it looked! Surprisingly I found it quite straight forward. This is how I did it...
Firstly, I traced round the front and back dress block (size12) with the breast dart onto pattern cutting paper.

Secondly, once I had traced around the block, I had to decide where I wanted the pleats on the dress to begin, for example the  hip line or below. I choose to start the pleats from the hip line, there fore I crossed out anything below the hip line so It would help me know what I needed to cut out. 

After that I had to change the style of the dress from it being slightly fitted to not being fitted at all (shift dress). To do this, I drew a straight line from the arm hole to the hip line joining them both together and crossing out the previous line, this is how I changed it from a fitted dress to a non fitted dress. 

As part of the design of the dress it included two front pockets. To create these pockets I had to choose any size that I wanted and draw a squared shape onto the front dress template and curve the bottom two corners so it create a more pockets shape.

I then moved onto working with the back template by shortening the template to the same hip line as the front template, were I had chosen to start my pleats from.

Then the hard bit came along... moving the breast dart on the front dress template to an under the arm hole dart. It sounded difficult but actually turned out quite straight forward! I started my drawing a line from the same point of the bottom of the breast dart to anywhere underneath the arm hole and cutting up this line to create a slit in the template, I then started to close the old dart by folded it over on the line so it created a flap and taped this down, this then opened up the new dart under the arm hole. This is how I managed to move a dart. At this stage I also added in the pleat lines from the hip line by drawing three straight lines 1.5cm apart from each other and making sure they weren't to close to the center fold line. 

The next step of creating the dress template was adjusting the neck line. I did this by measuring a certain amount across from the original neck line on the shoulder seam and the same on fold on the cut line  and joining them up with the same distance from the original neck line all the way round and crossed out the previous neck line.

I then did the same for the neck line on the back template, this time I had to cross the back shoulder dart out  and making sure the measurements from the front neck line on the shoulder seam were the same distance as the back neck line on the shoulder seam, there for when the neck lines were placed together at the shoulders they matched correctly.

Finally for this part of the dress templates all I had to do is trace around the front and back templates and pocket to create a final template, making sure all the measurements were correct,

The next step was the dreaded pleats! and I mean dreaded, I found this part the most stressful part of it all, it was so confusing and really got my brain working but I managed it, and this is how I did it..

I firstly grabbed another piece of pattern cutting paper and joined it onto the bottom of the final template and  then decided how long the dress was going to be by drawing joining up lines from the dress template down onto the new paper for the back and the front. At the bottom of these lines I joined them up with a fold line and then drew two more carried on lines the same length as the previous lines and joined them up with a straight line, I then continued the pleat markings on from the dress template onto the new paper all the way to the bottom of the straight line, I decided to only use pleats on the front of the dress therefore I didn't have to do the same for the back template. 

Then came the extremely hard bit, which I may find hard to put into words but I will try my best. I firstly grabbed another piece of paper and put it to one side while I cut up the pleat template along the pleat lines. On the new piece of paper I drew one straight line across the top, I then grabbed the first cut up left side of the pleats and lines the top of it up with the straight line on the new piece of paper and taped it down, from this I drew a line 1.5cm away from the cut out pleat and folded the bottom piece of paper on this line, i repeated this technique with all of the cut up pleats. I then tapped all the corners of the cut out pleats down and stretched them out and pressed the paper flat. 

The final step of all the pattern cutting was to trace around the pleat template to create a final template including all the lines and pleats, I then wrote my information on each final template and filed it away. Then I ready to cut my material out!!