Making the grade

If you are going to make your first attempt at pattern grading, a design with pieces cut on the bias, odd shapes, and lots of pleating is probably not the best place to start! But I have form with jumping in at the deep end on new creative endeavours, and this time I had a couple of things to help me.

The first was this book.

Grading Workbook by Connie Amaden-Crawford

It was recommended, ages ago, by @sew.midcentury on Instagram. As a) she is a hugely talented dressmaker and b) it was one of her textbooks when she studied at FIDM, I thought it was worth getting hold of a copy. I must admit that even though the grading process is clearly explained in easy steps, initially there were times when my brain just felt fried.

One step (of many) of the bodice regrade

But once I got used to the process, it was surprisingly straightforward.

Regrading the sleeve head

The other thing which helped was my decision, made very early on, not to regrade the centre front panel of the dress.

This bit

I always have to shorten bodices between the waist and bust by about 5cm/2", so any increase in the panel size would then have to be altered in the top half. I didn't want to end up with a kite-shaped piece, and nor did I want to change the dimensions by widening it but leaving the height the same as the original. The easiest thing seemed to be to leave well alone. This also had the advantage that I wouldn't have to regrade the pleated sections of the skirt and bodice fronts. For the skirt, I just added the extra width to the side of the pleating.

The bodice front was another matter, though.

Traced off the original pattern

I had to pleat it up to understand how it came together.

Now it looks like a bodice front

Even so, attempting to redraft it felt likely to go horribly wrong. I may just launch into things, but I do know my limits. Instead, I cut the piece apart following Amaden-Crawford's diagram and added strips of tissue in the gaps.

I omitted adding any length below the armscye

I then traced everything but the two bottom edges onto a fresh sheet of tissue (I got through a lot of tissue in this process!), traced the pleats off the original pattern piece, and redrew the waistline to join the side to the pleated section. It matched the waistline of the skirt, so I was pretty sure I'd got it right.

Then it was time to make my first mock-up. In the pattern, the dress back is cut as a single piece, but I split it into two and made the skirt and bodice separate so that I can more easily adjust the bodice length.

Excuse the bad mirror selfie

The end result definitely requires work. But everything it needs - shortening the bodice, raising the neckline, bringing in the shoulders - is what I have to do to any garment. I've created a size 16 pattern which fits me exactly as commercially drafted size 16 pattern straight out of the envelope would; and I’m pretty chuffed with that!