I’ve been planning a guide on my site for making the infamous double darted bodices you throughout the era. They are such a foundation for fit from the late 1870s even right through to the start of the 20thC.

They hardly change, though they do a slow evolvolution with skirts.

The two side back seams also do a slow evolution with them too. Originally I was going to just drape on my form with photos and present the finished toille then do an earlier and then a later.

But I think I may do a slightly different way this time. One that uses modern draping with a guide to how to use the fabric on the form. I think that would be much more useful, and I have several forms of different shaped to do this, and they all represent different figure types.

To get to this point I did use a few drafting books, a few drafting tools, and then read even more. Then also used the library of extant patterns around.

So last night I also went through all of Der Bazar and grabbed a load of pattern pdfs but also compared a lot of the diagrams and even the fitting guides they use in their book (it’s weird and I’ll have to try it out.

Anyway, when I said I wanted to create my own drafting system, this is it 🙂 ANd I get to explain why many modern dress forms are going to lead to heartache trying to fit this era.

YAY!!!!!!