Bodice Adaptation

Having created the beginning bodice piece, and with direct reference to the pictures and drawings of Mrs Bennet’s costume we began the editing of the bodice block so that it begins to resemble the final shape that we are trying to achieve.

A lot of the paper pattern editing that was done was placed on our padded mannequin for reference, to help get an idea of where the pattern would call upon the human body.

In the First picture above, you can still see the drafting lines for the new front collar shape and the dart that was in the front of the bodice.

To edit the original pattern block we squared off the front, just above the nipple. This front will eventually be boned and so the bosom will be accentuated and pushed up by this boning.

Ignoring the pre-existing dart at the top of the bodice pattern coming from the shoulder we drew in a new shoulder.

The shoulder is only meant to be very small and to sit just at the edge of the shoulder. 

So having made the shoulder length shorter this was joined to the front squared off collar, as well as being joined to the bottom of the original arm hole.

The dart seen in the first picture was also moved across, and taken from the side seam. This way it will give the front of the bodice a flawless smooth look. Being careful to keep it the same length as the side seam on the back of the bodice. To keep it the same length before the next step we had to take a small strip off of the bottom of the pattern.

Matching the side seams

The final adaptation to the front of the bodice was to drop the pattern down at the front, and to join this new dropped front to the side seam.

Again this was done with reference to the mannequin and ourselves to work out what would look good on the human figure, and what would be too long, as the actress will be sitting though out the tableau. If the front is too long, although aesthetically correct it would not be very comfortable for our actress.

A close up of the new bodice front, not yet cut to help for reference to later in case it was done incorrectly.

Firstly we needed to square off the neck like, matching this to the shoulder of the front bodice.

It is a shallow square for the back neckline, as it does not come as low as the front bodice does.

Having matched the shoulders to the correct size, the new arm hole line needs to be drawn matching it to the bottom of the original arm hole on the back pattern.

Matching the shoulder seams

The final step for the bodice back was to cut it split the back in to panels. For this we decided that four separate panels would give up the desired shape and effect seen in the film. 

The panels although not exactly the same size, we did try to keep them similar widths.

They are a gradual curve towards the arm hole, if they were too curved they would look more like Victorian back panels, so the low gradual curve give the more Georgian feel.

We numbered the panels one to four as that they would not bet mixed up on the fabric when being drawn around. 

To make sure they are matched up correctly then sewing we also drew reference lines on each section so when it is all being sewn together they can be matched up and keep the pattern more accurate.

 The back bodice, edited and cut out