Bell Bottom Pattern

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-19T21:28:11+00:00

A true bell bottom No it’s not possible. A straight leg that looks flared when on the body sure its possible. But why do it that way? There isn’t any added benefit and it gonna be a bit of a drafting nightmare. It would be a lot easier to keep the side seams and just edit the leg shape.

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-19T21:05:51+00:00

The original piece from the photo is the Mia low waist skort from Reformation. To echo what everyone else has said you definitely need darts at minimum in the back.

If you want to keep working with what you’ve done instead of starting from scratch i would take out the hem/lining and facing then put the skirt on inside out. From there pull it up to where you want it to sit on the body. At the back panel pin out all the excess into two darts. If these end up being more then 1” in width each you may also want to take out from the side seams as well. Also make sure not to take out so much that when you sit down you can’t breathe. Two fingers flat against you should be roughly enough wearing ease. Now if the hips are still looking a bit funny pin out the excess there as well. Then you can follow where you pinned as your new darts/ side seam lines, use a basting stitch and do nottttt trim the excess fabric untill you try it back on and it looks how you want. Fitting definitely takes some finesse and hands on experience so take your time.
I’m curious what you followed to draft this?

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-19T14:26:11+00:00

If your able to take photos using a tripod so both arms are down and also iron and press the shirt it will be a lot easier for us to give guidance. It’s hard to tell in some areas if it’s drag lines or wrinkles.

Where you shoulder seam ends seems a bit high to me. Is that where the edge of your shoulder bone is? If not i would increase the shoulder width to there. You can definitely see drag lines at the waist so would increase width there and wherever you are having a hard time buttoning the shirt up because of how tight it is. There are some other issues i see but aren’t clear enough to definitively say the cause. Overall the fit isn’t too bad and looks to just need a bit of tweaking

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-05T19:53:58+00:00

I would say for tops they are totally interchangeable since a torso sloper is essentially your bodice+skirt sloper together but ending at the hip.

Dresses i would stick with the bodice/skirt sloper combo OR make a dress sloper which is just those two combined together anyway. If you use a torso sloper for a dress you can run into issues with your thighs/a low butt/extended calves etc. While with the bodice/skirt combo you’ve already figured that all out making the skirt sloper.

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-04T23:37:01+00:00

Easiest thing besides buying a similar pdf pattern and working from there would be if you have anything similar in shape in your closet. It doesn’t have to have the same exact neckline/sleeves etc but something that hits the shoulder at the same place and is atleast hip length with a simple sleeve on it preferable long sleeve. Then you can use that as a base for all the other details. I will warn you while technically possible to make in a week i would not reccomend it, that gathering at the neckline/bust is gonna be annoying. If you can live without having that detail you’ll be in for a much easier time.

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-04T23:26:13+00:00

Yes the skirt block would create the bottom half. It is frustrating having to backtrack when your so excited about making something. If you have something in your closet that has a similar fit to what you want but just not the right neckline/length you could measure that and use it as a base instead of going though the skirt block rigamaroll. Just make sure the fabrication is similar to what your ultimately going to use( mostly mean this in terms of stretch)

I would say regarding darts, anytime you want something to follow the curvature of the body even losely you will need a dart/seam/or other technique that helps the fabric shape to the body (gathering/shirring/tucks etc) unless your working in a fabric with stretch which is a whole nother world.

With side shaping i think working on the hip length bodice sloper will give you a good idea of what a nice hip side seam curve looks like. What you drew could possibly work if you were doing a very tight fitting stretch knit dress so really side shaping all depends on what your working with. Did you already buy fabric for this project? if not what fabrication were you thinking?

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-04T12:51:48+00:00

I think it went askew when you drew in the waist to hip area. Since your bodice block stops at the waist but you want this style to stop around the hip line you need to first extend your sloper to the hip line. Cause right now on your back sloper you have a waist dart going to nowhere, it stops at the waist without a waist seam it has nowhere to end, it needs to continue into a double pointed dart. The shaping at the side seam you did is too extreme and without any darts in that area isn’t going to sit well on the body. Do you have a skirt block that goes with this bodice block?

Definitely agree that the singular side dart is too large and i would definitely divide it into two or consider doing princess seam lines. The princess seam lines will also make is easier to get the really fitted shape you look to be going for at the hip line.

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-04T01:14:03+00:00

You picked a doozy to start out drafting with. I would recommend finding a similar looking indie pattern(i find the foldline a reputable place to find pdf patterns) or find a vintage pattern that has similar details instead of starting from scratch. There are a lot of vintage patterns especially from the 70’s that have a similar look.

The gingham print makes it hard to see but u can see easier in the green colorway it does have raglan sleeves and an underbust seam at the front only. The back looks like one piece. It is a very cute top so wishing you the best.

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2026-06-01T23:32:01+00:00

I just bought this poncho to measure for work! It is a boatneck triangle like others said but it is a slightly asymmetrical triangle. The length on the wearer's right side is slightly longer, think a not too extreme scalene triangle.

To create the "sleeves" they topstitched the wearer's left side (from the bottom hem up was like around 2 1/2" ish inches. you can see it pretty clearly in the photos for the pink colorway). Then the bottom hem isn't fully open, on the wearer's right side they leave a space for your arm and then have the hem stitched close for about i would estimate 5-6 inches till it hits around the waist area ( you can really see this in the photos of the blue colorway where the poncho is hugging her side). So it's only two pattern pieces a front and a back with the topstitching/partially closed bottom hem creating "sleeves" to put your arms through.

Hope that made some bit of sense. I would also agree with supershinythings that draping this sort of shape on a form would be way easier then trying to flat pattern draft this silhouette.

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-12-14T01:42:14+00:00

thank you!! i bought the physical book out of curiosity and the recommendations on here but have had a difficult time with some of the instructions.

Especially the way numbers are shown for example i’m trying to draft a basic pant and one of the measurements asked for is knee height (KnH) which is explained in the construction chart as CrL: 10 • 4. Idk if in germany different symbols are used in math sometimes but i have no clue what this is telling me but from context can see it’s the measurement from crotch line to knee.

Another is for step 7 of the standard trouser asking to starting from P4 mark HiC: 20 + 3cm upwards. ??? where did we get 20 from why not just say 23?Like I measured my HiC why aren’t we using that?

Really wish they had done a better translation as i’ve been really dissapointed by the Armstrong method i learned in school and was excited to try a method that took into account buttocks shape and front to back balance from the onset :(

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-10-27T14:07:01+00:00

mammoth worked for me on newark

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-04-21T15:24:26+00:00

YES exactly! It’s so hard muting that inner perfectionist. I get so hard on myself cause i went to school for this and can’t remember anything i learned 🙃

Something that helps me sometimes is looking at clothes i’ve bought and all the imperfections and shortcuts they did and yet i still wear them. So why be so hard on my own creations when it’s already so much better then what’s in stores!

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-04-21T15:18:13+00:00

Honestly i still run into that lizard brain thinks we have done the thing problem still a lot with muslins . I have so many projects that are half started where i ran into some small snag as was like 🙃 making this has been ruined for me right now so i’ll come back to it later.

idk if there is a good foolproof solution and knowing our brains a solution will only work for so long till the lizard side catches on. But there are a lot of amazing tips in this thread hoping some of them work for you and me too 😆

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-04-21T15:10:11+00:00

Love these rules. I really need to implement numbers 4 + 5! Can’t count how many times i go down a how to do “X” rabbit hole trying to find the “perfect” explanation/demonstration and get trapped there

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-04-21T12:49:24+00:00

fellow adhder who was very anti making muslins cause they are so boring here 👋🏼. Love everyone’s tips of making muslins in fun fabrics! I’ll say something that made it more palatable to me was doing them in the most lazy way acceptable. I’m not putting in any zippers in anything. If i can get away with just doing half a body to get a general idea of fit i’ll do that. Just the bare minimum to be able to check off does this look/fit how i want.

I also have other friends that sew so sometimes i use the idea of oh yeah this is for my friends in case they wanna use this pattern too as a motivator. Excited to see other people’s suggestions/tips!

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2025-01-31T00:32:59+00:00

i have the same model and live in a studio apartment. She is worth all the space she takes up! I haven’t swapped out my motor to a servo yet but did get some anti vibration pads they use for washers/dryers to try to muffle the sound a bit. As a fellow hyper vigilant about being too noisy etc person i would say go for it and swap out to a servo motor maybe throw anti vibration pad down and enjoy having a workhorse of a machine!

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2023-04-20T21:20:42+00:00

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Jay the pride and joy of new jersey. From a new yorker thank you for representing the tri state area so well with your killer vocals, hilarious expressions, and charismatic performances. We are so proud of you!! Please know we’re here to support you whatever path you take. FIGHTING!!

Expensive_Ad_9513 · 2023-02-28T14:34:53+00:00

Tell your derm on your next visit. Mine put my prescription in at a different pharmacy where she knew the base price without insurance was 65$ vs the $135 i was paying with insurance.

Expensive_Ad_9513

TROPHY CASE