In this blog, I am going to show you how to create a bodice sloper. While learning patternmaking and Valentina, I was

pointed in the direction of Leena’s Patternmaker. I found the instructions very compatible with Valentina, especially for

the noobie who is learning patternmaking.

So, first things first, I suggest you head over to http://www.leenas.com/English/draw_bodice.html and print the

instructions so you can follow along.

I am going to create a measurements file in Tape in an individual size 32 according to the measurements on the

printout. I open Tape, select ‘New”, ‘Individual’ and ‘centimeters’.

Then I add the ‘Known’ measurements:

G04 – Bust_circ – 76cm

Q02 - Dart_width_Bust – 4.5cm

L20 – Armskye_Length – 20.4cm (I am using the length in place of the height)

@FrontShoulderHeight – 4.6cm (I’m not too sure about this measurement, so I added it as a custom)

@BackShoulderHeight – 2.35cm (Also added as a custom)

B02 – Width_Bust - (bust_circ+8)/2 (here I made a formula as per the instructions)

I08 – Across_Back - (33+1.6)/2 (also a formula)

G07 – Waist_Circ – 58cm

B03 – Width_Waist - (waist_circ+6)/2

G42 - hip_with_abdomen_arc_f - (82.5/2)+4

G09 - hip_circ - 82.5

B04 - width_hip - (hip_circ+4)/2

L21 - armscye_width - ((bust_circ+8)/8)-1.5

G12 - bust_arc_f - (bust_circ+8)/5

G02 - neck_circ - 35.5cm

I14 - neck_width - (neck_circ/5)-1

@Neck_Depth - (neck_circ/5)+0.5

@Neck_Length_Back - (neck_circ/5)-0.5

As you can see, I’ve tried to use Known measurements as much as possible. If you do this, don’t forget to write the reference name on your measurement sheet so that you can access it while making your sloper. It’s very easy to get confused and then your pattern turns out all wrong and you get discouraged. Another way would be to create all as Custom measurements and then you can name them exactly as they are named in the document you are working off. I have saved my measurements file as ‘Leenas Size 32.vit’ in a special folder called Leenas so that the measurement file and the pattern file are both in the same folder – especially for this blog. Now we are ready to open Valentina and start our pattern. I have named this pattern piece as ‘Bodice’ because I intend adding a sleeve and skirt to it later. How you want to do it is up to you but for the sake of the tutorial, perhaps it would be best to do the same.

Valentina uses an A as point reference while Leena’s only uses numeric so the first thing we need to do, is to change the “A” to ‘A1”. This will at least keep the numbering constant.

Then next thing to do is to add the measurements file to the pattern and to save the file to give it a name.

As you can see, the name of the file with the name of the measurement file are shown in the top left hand corner of Valentina’s screen.

Now for the fun part… We need to draw a frame like the picture below…

1-2 = Bust_circ divided by 2 – Looking at the image, I see that 1 is to the right & 2 is to the left. I use the ‘Point at Distance and Angle’ tool to create the first line and enter the formula ‘bust_circ/2” and the angle of

180.

2-3 = armscye height – this line goes downwards from 2 at an angle of 270. So… using the ‘Point along Perpendicular’ tool, remembering that my measurement for Armscye Height is now Armscye Length, I add the formula:

But, as you can see,

my line is going

upwards instead to

downwards, it’s at

90 so I need to add

180 to turn it

around to 270. By

clicking the arrow pointing left, I get 180 in the centre box

and if I click ‘Apply’, I can see that my line is now going in the

correct direction.

2-4 = back length. I didn’t add that measurement earlier, so I’m adding is now as a custom measurement: @Back_Length = 38.8. I haven’t closed Tape yet, so I switch to Tape and add it, save the changes in Tape, go back to Valentina where I immediately get a message

and since I’d like to use the measurement, I click on ‘Yes”. I pick up the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ Tool, click on A2 and then A3, enter the formula for back length.

4-5 = abdomen height. Again the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ tool, click on A2 and then A4, enter the formula ‘CurrentLength+@AbdomenHeight’. This is another measurement not in Tape, so I quickly add it: @ AbdomenHeight = 9cm.

4-6 = hip height. I need to add another measurement - @HipHeight = 19cm

1-7 = back width divided by 2. Again, the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ tool, click on A1 and then A2, enter the formula ‘across_back_b/2’.

7-8 = Armscye width. Again, the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ tool, click on A7 and then A2, enter the formula ‘armscye_width’.

Mark points from 9 to 18. o 8 – 9 = using the tool ‘Point from X and Y of 2 Other Points’, click on A8 and then on A3. This will

place point A9. o 7 – 10 = using the tool ‘Point from X and Y of 2 Other Points’, click on A7 and then on A3. This will

place point A10. o 11 = using the tool ‘Midpoint between 2 points’, click on A9 and then A10. This will place A11 in the

middle between these 2 points. o 1 – 12 = using the tool ‘Point from X and Y of 2 Other Points’, click on A1 and then on A3. This will

place point A12. o Repeat using the ‘Point from X and Y of 2 Other Points’ tool to create the points from A13 to A18.

Here you can see what my lines look like:

We now have the basic framework that will form the pattern and we’re going to add some detail:

4-19 = bust span divided by 2. Using the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ tool, click on A4 and then A19 and enter the formula ‘bust_arc_f/2’.

19-20 = waist length minus bust height. Using the ‘Point at Distance and Angle’ tool, draw a line going

upwards at a 90 angle with the following formula: @WaistLength-@BustHeight I had to add the following 2 custom measurements to Tape:

2-21 = neck width. Using the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ tool, click on A2 and then A8 and enter the

formula ‘neck_width’.

Draft vertical lines upwards from points 2 and 21. Trace point 22 on line from point 21; 20-22 = bust height minus back neck length. First we need to draw an arc that is bust height – back neck. To do this, we go to the Arc toolbox and select Arc. The formula we enter is ‘@BustHeight-@Neck_Length_Back’. I’ve made the angles 70 to 110 degrees which gives a nice long curve like in the tutorial.

I used the ‘Point Intersect Arc and Axis’ tool to creat point A22. Pick up the tool, click on the arc and then on A21. Adjust the line as close as possible and hit enter. You can manually change the angle as I have below:

Use the ‘Line Between Points’ tool to create a line between A22 and A20.

8-23 = front shoulder height; draft horizontal line from point 23 to the right; mark point 24 on the line.

You may see the 2 tools I used to achieve this above.

7-25 = back shoulder height; draft horizontal line from point to the left; mark point 26 on the line.

1-27 = neck width;

draft vertical line from 27 upwards 2.5cm.

Move point A1 0.5cm upwards.

Draft back neck arc 1-28.

28-29 = shoulder length + 2cm (point 29 must be on line 25 – 26).

I needed to add another Known measurement:

As you can see, I used the ‘Point at Intersection of Arc and Line’ to create this point. I first selected A25 as line start and A26 as line end, then A28 as the axis point, entered the formula and clicked on ‘OK’. I then drew in the line from A28 to A29 using the ‘Line between Points’ tool.

As you can see, my pattern is progressing very nicely:

Draft horizontal like from point 22 to the left, get point 22a:

22a – 22b = neck depth. Draw in front neck curve.

28-30 = 7cm

30-31 = 3cm

Measure 4cm from point 28 on line 28-29 and move upwards 0.6cm to get point 32

Measure 2cm from point 32 on line 28-29 and move upwards 0.6cm to get point 33

Draft and arc with radius of bust height minus neck length, centre point 20. (We already did this previously

and made it nice and long.)

Draft and arc with radius of bust dart, center point 22.

Mark point 34 at the intersection of these arcs.

34-35 = shoulder length (point 35 must be on line 23-24)

Draft vertical line downwards from 31 to get points 36 and 37.

37-38 = 5cm

Mark point 39

Mark point 39a. 39a – 39b = 2cm

Measure distance 4 – 13. Subtract waist circumference divided by 2 from the distance. Divide result by 6 =

‘a’ 39-40 = ‘a’

To make my life a little easier, I select the formula and copy it, then I just paste it into the other fields. Another way would be to create a variable but they may be covered in later tutorials.

39-41 = ‘a’

16-42 = ‘a’

16-43 = ‘a’

19-44 = ‘a’

19-45 = ‘a’

Using the ‘Point at Distance along Line’ tool, select the points mentioned and paste the formula into the field.

Draw vertical line from point 19 downwards to get points 46 and 47

47-48 = 5cm

Measure distance 6-15. Subtract from hip circumference divided by 2. Divide the result by 2 = ‘b’

18-49 = ‘b’

18-50 = ‘b’

9-51 = ¼ distance 8-9

10-52 = ½ distance 7-10

At some point, we need to draw in the curves at the armhole. Here is how I did mine:

As you can see, I try to use formulas where ever possible because this will make resizing more accurate when I load a different size file.

Creating a pattern piece using the ‘Seam Allowance’ tool under Detail

Draft Center Front piece – 22b–3-4-5-6-46-48-45-20-22 Valentina works in a clockwise direction when creating details, so I’ve reversed the order above. My neck curve is also going the wrong direction, so I held down the shift key before clicking on the curve.

Draft Front Side piece – 34-20-44-48-46-49-17-43-11-51-35

Draft Back piece 1-28-32-31-33-29-52-11-42-17-50-36-15-14-13-12

Draft back waist dart 39b-41-38-40

To do this, we use the ‘Piece Path’ tool. I haven’t named my pieces yet, so I’m guessing that the back is the last detail created:

Now you may go into the details and name them, label them, create seam allowances, etc. etc. prior to printing the

pattern.

These are the 3 parts of my pattern that I’ve created. I’m going to leave mine as they are for

now as I intend to do the sleeve before I do any serious layouts and I’ll include a bit of a

tutorial on the seam allowances later.