Burda Style For people who sew

Draw in darts around each of the three dashed lines that extend from the lower boundary of the block (line E to AB) to the line B to C. The width of these lines are determined as follows. The standard is to introduce 18 cm (7") of waist shaping, unless this would reduce the waist below the WAIST measurement plus 6 cm (2-3/8") of ease. In the latter case, the waist darts should be scaled appropriately. When the full 18 cm (7") is used, the three darts should be 2.5 cm (1") wide for the back dart, 3 cm (1-1/8") wide in the middle dart and 3.5 cm (1-3/8") wide for the front dart - however, the middle dart should be subdivided into 1 cm (3/8") for the backward section and 2 cm (3/4") for the forward section. The bodice block developed so far contains 9 cm (3-1/2") of ease around the bust. The amount to be removed through waist darts is therefore the BUST measurement plus 3 cm (1-1/8") minus the WAIST measurement (the 3 cm (1-1/8") addition is the result of 9 cm (3-1/2") of bust ease minus 6 cm (2-3/8") of waist ease). When this measurement is less than 18 cm (7"), the waist darts should be scaled downwards as appropriate.

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6 Comments Sign in to add a post

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  Apr 30, 2012, 08.39 PMby miip

  the dart sizes in the drawing are different from the ones on the explanation: in the drawing, they are 3.5, 4 and 4.5cm, leading to a total of 12cm as opposed to 9 in your explanation
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  Apr 22, 2012, 09.56 PMby Sabrina Wharton-Brown

  Hot to work out how big to make the darts for a personal fit:

  ((bust+10cm ease) / 2) – ((waist+6cm ease) / 2) = x Front dart = x + 0.5cm Back dart = x – 0.5cm Front side intake = (x/2) + 0.5cm Back side intake = (x/2) -0.5cm

  This works for the bodice. For a tailored skirt block and a trouser block, the maths is different.

  Here is my question:

  Why 6cm ease on the waistline when most American pattern instructions suggest about 1" (2.5cm) total? The European bodice seems a little roomy by comparison.
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  Oct 11, 2011, 12.39 AMby AvaGardener

  This may help to adjust dart sizes:

  Calculate (Bust + 3.0cm – Waist) / 18

  Multiply this number by each of the standard dart sizes (2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 cm) to get the adjusted sizes.

  For example, if bust = 99 cm and waist =89 cm

  (99 + 3.0 – 89) / 18 = 0.72

  Back dart = (0.72)(2.5) = 1.8 cm Side dart = (0.72)(3.0) = 2.2 cm Front dart = (0.72)(3.5) = 2.5 cm

  If you add these up, you get 6.5 cm of ease (you also come up with this number by multiplying the standard 9cm of ease by our factor of 0.72)

  Also, for the side dart, you will place 1/3 of it on the back section and the other 2/3 on the front.
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  Jan 7, 2011, 12.03 AMby Paige Wolven

  This is so tricky.. but I figured it out! I can’t wait to cut some fabric and test out my very own pattern! Thanks for a great tutorial.
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  Jun 6, 2010, 01.47 PMby gedwoods

  The waist darts are (2,5 + 3,0 + 3,5 = 9,0 cm), multiplied by two because the block is only half the garment, hence 18,0 cm. The requirement of 6 cm of ease is actually a reduction from the 9 cm of ease already incorporated into the block. (Bust + 9 cm) – (Waist + 6 cm) = (Bust – Waist) + 3 cm. In the reference case this is 18 cm. So you should calculate (BUST + 3 cm – WAIST). Let’s say that leads to a result of 19 cm. So you need to adjust the dart widths so the sum is (D1 + D2 + D3)x2 = 19 cm. For the block, you therefore have to add 0,5 cm distributed across the three darts. Hence your dart measurements would be D1 = 2,6 cm ; D2 = 3,2 cm ; and D3 = 3,7 cm, or something similar. When these three measurements are added, they come to 9,5 cm, which, when doubled is 19 cm, the desired amount of reduction. Is that clearer?

  1 Reply

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    Mar 25, 2011, 03.28 PMby superflorence

    ahhhhhh, I wondered why the darts only added up to 9cm!
    Cheers

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  Jun 2, 2010, 12.26 AMby joojeh

  hi, Would you explain this part a little bit more? Should we add 6cm to BUST measurment and subtract 3cm from WAIST measurment and then take the difference? Then how we would know the size of each 3 darts? Thanks