Waisted Kirtle

Just a bit off the sides


Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.

Pictured here is the amount of fabric I removed from both sides of ONLY the front pattern piece of the bodice that took it from “filling in the cone in a not entirely flattering manner” and “actually working as a flattering and supportive bodice”. Honestly I’m a bit gobsmacked that removing that little bit from each side was enough. The sliver is at most 1/4″ wide in the center. That little adjustment made to ONLY the front pattern piece suddenly made my breasts stay up where they’re supposed to be. Color me surprised.

When I tried the pattern on I also realized the L value (46) is too long so I’ll be iterating this one more time with a shorter L value. When I’d bend to the side there was about 2″ of bodice below the bend point. I mathed it and figured out that I’d need to use a Bara tape of about 40″ long to end up with an L that caused the bodice to end at/above my bend point.

Starting with an L of 40, I then fiddled with the calculation Mr. Gnagy offered in his book and feel I may have backed into the way Bara tapes should be made for women.

The calculation in the book starts with your height and then subtracts 9 inches to get the “Cloak length”. All the rest of calculations are based on this. I suspect that since women’s garments are floor length it may be that you have to use the full length rather than the cloak length when building patterns for women. When I omit this subtraction I end up with a final value of L=38.6 which would easily round to 39.. which is comfortably close to 40 for me to call that good.

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