Have you ever wondered how to draft top patterns? The top foundation is the most basic sewing pattern out there, but that doesn’t mean the easiest. Every single drafting book has different types of foundations, so which ones are the most important ones? And how can you draft them?
First things first, it’s very important to state that this article refers only to woven fabric foundations, in other words, your fabric should not have elasticity. For instructions on elastic patterns you can go to article about elastic foundations. Also, this is my interpretation on how foundations work based on my research, if you disagree with something I would love to know! Now let’s learn how to draft top pattern.
Let’s start from the beginning: how many top foundations are out there?
It sounds like an easy question but the answer is not that simple. In this article I’ve broken it down to 4 foundations: The top, the dress/torso, the shirt and the jacket.
The basic foundation is the top. From there, if you combine it with the skirt, you come up with the torso/dress foundation. Finally, if you add more or less ease around the armholes you come up with the shirt and the jacket foundations.
But it doesn’t end there! There’s more to learn on how to draft top patterns. Every single foundation can be modified to get more or less ease by adding or removing darts. I’ve named these variations: basic, casual and oversized.
This Foundation is the main block all drafting books come with and it is the mother of all the other designs. This top has a tight neckline and armholes and contours around your breasts by using two darts at the front and two at the back. The pattern ends at the waist.
This Foundation is used for garments without a seam at the waist and the pattern is created by combining the Top foundation and the Skirt foundation (this last one can be optional).
As the name says, the shirt foundation is used for shirts. This foundation is an oversized version of the torso foundation with one or zero darts. Ease is added around the armholes which means this design works better with sleeves.
This foundation is used for jackets and coats and is very similar to the dress foundation. They are considered a different block because the pattern is slightly bigger to account for the layers worn below it.
We have talked about the foundations and the waist shaping, but there’s a LOT more to look into when drafting tops. What neckline will you choose? Do you want to add a collar? What about the darts? What kind of a silhouette do you want? And length? Let’s look into all these things.
A dart can be transferred to any location from a pivotal point without affecting the size or fit of the garment. The pivotal point in this case is the bust. There are two ways of transferring the darts:
When moving front darts, the lines have to cross the bust point, but once the dart has been relocated, the tip should end some centimetres before the bust:
We’ve talked about front darts, but what about the back? The back also has two darts, one at the waist and one at the shoulder and their tips don’t touch each other. The waist dart can be ignored and used as ease, but the shoulder dart should be relocated if it interferes with a design detail. These are some ways of moving it:
These are the main rules when moving darts, so let’s look at other ways of using them
Now that you know all the tips and tricks on how to move darts, it’s time to get creative! Darts can also be divided into multiple openings and treated as single design units.
It’s all about having fun. Remember that the darts can be straight or curved and you can always combine darts with gathers, so dream big!
Until now we’ve only talked about darts to create shape, but they can be used in many other ways. They can be illustrated as tuck darts, pleats, flares and gathers:
Another design change that can be done to the pattern is altering the neckline. There are countless types of necklines but they can be grouped into four: the low, the high, the cowl and the collar.
This is a working document and I will keep adding to it the more I learn, so keep it saved! If you want to know more on how to draft trouser patterns, techniques or similar, take a look at the posts below and have fun.
