The empire style line passes across the midriff under the bust. The empire line can have a variety of shapes from straight to curved to angled and can sit at a variety of heights above the waistline. For your final pattern draft this week, you will create a full bodice pattern with an empire seam and convert the remaining dart to gathers.

As we just discussed on the previous page, the concept of contouring should be taken into account when patterning seamlines that cut through darts on the bodice. This is due to the fact that our bodies are concave in areas around the bust. When you create style lines that pass through areas in between the edge of the garment and the fullest part of the bust, you will want to do additional shaping so that the garment will sit closer to the body and not gape. The Empire style line is one example of this. Contouring also applies when significantly increasing the size of the neckline and armholes, or creating off the shoulder or one shoulder designs. For a further discussion of Contouring, and a demo of drafting the Empire Bodice using contouring you can see the following page:

Fall 2024- Since I am lecturing about contouring this semester, I would prefer that you follow the 2nd demo on this page to create your empire bodice WITH contouring. But for the sake of comparison, I am leaving the WITHOUT contouring demo here as well.

Empire Bodice Draft WITHOUT Contouring

Empire Bodice Draft WITH Contouring

Empire Bodice Draft from Patternmaking for Fashion Design: Empire_w_Contouring_PatternforFashDes.pdf

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