Draping a bodice

Today I started with the bodice for the gold handmaiden.  Looking at the original gown it's a fairly loose gown, mostly shaped by the obi. The thing is though that I don't want too much bulk under the obi, and since my bust is quite full I felt that it would be best with a fairly fitted bodice.

 This was the start, simply one square of fabric for the front, and one for the back.

In order to accomodate the bust I added a side dart. The vertical tuck started as a dart just under the bust and one dart from the neckline and down towards the bust.

On the back I folded a long dart from the top of the armscye and down towards the back. I simply just held up the excess fabric and pinned.

At this point I had started to just work on one side of the bodice, so I cut off the other half since it was now mostly distracting and making the "good" half hang funny. When I was satisfied with the fit I followed all the seamlines with a pen and also drew a seam line that dived the front into a front and side front piece.

I took the bodice off the mannequin and cut where I had marked the seamlines. I then cleaned up and evened out some of the lines, and the resulting pattern can be seen above.

The skirt was mocked up. I used my basic pencil skirt pattern, only lengthened to reach the floor, and I added a circle of fabric to the bottom.