Just another quick question… my Aldrich pattern drafting book generally recommends to draw the inflection point of the armscye smack dab in the middle of the start of the armscye and the end (on the y-axis that is, they differ of course on the x-axis). Yet I have seen some design where this inflection point (where the curve changes angle/the deepest point of the curve) isn’t exactly in the middle but rather a little lower. What are the stylistic choices that could be behind changing the height of this point?
Thanks for all the help thus far haha. Really getting into bodice pattern drafting and it’s not that tricky to follow instructional videos but harder to understand why things are the way they are, which is why I ask a lot of question.
Yes, Aldrich places the armpit point halfway between the across back & across front lines. Some systems place it at 1/3 of the way while others say move it backwards by 1cm. Others don’t even draft the armscye front and backs in the middle of the bodice pattern. Who is correct? I really don’t know, but having the armpit point in the middle, you can have the sleeve center line in the middle, too.
Aldrich uses very few measurements to create a pattern, the patterns do work out - I know this because I’ve also learnt patternmaking from her books - and it’s a book that is used in UK (and here in South Africa) fashion schools and while all the instructions are in the book, there’s a lot more that gets taught to you verbally in a fashion school than what is in the book.
Once you’ve proved to yourself that you can successfully create patterns that fit according to Aldrich, then you can go into researching all of the other systems and putting together your own system by using bits from all of them that make sense and figure out a few for yourself. Each system will teach you something that another didn’t teach.
So, Aldrich is an excellent springboard to get you going and can serve you forever if you’re happy with it and it can work for you and your projected client base.
Rather than the exact location of the point, the imaginary vertical line passing through the point is more useful to me as it indicates where the edge of the curve should touch. (Bunka chest width line, M&S front pitch line, Myoungok interscye line, Jungclaus front armhole line). They, even Aldrich put the “inflection point” on this line.
I often raise or lower the position of the point to get better armhole shape, just according to my feeling. Sometimes I just use one bezier curve connecting the shoulder tip and armhole, which may not touch the point, but not far off.
As @najdmie points out, and as I previously speculated - point A7 is fit related rather than style. With the exception that A7 may also be a point where you could start a princess style seam line. Point A7 is there to establish the front width armscye to armscye… the armhole does not have to pass through this point, but you generally do not want the armhole to go past the vertical going through A7. As a rule of thumb though I would say that point A7 should be located 1/2 the arhmhole depth above the horizontal A1 to An.
And I would agree here too. If you need to resize the pattern, it’s going to be easier to get a smoother armhole by using one curve from A1 to A9, and not using A7.
