The Side Panel Monokini

I'll be very honest up front to admit this isn't the most stable garment in my arsenal. You wouldn't want to go swimming in it. You certainly wouldn't dare to dive into a pool wearing it either. But you would wear it in a beauty pageant. It moves with the body. It shows everything while revealing nothing. It's won more contests for my clients than any other garment. It's been worn during the photo shoots of Miss World and Miss Universe in Australia for the last two years. I've seen competition judges go literally speechless. This garment has, however, probably reached it's competitive lifespan so what you need to do is ask yourself what makes it so special and how do you reproduce that in a newer design. That's a secret I don't plan on just giving away!

The photos above are from my 2005 collection. They illustrates the pattern we're going to make. This pattern is based on the size 10B/C one piece block we created previously (using 12% horizontal negative ease and 0% vertical ease). Before you start each step, click on the link marked "Illustration for this Step". A pop up window with an illustration for that step will help guide you through the instructions. At the end of each step your draft should match the illustration.

Step One

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Trace the front panel of the one piece block and then trace the bottom half of the back panel, placing them together at the side seam. Draft a guide line extending from the point at which the front and back leg lines meet, through the bust point and ending at the neck. Draw three lines perpendicular to this guide line. The first is placed 1cm short of the neck line and is 6cm wide. The second is centered on the bust point and is 14cm wide. The third is centered on the waist line and is 12cm wide.

Step Two

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Measure 10cm down from the waist line on the center front and back and place a guide mark. On the front panel measure up 4cm from the crotch line and place a horizontal guide line. 4cm equals the 6cm gusset difference minus 2cm you're about to remove from the center back seam darts. Draft a vertical guide line down from the narrowest point of the crotch. Draft another guide line the corresponding width on the back panel as illustrated.

Step Three

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Draft in the curves for the side panel. These should smoothly and gradually join the three perpendicular guidelines at the ends and perfectly mirror each other.

Step Four

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Draft in two curves to connect the side panel to the guides on the center front and back. In theory these should be mirrored copies of each other.

Step Five

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Draft in the new legline. This curve starts parallel to the guide line below the front crotch and curves slowly and gradually around the leg opening to the same position on the back panel. This also should involve lowering the leg line (toward the front of the old side seam area) to create a more stable base for the side panel tension.

Step Six

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Remove the excess guide lines. In order to create a center back seam we need to break up the bottom two quarters of the back panel. Because the side panels will exert a great deal more tension on the back than a normal monokini we will need to lock it deeper by using a slightly more curved center back seam. As such, the 2cm we allowed to get lost in the center back seam darts will grow to 4cm, meaning we need to replace the extra 2cm somewhere else. Now before you say why did we take 4cm from below the crotch, let me demonstrate how to put it back somewhere else. Draft in another guide line to separate the front for the back in such a way as to form a right angle with both the back curve and the leg line (see illustration).

Step Seven

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Insert an even 2cm gap between the front and back. This will replace the 2cm lost in the center back seam. Rotate the darts to close out 2cm from each one, by rotating around a point on the leg line.

Step Eight

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Either recurve all the lines on the back and remove all the guidelines or retrace the pattern.

Step Nine

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The red dotted line represents how to narrow the side panel if desired. You could add seam allowance at this point without separating the front and back. The grey line shows where to separate. I have usually made this garment as a one off item and so I cut the whole garment as one piece. If you had to make this as ready to wear you'd probably want to separate it into panels.

Step Ten

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Clearly label your pattern pieces with a title, panel name, size, cutting instructions, author’s name, date and revision number. Finaly, add seam allowance to the pattern based on how you intend to assemble it. I've shown this pattern with 10mm allowance for overlocked seams (8mm to blade, 2mm off cut) and 10mm allowance for folding over elastic. I've also added 20mm seam allowance at the neck for a fold over casing for the drawstring.