Tag Archives: darts

Learning to Sew–how to sew darts (part II)

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Pay careful attention to your pattern instructions when finishing the dart(s); some darts are clipped open and pressed, but most are left unclipped and pressed in a certain direction.   Your pattern instructions will tell you which way to press the darts.  Generally, vertical darts are pressed towards the garment’s center, while horizontal darts are pressed towards the bottom of the garment.

 

 Some garments have double-pointed darts; these are handled by leaving the threads long and loose at both points and then tying a knot.  A double-pointed dart is usually clipped in the center, so that the wide part will lie flat; your sheet of pattern instructions will illustrate this.  When clipping near any finished seam, be careful not to cut into the seam itself.

Learning to Sew–how to sew darts (part I)

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Darts are not complicated and are essential if you like a closer fitted look in the bust area.  The key to making excellent darts is good marking techniques.

 

I like to mark my darts using tracing paper and a tracing wheel.  Use a straight edge ruler as your guide and roll the wheel right along side of it; that way you will be sure to have a straight seam line.

Usually you will be dealing with a double layer of fabric, so to mark the darts on the piece not covered by the fabric, after I am through marking the top part, I usually stick my straight pins down through the fabric at each dot (dart markings have a dot at the point and on each side) so that when I turn the fabric over, I can see where the dots will go.  Then it is easy to use your ruler and a marking pencil to make a dart marking identical to the one on the first side. 

 

To sew the dart, fold it in the middle with the right sides of the fabric together, carefully matching the markings.  Your straight pins will go across the dart; place a pin crosswise at the dart point and then at about 1 inch or so intervals to the end of the dart.

 

Stitch the dart from the wide end down to the point; backstitch or lockstitch at the beginning, but do not backstitch at the dart point.  Darts can bubble at the point; however, this problem is easily avoided by making the last few stitches directly on the fold and leaving the thread ends long. Tie the loose threads in a knot.