DARTS - How to Sew Them and What's their purpose anyway?

You see them on all kinds of garments - darts in the sides of bodices, from the waist of dresses, in the backs of jackets, in the hip area of skirts and pants, sometimes even in the elbow of jackets. What do they do exactly?

If you think about it, a garment consists of flat pieces of fabric sewn together and fitted (sometimes poorly) to a three-dimensional body. Darts are one of the tools used to shape fabric from a two-dimensional plane to three-dimensions. In simpler terms, darts add shape to flat fabric.

Darts are triangular sections of the fabric sewn together from a wider point to a narrower point. As they reach the narrow point, they release the fabric to provide fullness. If no shaping is required, better to eliminate the darts. This is why you will see darts in a woman's blouse, but not in the front of a man's shirt. The exception being a European shirt, where darts are used to give a slim look through the waist.

The width of the dart at its widest point indicates how much length or width was added to the garment. This is then sewn closed at one end and released at the other, where the extra fabric is needed. So, a bust dart actually adds length over the fullest part of the bust, while a skirt dart adds width where it is required - over the tummy or the derriere.

A very crude illustration of this is shown in the following diagram. The front of a t-shirt has been slashed across the bust area and 1/2" length has been added just there. Then a dart, with a side seam width of 1/2", is drawn on the pattern, tapering to nothing 1" short of the bust point. The result is half an inch more length in the center of the t-shirt, while the side seam remains the same and can be sewn to the back without a problem.

A simple way to add a bust dart

One interesting thing about darts is that you can move them around the garment. Try this experiment: draw a bodice front on a piece of paper, about half the size of a normal pattern. Now draw a dart at the side seam pointing to the bust area. Make it about 3/4" wide at the widest point and taper it to nothing at the bust. Now cut the dart shape out. Then, draw a line up from the waist to the bust and cut along that line. Bring the sides of the dart together so that it is closed and watch a new dart open up at the slashed line. You can move a side dart to the waist, you can move it to the armhole, to the shoulder, even to the neckline. Darts can be split in two and placed in two areas of the garment. When you have a shoulder dart meeting a waist dart, you have the basis for the princess seamed garment.

How to get a princess line from two darts

It is rather like removing a piece of pizza from a whole pizza. The rest of the pizza can be shifted around the pan, so that the empty pizza slice can be anywhere in the pan. The same thing can be done with patterns. This is how pattern drafters take a bust dart from the basic design and move it to the shoulder, then replace it with gathers rather than a dart. Or tucks, or smocking, or whatever they wish to put in the garment. These details can be used to replace a dart where you do not wish one. The fitting purpose of the dart has not been compromised however.

If you tend to shy away from garments that have darts, take some advice and try them. The fit will definitely be better than a pattern without darts. When a pattern has no darts, the resulting garment will lie completely flat. Now, does that conform to your curved body? I don't think so.

Sewing Darts

Darts are relatively easy to sew. But sometimes we get frustrated by puckers at the point of the dart. There are some tricks to being sure you don't get those. First, always sew the dart from the wide end to the narrow end. At the narrow end, do not backstitch but instead take the last four or five stitches right along the fold of the fabric, then stitch off at the point. Tie the thread ends in a knot, rather than backstitching. Tapering the stitch very close to the fold ensures that the fabric will press flat near the point.

Then pressing is key. Press the dart as it was sewn first, this evens out the stitches and makes them sink into the fabric. Then place the garment piece over a curved surface that is similar to the curve built into the garment by the dart. A pressing ham is ideal for this, but if you don't have one, you can improvise over the end of the ironing board. Begin with the wrong side of the fabric. Press around the tip of the dart, pressing in towards the end of it, but not right on it. Use steam if your fabric will take it. Then press the dart in the direction the pattern instructions indicate. For side darts on a bodice, this is down; for waist darts, press them towards the center of the garment. Some fabrics will show the impression of the dart on the right side; use a piece of paper or an envelope and place it under the dart as you press. This cushions the dart and prevents it from pressing through to the right side.

Most of your pressing should be done from the wrong side of the fabric. If you have to press again from the right side, be sure to use a press cloth to prevent damage to the fabric.

Some darts are actually double darts. These are those long darts that you see in dresses that shape the waist. They extend both above and below the waistline, are wider in the center and taper to points at both ends. To sew these darts, begin in the middle and sew to one end. Then go back to the middle, stitch over some of the previous stitches to lock them and sew to the other end. In other words, treat these darts as if they were two separate darts joined at the center. In fact, this is what they are. If you sew from one end to the other, you will find that it is not easy to press out the point flat on the end you started.

Darts on skirts and pants are meant to provide shaping over the tummy and into the high hip area. Sometimes, you can help the fit of your garments by sewing these darts a little differently. Darts are usually drawn as straight triangles, with the legs of the darts being two straight lines which meet at the point. This shape of dart is fine for someone with a gentle hip curve similar to the one on the pattern. But if you are shaped differently, your skirt or pants will fit better if you sew these darts in curved lines, rather than straight. If you have a deep curve immediately below your waist in the back, you probably have a sway back. Straight darts won't help you here. Instead curve the sides of the darts out slightly - this will pull in more fabric in the middle of the dart and this will hug your body better. Conversely, if you are flat in the derriere and have fullness in the high hip area, your darts will be more flattering if you sew them with legs that curve in towards each other. We are only talking slight curves here, probably curving in or out to a maximum of 1/4" from the original line.

You can also shorten these darts. Darts are meant to end just before the fullest part of the body. If they end right at the fullest part, this results in points and unflattering wrinkles radiating out from the ends of the darts. If you see the ends of your darts pucker, sew them shorter and see if the puckers go away. If they don't, it could be that the dart is wide and you need more length to help it blend into the fabric around it.

Bust Darts

Bust darts are different characters than waist darts. They are a little trickier because everyone is shaped differently. The position of the dart must be checked; otherwise, the dart will point to the wrong place and look quite odd. Bust darts should point to the bust point, but end 1 to 1 1/2" shy of it. If the dart comes closer to the bust point than that, it will be difficult to press it smooth and you will have a garment with a rather pointed bust. The other thing to know about bust darts is that they must be proportioned to the bust cup size of the wearer. A bust dart for a person with a C cup is different than the dart for a B cup. Some patterns are now coming with these features in them, so that you can achieve better fit in the bodice of the garment.

Patterns are generally made for women with B cups. This means that the difference between their high bust and their full bust is 2". The high bust is measured under the armpits and the tape is raised above the bust. You are in fact measuring your upper chest circumference. If you are larger than a B cup, the bust dart in the pattern will not be right for you. And, if the pattern has no dart, then you need to add one, in order to get a better fit. Since this is a complex alteration, I will leave it till another time and will give you some diagrams to go with it.

Once you understand the role of darts in shaping a garment, you will be glad to have them in all your clothing. They make fitting easier and they also improve the end result, which is a well-fitted garment.

Any comment or question about darts, please email me at mail@timmelfabrics.com