Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Moving darts to the side seam

I got a few questions about how I moved the darts to the side seams on the BWOF 02/2009-124 dress.  I am having a hard time explaining it in words, so I thought I'd just show you how I did it in pictures.

DISCLAIMER:  This is just how I did this.  It is not the only way, and mayn't even be the best way!  Any and all tips and suggestions are much appreciated.

So, obviously I started by tracing  the pattern since it is a burda.  I actually trace all my patterns, because I'm OCD like that, but you can do this with your regular tissue.
This is the pattern piece for the skirt front, size 38 and unaltered.  The plan is to move the total area that the dart includes to the side seam.  To accomplish that, you need to know how wide the dart is at a couple of points.
I started at the top, and measured the width of the dart at that point.
Then marked that distance in from the side seam at the top of the pattern piece.
Be sure to mark the endpoint of the dart as your "zero", ie where you stop taking out width.
Measure the width of the dart and mark that distance at several points along the length of the dart.  Since this is a contour dart (ie, has it's widest point somewhere other than at the seamline.), you want to be sure that you find and mark the widest point, as well as several others.
Here it is with all points marked.
And the dots connected to create a new seamline.  I colored in with green the area that you have "removed".  It should look a lot like you bent your dart around the side seam, since that is essentially what you did.
Now add your seam allowances (the blue line) and go!  Remember that the dart has moved, so from now on you can ignore it.  Scribble it out if it makes you happy.  :-)

2 comments:

Reethi said...

Thanks! I'll have to try that!

Michelle said...

Great idea!! I'm going to have to give this a try.