How to Sew Darts
OOOH! I do love darts!
But when I was working with fashion students who were working with me back when I was making my clothing line, a lot of them came to me professing they hated to prepare and sew darts. It was so hard to mark them accurately, and it took a lot of time to transfer the markings.
Lucky for them, a long time ago I had to learn how to sew my darts quickly when I had to make a lot of clothing and sew everything myself.
My way may be a bit of a cheat, or unconventional, because my perspective is from having to produce a lot of clothing in a short amount of time and sell it. But I know the people I've taught this method love it. It will get you an accurate dart, in about half the time.
Let's dig in. In today's video lesson and tutorial, we are going to take a look at how to transfer the dart accurately and quickly from the pattern, and then how to fold it to make sure its sewn accurately. And of course, we are going to sew the dart.
1. Transfer the dart markings using pins.
Use a pin to pierce the pattern at the dart markings.
I pull the pins through the pattern, and then take the pattern off. When you remove the pattern, the pins will be the marks to show you where the dart apex and legs are located.
Usually, you are sewing two darts, one for the left and one for the right side. Turn the pieces to the other side, and place a pin through the cloth in the exact place on the other side where the other pins are sticking out. To see this really clearly, watch the video lesson.
2. Turn the piece to the wrong side of the fabric, and draw the dart on using the pins to get the dart legs and apex marked correctly.
Separate the two pieces. On the wrong side of the fabric, line up the ruler with the darts, and draw the legs.
3. Fold the dart in half, and pin. Check the pin on both sides to make sure the legs match.
Pinch the bottom of the dart (apex point) and then pinch the top of the dart, exactly in half. You can tell you have it folded in half if you stick a pin through the other side and the pin goes through both drawn lines at the same point.
Check the back. Make sure your pins are pinned through the drawn lines in exactly the same place.
4. Sew the dart.
If you are starting at the apex, then your needle should be right next to the apex point and off of the fabric. I do not tie darts at the end. I use a very, very short backstitch because the point has to stay closed.
After you backstitch at the end, you are all done! When you start building up speed with this method, it will only take 5 minutes to make one dart. Any time I can find time savers, I take advantage of them!
I hope this tutorial was helpful, and I'm always looking for fun tutorials to show you and my students. Let me know how I can help you, and you might just see it pop up as a tutorial soon :)
Thanks and happy sewing!
Andrea
