The Savvy Sewer Salon at Sawyer Brook

how to delete darts from blouse patterns. all the blouse patterns I have show darts. Not very becoming on me, so I need help on how to remove darts before I cut out pattern.
thanks so much,
bettydeboop

Betty -

Why do you say darts aren't becoming on you? I feel that nearly every garment looks better and flatters most bodies if it has darts.

Darts are put in for a reason - to make the fabric curve where the body does, because fabric is flat. Think of wallpapering a soccer ball - you'd have to create folds to make it around the curves. If you eliminate darts, you have to replace them with something that takes the fullness out of the seam - the body curve uses the fullness at the interior of the garment, the bust for instance, and as the curve lessens toward the seam it needs less fullness. The easiest thing to do is to ease the fullness at the seamline - run a line of longer or basting stitches to pull it up. Or you can make pleats on the seamline to fold out the fullness. Make it a design element for the best look. Do you know how to rotate a dart? You can rotate the dart to a different seam - say from the side to the shoulder - and put the gathers or pleats there if it enhances the design. I can refer you to some books on patternmaking if you need to learn how to do this - it's a great way to teach yourself to understand what's happening in a pattern, and I find it a lot of fun - a creative way to enhance the sewing experience.

Hi,
I agree with Janee, but I'm wondering if the reason you think darts don't look good on you is because they are in the wrong place.

If the dart isn't pointing to the fullest part of your figure maybe the pattern needs to be altered first. My daughter is tall and when she started developing curves we found that we needed to lengthen the patterns at several levels to get the darts and underarms into the right position.

Those lines on the pattern give you the idea but you might need to adjust above and below the dart line instead of using their "adjust here" lines.

Try pinning the pattern pieces into shape and look to see where those darts align with your figure and adjust accordingly.

Evelyn
sbdf, etc

I have a book on pattern drafting that recommends eliminating the darts if there is little difference between you bust and waist sizes I believe. I'm going to go find it and will let you know.