Darts part I
Feb. 7th, 2008 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cat_ceteraAfter much fiddling around, which I expected I would spend a good part of the evening doing, I figured out a good way to do the darts. One side is now done. Very dull details inside so I can hopefully remember what I did for the next go round.
The Willoughby suit, which I am using as my main pattern for the trunk hose, has darts that are about 5 inches long, 1 inch wide, and varying widths up to 1/2 inch apart from each other. I tacked the outer fabric to the interlining in several lines running up and down using the machine so they would stay together while I was working with them, but will remove the tacking before I wear them. After measuring yielded unsatisfactory results, I folded each quadrant in successively smaller halves until I had segments about 2 inches wide. For the quadrants that have the non-darted under leg part, I included the full length of the non-darted part in my folding. I decided to make my darts approximately 4 inches long because I am definitely more petite than whoever wore the Willoughby suit - this decision was actually made when I was cutting the pattern pieces out, since the funky right angle thing that had me puzzled at the beginning forms a kind of half-dart. I tacked a line of red thread (by hand) at the 4 inch mark all the way around, and marked the point of each dart in the middle of each segment at the 4 inch mark. Due to the folding, my darts ended up being about 1.5 inches wide each, but all of these measurements (except the 4 inches) could change if the width of the panels was different. For each leg, there were two panels half the width of the fabric and one panel 1/4 the width of the fabric (and for the interlining, 2 x 0.5 + half of 3/4), where one of the half panels contains the crotch seam and underleg half darts.
To sew by machine, I pinned first at the point of a dart, then at the base. I started sewing at the base and tapered (not always evenly) to the point. My recollection of high school sewing class is hazy, and I haven't made a lot of darts since, but I seem to recall my teacher showing me not to backstitch at the point of the dart, but to leave the threads trailing and tie them in two or three knots instead. The spacing of the base of the darts defaulted to putting the edge of the presser foot as close to the edge of the previous dart as possible. I worked from left to right.
Now all I have to do is make one more exactly like it, except in mirror image!
The Willoughby suit, which I am using as my main pattern for the trunk hose, has darts that are about 5 inches long, 1 inch wide, and varying widths up to 1/2 inch apart from each other. I tacked the outer fabric to the interlining in several lines running up and down using the machine so they would stay together while I was working with them, but will remove the tacking before I wear them. After measuring yielded unsatisfactory results, I folded each quadrant in successively smaller halves until I had segments about 2 inches wide. For the quadrants that have the non-darted under leg part, I included the full length of the non-darted part in my folding. I decided to make my darts approximately 4 inches long because I am definitely more petite than whoever wore the Willoughby suit - this decision was actually made when I was cutting the pattern pieces out, since the funky right angle thing that had me puzzled at the beginning forms a kind of half-dart. I tacked a line of red thread (by hand) at the 4 inch mark all the way around, and marked the point of each dart in the middle of each segment at the 4 inch mark. Due to the folding, my darts ended up being about 1.5 inches wide each, but all of these measurements (except the 4 inches) could change if the width of the panels was different. For each leg, there were two panels half the width of the fabric and one panel 1/4 the width of the fabric (and for the interlining, 2 x 0.5 + half of 3/4), where one of the half panels contains the crotch seam and underleg half darts.
To sew by machine, I pinned first at the point of a dart, then at the base. I started sewing at the base and tapered (not always evenly) to the point. My recollection of high school sewing class is hazy, and I haven't made a lot of darts since, but I seem to recall my teacher showing me not to backstitch at the point of the dart, but to leave the threads trailing and tie them in two or three knots instead. The spacing of the base of the darts defaulted to putting the edge of the presser foot as close to the edge of the previous dart as possible. I worked from left to right.
Now all I have to do is make one more exactly like it, except in mirror image!
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Date: 2008-02-10 05:55 am (UTC)http://www.librarything.com/profile.php?view=rectangularcat