Page 200 - CTS - Dress Making - TP - Volume - 1

DRESS MAKING - CITS

Standard dart (half dart): It is triangular in shape, wide at one end and pointed at the other. (Fig 1)
The pointed side should always be directed to the fullest part of the body. Tacking and stitching should start from
the wide end towards the dart point. The wide base of a dart takes in fabric fullness, so that a garment fits the
narrower parts of the body. The space inside the triangle is called intake which will appear on the wrong side of
the garment. The dart stitching lines are matched, then stitched together. These stitching lines can be straight or
gently curved for a close fit around the shape of the body. (Fig 2)

Fig 1 Fig 2

Double pointed darts (full darts): These are wide in the middle and pointed at both ends. (Fig 3) They are used
at waist line of one-piece dresses.

After stitching, vertical darts are pressed towards centre front or centre back, and horizontal darts are pressed
downwards.
In general, it is better to set two small darts than one large dart.

A very deep and bulky dart intake is slashed and pressed open, the edges are over casted or pinked. These darts
are called slashed darts. (Fig 4)

Fig 3 Fig 4

Well constructed darts appear on the right side as a seam. The seam should not bulge but taper gradually to point.
Darts set better, if pressed over a round pressing pad on the wrong side.
The contour dart (variation of full dart) is used for semi-fitted and fitted styles of garments which don’t have a
waist seam. These darts have two pointed ends, one providing fullness at the bust, the other fullness at the hip.
The wide central part of the dart shapes the fabric at the waist. Clipping of intake is done in the middle of the dart;
it will relieve strain at the waist and other curved sections and allow the dart to lie smooth. (Fig 5)

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CITS : Apparel - Dress Making - Exercise 48