Page 201 - CTS - Dress Making - TP - Volume - 1

DRESS MAKING - CITS

The French dart (variation of half dart) gives a semi-fitted shape. It combines underarm bust dart and waist dart
into one long dart running from the bust down at an angle towards the side seam. This dart is cut open on its center
line before sewing so as to match the stitching lines. (Fig 6)
Before stitching, the darts have to be transferred from pattern to the fabric. Depending on the material two methods
can be applied: tailor marks will be used on silk, polyester etc. and loosely woven material. On cotton marking with
a tracing wheel is a fast method.
The tracing wheel is a pinned metal tool which is used to transfer pattern marks or construction lines on the lower
layer of fabric or paper. (Fig 7)

Fig 5 Fig 6

Fig 7

Pleats
Objectives: At the end of this exercise you shall be able to
• explain the basic construction features of pleats using the technical terms related to pleats
• explain the difference between knife pleats, box pleats and inverted pleats.

Pleats are folds of fabric that are made to give decorative flare and fullness to a garment. They are commonly
used on skirts and dresses, but also on sleeves or other components of a garment.
Construction features of pleats: Pleats are folded in vertical direction.
• Each pleat has an inner and outer fold. The outer fold line is placed on a placement line.
• The distance between inner and outer fold is called pleat depth.

• The pleat size consists of double the pleat depth.
• The distance between two neighboring outer folds is the pleat width (gap between the pleats).
• The width of material before pleating is called the pattern width.
• After pleating it is called the pleated section. The pleated section does not consider allowances for plackets
etc. (Fig 1)
There are three basic types of pleats
Knife pleats are the most common form of pleats. The outer fold lines are all placed in one direction. (Fig 2)

186

CITS : Apparel - Dress Making - Exercise 48