Fitting Refinement: Dealing with the Skirt Dart

    I hear this all the time - 'How can I remove the dart?' Darts in fabric help to shape the flat fabric to our body curves and actually are very special since they can give you such great fit.  When someone asks how to eliminate the darts, I often suggest ways to move them or change them into pleats, tucks or gathers, but if you're very flat in the front and still want total removal, read on.

The Sure-Fit Designs skirt darts provided on the Dress Kit Master Patterns are straight, uni-positional darts.  Both the skirt front and back darts are intended to line either a one or two-piece dress in any number of variations.

When using the skirt pattern to sew just a skirt, you may want to re-evaluate the front and back hip darts to obtain your very best fit.  What is done with the dart will depend on your body shape and the style of skirt you want.  Darts can be stitched in straight or curved lines and dealt with in a number of different ways.

The relationship between two different circumferences will determine the dart width, length and shape is best for you.  For example, if your waist is 35" (90 cm) and your hips are 45" (115 cm), this 10" (25 cm) difference will be controlled and shaped by the darts in both front and back.  The greater the difference between the two circumferences, the wider the dart will be and the greater the resulting fabric bulge. The person who has heart or diamond-shaped hips will require wider darts than the straight-shaped boyish figure. 

Your front tummy fullness, front and back hip curvature and buttock curves will affect the width of each dart.  Just always keep in mind that the given Sure-Fit Designs darts can be re-shaped to your specific needs.

The rounder, fuller heart-shaped figure may want to stitch her darts in a concave curve (inward curve).  Also she may want to shorten the dart length.  A dart should not extend beyond your fullest point or bulge.  In fact, with skirts, the dart should stop about 1/2" (1.3 cm) back from your dominant fullness.  See page 29 - Dress Kit Instruction book. 

The diamond-shaped hip figure may need to stitch the dart longer than that given on the Master Pattern.  If it stops too short or abruptly, the resulting dart tip won't give correct shaping to your fuller lower hip.  Therefore extend the dart until it best conforms to your body.

If you happen to have prominent hip bones, you can also divide the dart in two.  Usually the dart closest to the side seam is slightly shorter and aimed toward the dominant bone. The resulting two narrower darts must equal the width of the original dart.  See page 29 - Dress Kit Instruction book.

The straighter-shaped figure type may need to reduce the width of the dart since the difference between the waist and hip circumference is smaller, or you are just simply flatter in the front of your body.  To reduce the dart width in half, follow these steps.

1.  The original Sure-Fit Designs skirt front dart is 1 1/2" (3.8 cm) wide.  Redraw so that the dart is now 3.4" (1.9 cm) wide.

2.  Then to maintain similar side seam shapes from front to back skirt patterns, remove 3.8" (1 cm) from both front and back side seams beginning at the waist point and tapering to nothing at the high hip.

Now, if you have an extremely flat front and there is next to no difference between your waist and hip circumference, you may want to remove the dart completely.  This particular technique will remove some of the existing hip ease as you close the waist dart, but since the Sure-Fit Designs Skirt pattern initially gives you 3" (7.6 cm) ease at the hip level, it still should fit adequately.

1.  Draw a line parallel to CF from the tip of the dart to the hem level.

2.  Draw 2 lines from the sides of the dart to the hem level.  Cut to remove this elongated dart.

3.  Close the dart space as shown.
True/blend the waist edge curve.

This tutorial simply gives you more options of how to deal with the darts in the skirt pattern.

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Adapting and Drawing the Pants Front Waist/Crotch Grid for a Thick Waist and a Relatively Short Front Crotch Length

If you have a fairly short front crotch length measurement and you have a relatively thick waist, when drawing the pants pattern, you may find that your numbers 'fall off the Master Pattern Grid lines'.  This situation may occur when you are establishing the intersecting point for your waist measurement and front crotch length measurement on the Pants Front Waist/Crotch Grid.  In other words, the grid lines stop before your two numbers of waist measurement and front crotch length measurement have a chance to intersect.  These photos show and example of the type of body shape where this may occur.

 If this occurs, simply extend your appropriate grid lines straight down.  The waist measurement line (attached to your waist measurement number) will be drawn straight down.  The front crotch length measurement number will be extended downward but continuing on in its current angle and slope.

See the example diagram below where the person's waist measurement is 46" (116.6cm) and the front crotch length is 11 1/2" (29.2 cm).  Note how these lines have been extended and shown in continuous RED lines.  The BLUE dot represents where the two lines intersect.  This is where you would mark your placement dot for your CF waist measurement.  This dot, of course, would then connect (in either a straight or curved line) to your front side waist measurement dot.  And you would then continue to proceed to mark in your Dart tip and then your Front Crotch Pt. #1 and Pt. #2.  These steps are found in your Pants Kit instruction book, page 9, steps 9 and 10.

 Fine Tuning Your Pattern's Crotch Lengths - if Necessary

Once you have drawn your Back and Front Crotch lengths, also make sure you measure the finished lengths.  Since you are measuring a curve, remember to stand the tape measure on edge and walk the tape around the stitching line to ensure accurate length measurements.  The instructions and illustrations for this step are found in your Pants Kit instruction book on page 10, #13 - Fine Tuning Crotch Lengths.

Glenda...the Good Stitch!

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Removing Horizontal Fold Under the Tummy

Some women experience horizontal fullness or bagging directly beneath their tummy and just before the crotch curve begins.  Once you've sewn your test muslin for your pants, if this is occurring, you will find one suggestion for a minor tune-up on page 12 (#1) of the Pants Kit Instruction Book.  This may be a satisfactory refinement for you.

Another alternative is to remove this fold of fabric at CF. Follow these directions:
1.  To determine how much you need to remove, pinch out the fabric in a tiny fold.  If you pinch out 1/4" (.6cm), this will mean that you will be totally removing 1/2" (1.3cm).

Close-Up of dart/tuck wedge from CF going to nothing at the side seams.

2.  Mark this level location of CF of the crotch seam.  Draw a perpendicular line (to the grainline) over to the side seam.  Mark point A and B.

3.  Cut from CF to side seam, leaving a small hinge of paper at the side seam. This will act as a pivot point.  Secure the pivot point with plastic tape.

4.  Overlap the CF seam the amount you require, thereby crating a small horizontal dart or tuck which begins at CF and goes to nothing at the side seam.

5.  True the CF crotch seam.

6.  The more you overlap at CF, the more the waist edge tilts down and angles the CF seam.  To maintain the original orientation of the upper CF seam, when you true the crotch seam, you will be crating a narrow wedge as indicated by the green arrow.  (The blue line indicates where CF at the waist edge originated).

7.  Cut/remove this narrow wedge and tape it back in place at the side seam waist edge.  This will maintain the correct waist circumference and true the side seam shape so that it will sew in the same curve to the back side seam.

8.  Redraw and reposition the front hip-fitting dart to best suit your body contours.

9.  Bring the straight of grain up from the leg.

This process will shorten the CF crotch length by the amount of the dart/tuck.  Be aware that you may need to add this amount on to the back crotch length so that you maintain your overall crotch length requirement.

Happy Sewing!

Glenda... The Good Stitch

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Dealing with an Asymmetrical Body

Do you have asymmetrical body issues?  Very few people are truly perfect and symmetrical from one side to the other of their bodies.  Often a leg is slightly longer, or a shoulder might be sloped more than the other.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. How severe is the asymmetry?
2. Does it affect the look of my clothes on my body?
3. Should I make the effort to change my pattern?

If there are just slight differences from one side to the other, generally we do nothing, as it's simply not enough difference to affect the hang of the garment on our body.

However, if your garments hang crooked or form obvious drag lines toward the high or low point, then you will likely want to make asymmetrical adjustments to your pattern.

This typically entails creating a right and left side pattern that reflect the height and width dimensions for that part of your body.  Once the change is done for both sides (if necessary), they will generally then need to meet in the middle - typically CF and/or CB.  Once you've created a right and left side for your pattern and you're happy with the muslin test fitting shell, then you can use this pattern for future style changes.

You will always need to mark which is right and left side, and which side is going to be cut 'right side up'.  It's definitely more effort, but well worth it when your clothes hang better on your body.

In some instances, like a high/low shoulder, sometimes you can get away with a temporary solution of adding a shoulder pad to the low side.  This then will give you a more balanced look, particularly in jacket construction, and offers and easy solution.  Always try to evaluate your options before doing major pattern adjustments.

You will find asymmetrical high/low hip adjustment directions on page 17 of the Dress Kit Instruction Book.  The same basic concept applies to the waist line level of your pants pattern.  If you'd like to see a short video regarding the asymmetrical hip heights, watch this video:

Often times, you will also need to make circumference tune-ups as well since one side can be wider as well as longer.  Then you definitely need to create a right and left side pattern - for both the front and back of your skirt or pants.

Here's and example of pants that are now hanging fairly well on a definite asymmetrical body.  The waist line is substantially tipped forward and the right buttock is definitely higher and fuller than the left.  With persistence, and the creation of right and left side patterns for both front and back, these pants are now hanging smoothly.

Here are the happy customer's comments:

I finally have a great fitting pair of pants, thanks to the Sure-Fit Design system and the incredible assistance I received from Glenda.  In my opinion, she is the star of the system!  My original draft was easy to develop and certainly fit me better than any " straight from the envelope" pattern I've ever tried.  But my "great fit" is entirely the result of endless patience and guidance from Glenda, addressing my severely tilted waist, uneven hips and various other figure issues.  Over the course of about three weeks, we exchanged many emails working through all of the problems.  Her service is exemplary, and I highly encourage anyone with problems fitting pants to give Sure-Fit Designs a try!
KK, Sew Fittingly You, Victor, NY 

Happy Sewing!

Glenda...The Good Stitch

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Pants - Curving the Center Front Seam for the Protruding Tummy

As we age, many women develop a fuller tummy/stomach pouch.  Sometimes this is primarily at CF and immediately underneath the waist.  For other women, this rounding/fullness is not only under the waist, but it also spreads horizontally.

When you have this little belly/pouch, you will often experience fullness in the CF seam right underneath the pouch.

However, sometimes it fits just fine under the pouch, but you'll see drag lines/wrinkles pointing up toward the center of the tummy fullness.  If this occurs, then consider this CF crotch seam refinement.

Rather than maintaining CF as a 'straight line', it can be slightly curved right where the tummy fullness is located.

The result is that:
1.  You wouldn't be able to put in a zipper fly at CF - since you need a straight seam for this application.  But a zipper front might not suit your body shape anyway because of the tummy pouch.

2.  With a curved CF seam, you wouldn't want to sew with a stripe or checked fabric, as you'd end up with a 'chevron' effect at CF which likely wouldn't be that flattering.  Choose solid colors.

This added curvature doesn't need to be a lot to make a substantial difference.  So even though this refinement might sound a little strange, it really does work.

Here's a photo of a happy seamstress, as these are the best fitting pants she's ever worn.  In this photo, her blouse is tucked in to show the excellent pattern fit, but typically she only ever wears her blouses out over top of her pants.  This refinement really does work well!

Happy Fitting & Sewing!

Glenda...The Good Stitch

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You Look Fab

Every now and again, I like to recommend good blogs to you - particularly on different topics that I typically don't discuss.  You Look Fab is one of those blogs.

Even though I have my own ideas of what looks good/best on various figure shapes, I'd rather leave this topic up to experts who specialize in this topics.  You Look Fab helps you to identify what figure shape you are.  There's lots of information if you simply click here.  Here you'll find extensive discussion on the Apple, Pear, Rectangle, Hourglass, and Inverted Triangle body shapes among other great topics to help you choose the best style for your body shape.

And then you'll find great clothing combinations to get you started on coordinating what's best for you.  Here are some examples from You Look Fab:

Remember - half the battle of looking good in your clothes is wearing garments that fit.  That's why we love SFD!  The other half, of course, is choosing styles best suited to your body shape.

Have fun browsing around the You Look Fab blog.

Kindly,
Glenda ...the Good Stitch!

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