I love stripes, but for a dress it often feels like it is too much for me, especially when they are just straight. That’s why I dared to try an experiment.
Dart rotation is the magic word and now I want to show you how it works!
All you need is a sewing pattern for a dress with bust and waist darts in the upper front. It works optimal if the neckline is quite deep and runs straight at least in the lower center front.
If you have a pattern where the seam allowance is already included, please cut it off first.
If your used upper front pattern piece is cut “on fold”, please remember that there is no seam allowance at the center front that has to be removed.
In just a few steps to a new look:
We work with only one half of the upper front.
1. Draw two lines throught the middle of the darts and define the bust point. The bust point is usually between 1.5 – 2 cm (approx. 0,59 – 0,79 inch) away from the tips of the darts, so that one can roughly say that the bust point is where the drawn lines meet.
2. Cut along these two lines until just before the bust point and close the bust dart first. To do this, move the part of the pattern that is only connected at the bust point in the direction of the arrow until the two dart legs of the bust dart lie on top of each other. Fix it there with an adhesive strip.
3. Now draw another line, this time from the bust point to exactly the upper tip (middle) of the front.
4. Cut along this line – again until just before the bust point – and close the waist dart using the direction of the arrow (until the two dart legs are on top of each other), so that a new dart opens at the top (in the middle of the neckline) Fix the now closed waist dart with an adhesive strip.
5. Now you’re almost done. Fill the newly created dart with paper, adjust the lines where the bust and waist darts were before and add your seam allowance.
Important: With this variant, the upper front is made of 2 pieces, because we want a seam at the center front, so please add seam allowance here.
DONE! The dart rotation is completed and the new pattern piece for the upper front is ready! Wasn’t so hard, was it?
Addition:
To get the desired effect, it is important to pay attention to the stripes of the fabric when cutting. In the following photo I have tried to sketch roughly how the stripes should run – which is: parallel to the straight lower part of the front neckline.
And here some more photos of my dart – rotation – experiment dress:
And if this went too fast for you or you had comprehension problems anywhere, feel free to send me an email, I love to help the best I can.
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