How to put in darts?

Question

My daughter's dress is a little big in the waist and in the neck. Will darts help to make it fit better? How do I put them in?

Answer 1

Surlygur's first paragraph is the way to go unless you feel like sewing elastic tape on the insides of the neck and waist. If you go the way of elastic only do it a short distance down both sides of the shoulder and side seam at the waist.

Answer 2

It might be easier for a simple alteration to first try taking in the side seams, tapering in at the waist and back out to the original seamline above and below. For the neck, you can do a similar tapering seam at the shoulders, tapering down from the armhole. Try the dress on inside out and pinch up the fabric in these areas to see how much you can take in to give a better fit. Darts are more complicated and would require you to take the dress apart to put them in at the waist, if the bodice and skirt are two separate parts of the dress. Similarly, putting in darts at the neck will involve undoing the facing at the neckline and can be complicated, so I would try to avoid it if you are looking for a quick adjustment.

If you want to make long darts down the back of the dress, and you don't have a seam at the waist, put the dress on your daughter INSIDE OUT and measure across her back from the spine to the side seam of the dress on each side. Make a chalk line at the middle of this distance to show where you want the darts to go. The line should extend from the parts of the dress that fit well at the top and bottom--approximately from the shoulder blade area to the upper buttock. Then, you will want to pinch in the middle part to see how deep the dart should be at the waist. Most likely you will not want to take in more than 1" at each dart. Now, draw in the dart, keeping your original lines at the center, in an elongated diamond shape. This will provide you with a stitching line to follow.

To stitch the darts, begin at the widest part of the "diamond" and taper down to the points. This means that for each one you begin at the waist and stitch downward, then take the dress out and begin again at the waist, and stitch upward to the other point.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

If you pinch it in and make a little fold and it reduces the volume without creating a pouf, then darts may indeed be the way to go.

You can just make 2 pinch/folds symmetrically in back at mid-shoulder, and 4 on the waist, halfway between the center and side seam - 2 in front and 2 in back.
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