Down and Dirty Darts

Darts can be difficult little things to sew. I usually do not have too much trouble with the simple triangles but my New Look shirt has some more complicated waist darts. My usual method for transferring dart markings to the wrong side of my fabric is by using tracing paper and a wheel. This proved to be not the most effective method this time.

This time I knew that matching up the lines could be difficult since it was in the middle of the shirt. I (thought I) got smart and decided to put the markings on both sides. This sounds great but it wasn't. Of course with all the moving of the fabric while placing the tracing paper it didn't get put back exactly in the same place and the lines didn't exactly line up. I also couldn't see where to stitch. What to do? What to do?
Here was my down and dirty solution. This is by no means the best way to mark darts but it worked for me. I should have thread traced the outline of the dart but for this muslin I did not want to take the time. I will thread trace on the shirts with the nice fabric.

First I basted the traced dart on my sewing machine. I still had my traced lines to follow. I only basted one side of the dart because the (cheap) fabric was puckering.
Then I matched the basted side of the dart with the traced side and pinned.

Last, I stitched the dart. Since it was thread basted I could clearly see the stitching line and could easily stitch the dart.
Voila! A nice dart. Not the best method but the outcome worked for me.

Thanks so much for stopping by and seeing how I make darts in a pinch. Have a great day!

Until next time...