Mirroring Darts Technique
It’s time consuming to keep cutting and tracing a pattern you have drafted, but that’s what a lot of pattern cutter do to get the correct dart shape at the mouth of the dart. If the dart ‘top’ or mouth is not correctly shaped, this can lead to the garment pulling and tightening for a dart that has too little shaping, or the dart will bulge for darts that have too much fabric at the mouth shaping.
It is important that the upper edge of the dart is in line with the fabric on the side it is folded to.
I have worked with people that fold their darts both ways, for example towards side seams or towards center front or center back. I always fold my darts towards center front or center back.
Here is my method for planning the correct shape at the dart mouth without having to cut out the paper and fold the dart.
- Extend a mirror line up from the dart leg on the side you want to fold to – this line is simply a continuation of the dart ‘leg’ line.
- Use this line to mirror the curve or angle of the line of the pattern in the direction the dart is to be folded, the blue line in this example is a mirror of the shoulder line to the left.
- Draw a center line up the middle of the dart until it touches the mirrored line.
- Now draw in the rest of the dart shape at the mouth by connecting the intersection of the mirror line to the right dart leg.
This technique can be used on any dart.
Want to know more about darts? I have a booklet just on dart theory!
Hope this saves your precious time!
Nicola
