1957 Pierre Balmain suit, red wool knit with applied braid 03

Darts are folds (tucks coming to a point) sewn into

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

to take in ease and provide shape to a

garment Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials ...

, especially for a woman's bust. They are used frequently in all sorts of

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

to tailor the garment to the wearer's shape, or to make an innovative shape in the garment. Fabric may be thought of as flat, and a dart has the effect of removing a wedge shaped piece and pulling the edges of that wedge together to create a shallow

cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

. This effect can be seen quite easily with a paper pattern by pulling together the edges of a dart intake as it would be sewn. Since fabric is generally more flexible than paper the fabric will shift around the

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe * Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe *Apex ...

of the cone and form a softer, but still curved, shape. In a garment a dart ends in a point at a full area of the body. A dart in a flat pattern has two important properties: its point, the point in the pattern at which the dart aims or converges, and the intake, or the amount of fabric taken in or removed. Since the dart can extend toward any edge of the pattern without affecting fit, the length of the dart intake at the edge of the fabric is not a good measure of dart intake. Rather, the angle subtracted from the pattern by the dart is what determines the dart's intake.

Manipulating darts in flat patterns

As long as the focal point of a dart and its intake remain the same, a dart can be rotated around its focal point, or stylized in one of several ways without affecting the fit of the garment.

Slash-and-spread dart rotation

An easy way to rotate a dart on a flat pattern is to slice a straight line from the dart point to another edge of the pattern (the slash). The two pieces thus created can then be pivoted (spread) at the dart point to shift the dart to the position of the slash.

Pin and pivot dart rotation

The pin and pivot dart rotation technique requires tracing a new pattern from the original. First, the pattern with the dart to be rotated is set on top of another piece of paper on which the new pattern will be traced. A pin is pressed into the dart point to hold that point in place. Then one leg of the original dart and an arbitrary part of the original pattern is traced onto the paper. This tracing starts from the one dart leg and continues from there to the new point where the dart will reach the outside of the pattern piece. The pattern is then rotated around the pinned dart point until the other dart leg lines up with the traced dart leg. Tracing can then continue from the same spot on the original pattern. The pattern is then removed and the new dart legs drawn between the dart point (marked by the pin hole) and the gap in the pattern created during rotation.

Dart equivalents

Pleats A pleat (plait in older English) is a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference. Pleats are cat ...

gathers Gathers is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hank Gathers (1967–1990), American basketball player * James Gathers (1930–2002), American sprinter * Rico Gathers (born 1994), American basketball player See also * Mathers ...

in the fabric can be used for the same purpose as a normal stitched dart. These are called dart equivalents. Darts can also be worked into

style line A style line is a seam in a garment made primarily for the purpose of its visual effect, rather than for the purpose of shaping of structuring the garment. By contrast, a dart or pleat A pleat (plait in older English) is a type of fold formed ...

Named dart styles

Two kinds of darts are common in blouses for women: * Vertical darts—These are sewn from the bottom of the

blouse A blouse (blau̇s, 'blau̇z, ) is a loose-fitting upper garment that was worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women, and children.The Concise Oxford English Dictionary It is typically gathered at the waist or hips (by tight hem, pleats, parter ...

to a point generally around the bustline. This type of dart may be found in the front, rarely in the back of a garment and are used by the garment maker to pull in the bottom of the blouse towards the wearer's

waist The waist is the part of the abdomen between the rib cage and hips. On people with slim bodies, the waist is the narrowest part of the torso. ''Waistline'' refers to the horizontal line where the waist is narrowest, or to the general appearan ...

. ** Fisheye darts * Bust darts—These are short triangle folds that provide space for

breasts The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...

such that the fabric under the breasts isn't hanging, rather is fitting closer to the wearer. There are several subtypes of bust line dart: **Center **Waistline **French **Side seam **Armhole **Neckline **Shoulder **T-dart **Inverted T-dart In the early 1950s, the New York City firm of Evan-Picone pioneered the use of darts in the

pockets A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag o ...

of women's clothing. The darts help keep the pocket open and thus more easily accessed, reducing the chance of rips or tears.Hays, Constance. "Joseph Picone, 83, a Founder of Line of Women's Clothing." ''New York Times.'' June 26, 2001.

References

{{Clothing Parts of clothing Seams