Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Summerset, Lisa Laree, Katherine, Debbie, Mary, Mamafitz, Patsijean, Alison, Julie and Becky for talking back to my confession last Friday!

The topic was darts, and in particular I asked if people had experience with the couture technique illustrated above - of padding the dart.

I'm just going to come right out and say it - I've got bad news for the padded dart. :(

While it is true that almost everyone has HEARD of it (8 out of 10 commenters) - many from Claire Schaeffer's couture book - NO ONE reported ever having voluntarily doing this.

In fact, it sounds like almost everyone presses darts to the side in almost every garment.

The exception, called out by 8 people, is that very bulky darts sometimes get "slashed" along the fold line and pressed open. Examples given were darts put in heavy weight fabrics like wool, underlined fabric, and projects like bags that use heavy interfacing.

Patsijean brought up something I have never heard of before - a special treatment for curved darts. Sometimes she clips the center of the curve at an angle. I guess I do that on curved seams, but I never thought to try it on a curved dart - very cool.

If you would like to see more about the padded dart, I've embedded a link to a photo tutorial in the picture above. I've also embedded a link to a funny variation on the "You know you're a redneck if..." series. This one is, "You know you're a couture aficionado if..." and, not surprisingly, darts are mentioned! ;)

Well, I may be over-generalizing from the comments, but I'm getting the feeling that my husband's (yoke-less and single-layer collar) short-sleeved Hawaiian shirts and my cotton-print sundresses are not going to rise up out of the closet and demand padded darts. (Especially not the shirts, as they don't have any darts to begin with!)

So I'll turn my attention back to improving more basic skills, such as using the feed dogs to help ease the sleeve caps of those shirts and the princess seams on those sundresses! ;)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! :)

Image Source: The Dressmaker's Technique Bible, by Lorna Knight