Which steps to build effectively a dart?

Hello,

I managed somehow to draw a fist dart on a waist of my first pattern (a skirt). But it was bit of a struggle and I am sure there is a faster, more precise way than how I did.

Let’s presume I have a waist line, I will just call its extreme points A and B. Somewhere on this line, between A and B, I have a point C (it doesn’t matter where exactly so far). Lets admit for this example, that my dart should be 3 cm wide and 12 cm long.

What is the best way to proceed…

  1. if I want to have the middle of my dart aligned with C?

and

  1. more tricky - at least to me!– if I want that the left “wing” (sorry, I guess this is not the perfect term for it, but English is not my mother tongue) to be on C, or said in other words, C is not marking the middle of the dart, but one of its side (n this example left).

I found some tutorial about rotating a dart, but it confused me a bit and I think I need to start with more basic help until I get the level for this next chapter :wink:

Thanks in advance for your help. Noukita

Hi @Noukita,

It’s really very easy.

Measure 1.5cm either side of C using the Point at Distance tool. Then from C, measure 12cm down at 270 degrees using the Point at Angle and Distance tool. I changed the line to a dotted line so that it wasn’t as visible. Draw in your ‘Wing’ lines.

image

You could use the special dart tool, True Darts, under the Operations section to ‘true’ the dart if you wish:

image

The process is the same except that you will measure 3cm to the right of C, divide the distance in half and draw your dotted line down from the centre of the dart:

image

Thanks a lot, Grace.

Your explanation is very clear and well understood :slight_smile:

To start, I will just draw it manually like you say. I tried the “true dart tool” and also looked at the help-video about this tool.

But that confused me a lot because the seam line on each side of the dart automatically goes up. I guess that is what is called in English “to true” the dart, right? The way I learned it is that the dart gets sorts of a “hut” on it (so that no fabric is missing when you fold the dart) but the seam line itself stays in place.

But maybe it is only a different way of doing things leading to the same final result…

Anyway, I think I can work further with that help, thanks again!

Noukita

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