Fresh off the presses, my article on sewing darts in reverse fashion is in the February/March 2014 issue of SewNews
magazine. This article is based on a blog post I featured here on my
website last year. The article serves as a primer course on darts (types
and purpose) but more importantly, it offers a new way to sew them - in reverse fashion.
As
a sewing instructor I often times look for easier ways to execute
fundamental sewing techniques that first time sewers can do on the first
try. Darts is one of those techniques. For new sewers sewing them from
the usual wide base to the end point is hard. Getting the darts to end
at precisely the prescribed end point on both sides of a garment, is
especially hard. After watching students repeatedly ripping out so many
darts, I was compelled to teach them an easier way. And indeed I did. I
taught them to sew the darts from end point to the base or wide end,
instead. That is the central point of the article - on page 54.
I'm
especially proud of the article for the simple reason that the
technique came about from teaching new sewers to sew. When you've sewn
for so many decades as I have you take doing certain sewing techniques
for granted. For any experienced sewer sewing darts is, frankly, a
no-brainer. One, two, three and they're done. But, I had to tackle them
from a new sewers perspective. Now, I sew all my darts this way. So, in a
way, the students taught the teacher. I hope you read and enjoy my
article.
