I am SD and this is what our shirt lookedlike in the beginning and we've been in the process of measuring and taking inthe side seams with a sewing machine.
Which by the way took about five minutes.
And now it looks like this BUT no no no no we are not done yet! We're gonnathrow some darts in the back of this bad boy.
Now darts are incredible because they do a really good job of slimming the backof your shirt.
Whereas slimming your shirt by just taking in the side seams it endsup leaving like this stupid poofy looking patch of fabric in the back! Let'sstart with some sewing pins, a measuring tape, and an iron.
We are starting withour shirt right side in instead of inside out because for this step we wantto make sure that we like the measurements of these darts first.
Butyes we're gonna be putting the darts on the inside of the shirt not the outside.
Now, measure your shirt and see how far it is from shoulder to shoulder.
Oractually more specifically like armpit seam to armpit seam.
Now mine looks likeit's about 24 inches or so.
So what I'm actually gonna do is I'm gonna start mydarts seven inches from each of these sides.
And why seven inches you might ask?Well for me personally I found that having my darts start seven inches fromthat seam is what ends up giving me the best result.
But your results mightcompletely vary you might end up doing six inches you might end up doing let'ssay nine inches.
So seven inches isn't necessarily a hard and fast rule.
NowI've got these two pins at the top of my shirt here.
These are gonna be a, I'mgonna use these as placeholders.
And these are gonna be the top of my dart.
And then I'm gonna take my measuring tape and I'm actually gonna use it tomake a line all the way down my shirt to make sure that this line is straight.
Andright down there BOOP! Okay so we've got our placeholder pins in here in allfour corners there.
And what you can do to make sure that they're actually thesame length and the right length, what you can do is you could take yourmeasuring tape and you can measure them.
Mine are both 18 inches long.
So that wayyou know if one comes out at 18 inches and the other one comes out of like 19inches you're not gonna be walking around like Quasimodo.
And I'm actuallygonna turn these placeholder pins so that they're actually going verticallywith my shirt.
I'll explain why.
Now these placeholder pins what we're gonna do iswe're gonna take both of them, and we're gonna pinch themand run them right between our fingers.
And you're gonna take it like that andyou're gonna pull it and you're gonna turn it on its side so that you've got anice edge like that.
It doesn't need to be ironed or anything but you want tomake sure that you pinch and pull so that you get at least like a decentedge.
A decent as just like, just like that.
Now we won our dart to be wider atthe bottom of our shirt, and kind of start to taper off as it gets to the topso on my shirt we're gonna be putting about five pins in here not includingthese two placeholder pins.
Now not including my placeholder pindown here these two pins at the bottom? They're both going to be a half an inch, this pin right here this is actually this is the middle of my dart here.
Butthis is still gonna be a half an inch.
And these next two pins up here? Theseare a quarter of an inch.
This is where my taper is gonna startand then my top placeholder pin? That's all the way at the top here.
So whatwe're gonna end up doing is we're really just gonna start to just make itdisappear just make it go away right when we get to the top, just ease it out.
Try it on and just like the measuring video just kind of see how you feelabout it.
If it's too tight in your midsection or too loose then just kindof play around with the measurements of these pins and do what you feel iscomfortable.
This is what's gonna be comfortable for me in this shirt, butyour mileage is going to completely vary! So these are not hard and fast rules byany means.
Oh and don't be shocked! This will most likely be the very first timethat you felt your shirt touching your skin in the front and in the back.
It'sgonna be like a little bit uncomfortable because you're used to the bagginessof a dress shirt.
I know I was so as a heads up that's gonna happen.
Take it off, flip it inside out, and put your placeholder darts back in.
Pinch thatline that we did before like we've made before, and then I'll yearn it all down.
Don't worry this part it's like super quick once you get it all down.
You'llactually you'll end up flying through this.
When you are done you want to askyourself one question and one question only, do your darts look exactly likemine do? Yeah? Okay good then you're good.
But if they don't you want to make surethat they look exactly like this because we're doing the exact same thing like wedid in the measuring video, we're setting ourselves up for success later on.
Oursewing machine is gonna be right here, it's gonna go right over the edge.
Sothese pins are all placed perfectly so we can just yank them all out as we goalong.
Normally what you would do is you would set yourself up for success on oneside, but on the other side, this is the back side of my shirt here these pinsare facing up.
These pins would also be facing up but then we'd have our fabricjust kind of all bunched up underneath our machine.
Nuh uh, we get to skip all of thatdrama! We're just gonna pull them out, boom good! And nowit is time to sew! We're just putting a normal straight stitch in this guy justlike we did in the side seams with the same settings.
Back stitch the bottom ofyour dart and then kind of kind of go slow at first If you need too.
If you gotto kind of ease yourself into it.
I've been doing this for a number of yearsnow and I still kind of take my time on darts so if you're going slow? Don't worryit's all good.
Once you get just past that middle pane in your dart where it'sgonna start to taper, ease your way out and kind of be mindful of thatplaceholder pin because you want your dart to pretty much be gone by the timeyou get up there.
And as you start to kind of approach that placeholder pinyour dart? You're gonna be sewing right on the edge of your garment.
And thenwhen you back stitch up here? Back stitch like twice maybe three times because toomany back stitches? It's gonna end up making it look really sloppy you'regonna have a kind of a dimple in the back of it.
And you don't you don't wantthat.
What some people do was they'll actually stop, they'll stop and they'llhand tie their darts at the top up here.
But I don't I don't like to do that.
Andthat is all there is to it folks we took this generic shirt from Target and madeit look fantastic! These videos total were what like, 17 minutes? Which is aboutlike how long this whole project will take you.
I will see you on the otherside SD out, deuces!.
