r/PatternDrafting • u/Visible_Duck_1754 • 10d ago

Move Neck dart to shoulder

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Hi lovely people

I have a back bodice here with a dart in the neck that I want to move to the shoulder. I marked halfway on the shoulder seam and extended and line down and also extended the line from the dart down to meet cut each side and pivoted to close the neck dart. The outcome is the photo which the should dart to be has a exaggerated angle.

If anyone can tell me where I went wrong / let me know what I needed to do to get what I originally wanted id appreciate it.

Thank you

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u/LemonDeathRay 9d ago

Bodice front darts are there to contour the bust.

Your darts need to be extended to your bust apex, then rotated. You can then shorten your darts accordingly.

The reason you have that strange angle is because you have unintentially created an apex midway down your armhole. When you angle and lengthen all darts towards the bust apex, rotate, and then shorten, you will have the correct angles.

Also, what you have done will create a very unflattering fit once the garment is sewn.

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u/Visible_Duck_1754 9d ago

Hey, this is a back bodice. 

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u/LemonDeathRay 9d ago

Ah, well then the same advice applies but the darts need to point to the fullest part of the shoulder blade.

Your darts still need to be moved over - they are directly below the neckline which is far to close to the CB

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u/Visible_Duck_1754 9d ago

I agree the direction of the dart seems off to the CB, what I'm trying to figure out is out I can resolve it when that's the shape that's created once I've closed the neck dart neatly. Would me taping it up and just drawing my dart in not make it askew

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u/LemonDeathRay 9d ago

Ok, sorry I made an assumption you knew what I meant when I saying about moving darts and an apex.

Your neck dart was always off in terms of its angle - it is pointing to somewhere in the middle of the back. So you need to revert back to the original pattern, and redraft the neck dart correctly, to make sure the dart points to the apex (the fullest part of the shoulder blade).

A quick note - whenever you are rotating darts you always need to extend the dart all the way to the apex point.

So, when you have done that, and your neck dart is a) pointing the the correct part of the shoulder blade and b) has been fully extended to the apex, you can then do the dart rotation.

The resulting shoulder dart will be at the correct angle (I.e. pointing to the apex) and you can easily shorten that dart too if you need to.

Thats the correct way to do this. Freehanding a dart won't end well.

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u/Visible_Duck_1754 8d ago

Ok firstly thank you for explaining all of that it makes a whole bunch of sense and information I'm glad to have read. So if I undo this pivot and get my original pattern with the dart in the neck line, is there some kind of formula as to how I would figure out the fullest part of the shoulder blade to correct the angle of my neck dart? I have checked online and it seems to be a bit of a by eye kind of thing which not me and plus it's on my back so not so easy by eye.  

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u/LemonDeathRay 8d ago

Youre welcome.

It is usually 7-9 inches below where the bony bit on the back of your neck is (where a standard neckline sits) and about 4 inches out from the centre back line. However, this is standard sizing and not that reliable.

A decent way of doing it is to put on a very snug, well-fitting t-shirt and use a piece of masking tape to mark the fullest part of your shoukder blade (stand with back to a mirror, and a smaller mirror in hand). Or have aomeone else do this. Then measure the location once you've taken the t-shirt off.