Tag: shaping

• Dart

  How darts turn flat fabric into a shape that fits a curve - the main types, marking, sewing a point without a pucker, pressing, and moving a dart that sits in the wrong place.

• Gathering

  Drawing up a long edge to fit a shorter one with soft, even fullness - how much fabric to allow, where to put the gathering rows, the cord method for long or heavy edges, and fixes for snapped threads.

• Pleating

  Knife, box and inverted box pleats explained with diagrams - how to work out the fabric you need, mark and press pleats that stay crisp, and fit a pleated skirt at the hip.

• Boning a Bodice

  Choosing boning, building channels, placing bones in a strapless or fitted bodice, cutting and capping them - and why a waist stay, not the boning, is what holds a strapless dress up.