Today fro your reading pleasure, I have another Adventures in Sewing article from McCall's Style News from September 1947!
This one is all about making pattern markings on your fabric, and the many different ways of doing it. I showed this article once before, but I think it's valid to what I wanted to mention about dart making.
Although the illustration has a creepy girl with her head backwards on her body, the article has some great ideas. Here's a blow up of the text:
Have you ever tried chalking your markings before? I have a little Dritz chalk wheel that I find indispensable on dark fabric.
This is great, but for making darts, I use pins as that article suggested. First I mark the two outer legs of the darts with pins, and then I stick a pin through the bottom so it sticks out of the top of my pattern piece at the point of the dart.
Remove the pattern paper and you have this:
I then flip it over so it looks like this:
And then fold it so that the pins are the outside edge:
And pin it, with the pins facing the wide end of the dart, so that I can sew, tapering to a point for a smoother dart.
What's your favorite method of marking your fabric?
Update: Here's a really great video from Threads on making a very nice looking dart: http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/9496/mark-a-dart-and-learn-a-no-tie-finish
