Moving a chest clamp

One of the small modifications you may encounter on a top, blouse, or pinafore dress is to move the bust dart for a perfect, tailored fit. The tip of the dart should normally be opposite the tip of your breast. If this is not the case, the garment will be less becoming.

If the start of your dart (from the side of the garment) seems to be in place, at the same height as the side of your chest, but the tip of the dart is too high/too low compared to the tip of your breast, you will need to draw a vertical line as in the diagram, measure from your canvas how many cm to move the tip of the dart and report the new position. Then you retrace the dart from the existing side marks.

If the start of your dart is too high or too low in relation to the position of your chest, in addition to moving the tip you will shift the dart entirely. Here again determine on your canvas by how many cm the movement should be, then transfer this measurement to draw a new dart with lines perfectly parallel to the old dart.

In this case, the side line of your pattern is modified by the new tracing. When you transfer your new tracing, redraw this side seam line.

Happy sewing!