Darts on a sleeveless dress

[Howdidigetsoold]

I have just bought a new sleeveless linen dress. However it needs some darts as it’s quite baggy around the boob area. Where do I put these?

Surely it depends where the bagginess is?
You need to pin the dress whilst wearing it (inside out) to take out the excess

Bear in mind that darts might make the dress look a bit dated. (Though it depends on the original shape.)

If it's sleeveless could it not be taken in at the sides?

When you say baggy - you don't just mean fashionably voluminous?

I've just done this after looking at a couple of youtube tutorials that I can't locate just now. It worked OK - good enough but not flawless - on an unlined garment, as long as you don't need to take in a lot.
The guidance I read is that if there is already a bust dart, your new dart should go from the lower front of the armhole ending at the shallow end of the original dart. There's no harm in pinning it and seeing how it looks!
The other thing you could consider is taking off a bit of length at the shoulder (if the body is generously long) and therefore making the armhole smaller.
I am hoping to learn more about simple fit alterations but I'm not very dextrous so it really has to be simple. Good luck.

I suspect this might be a bit complicated and maybe not worth it. Some sleeveless dresses would have darts from the armhole towards the busy apex, but this would involve removing and reattaching any armhole binding that might be there, and also would result in a tighter armhole. Many bust darts go from the side seams but you would have to open the seams and redo the armhole bindings. Maybe try putting it on inside out and pinning some darts under the bust towards the waist. A photo might help as there might be other things you could try.

*bust not busy

I will have a Look

It sort of hangs straight over the boobs from the shoulders which is why I thought a dart might help. As it’s linen it’s stiff so looks like cardboard.

Might pin it and see if it looks better or worse - will send photos when I do.

If it's new could you post a photo from the shop website? I still suspect it's meant to look the way it does.

This is with and without the darts - I put the dart very low. I think that would be ok?

Have also attached a photo of the full dress

Gorgeous dress!

It does fit better with your suggested darting position - but, looking at how it fits the model, I'd have been inclined to trim the armhole to give more definition from shoulder to chest. And maybe to pull in the sides.

(But don't listen to me - I'm no seamstress at all!)

No advice but I got a local seamstress to add a few darts to a dress for me and she said they are disappearing as clothes are mass produced by machines and it’s too costly to add them in! That’s why high street clothing is so shapeless and baggy these days.

The dart I put is at the seam under the armhole - I think I will do that. Thank you for all your help!

I agree about fast fashion being a bit shapeless. I am trying to only buy natural fabrics from small manufacturers - hopefully that way they will last longer.

Thank you for all your help and advice!!

That's a beautiful dress and looks great on you now. I'd be very glad if anyone could post recommendations of tutorials for improving the fit of ready-made clothing without major unpicking.

Yes - I think I most clothes now need a little bit of a tweak. Be good to know how to do this. I have had a few bad experiences with made to measure so now avoid it

I have found a few places on Etsy that will do the alterations for you so might try those as well.