Okay, this one is for the Emerald Witch... you asked for it!

[WSmac]

SEWING 101 (hey! that's the road I live near )

When making skirts, women create darts all around to accommodate their curves.

What do you recommend men do?
If we do not have hurvy cips...err... curby pips... uh I mean... curvy hips,
are darts still a necessity?

I know if I make a waistband with elastic, I probably don't need to worry what my hips look like.

But, I know how many folks here want us to look our best when out-and-about in a skirt, and I don't care for elastic waistbands all the time.

I like a belt, sometimes, and I like something that just fits and stays in place without a belt or elastic.

What say ye dear Witch of the Emerald city?

[kiltair]

Hi,

If you're making a skirt with an elastic waistband, then darts are not necessary. If the skirt is closer-fitting, then darts are still necessary, but they don't need to be as deep and long as for a women.
Measure your hipsize and your waistsize, then subtract. This is the amount of material that must be 'lost' somewhere. If your skirts is composed of 4 or more panels, then that amount is usually lost in the side seams; if the skirt has less panels, then darts are needed..

Jan

[crfriend]

When making skirts, women create darts all around to accommodate their curves.

Just because guys aren't quite as "three-dimensional" as the ladies are doesn't mean we're completely two-dimensional!. So, yes, depending on what sort of garment you're creating, darts and whatnot may well be required to make it fit well and look good.

I know if I make a waistband with elastic, I probably don't need to worry what my hips look like.

I agree with Jan on this one, typical elasticised waists don't need darts (in fact they need that extra room to get 'em over your hips and backside!) because of the construction. However, if you're going with a solid waistband (i.e. no stretch) then darts (or some other way to take in the extra fabric) will be required. This is even true with tr*users -- if you can find a pair of well-tailored ones; good ones will have a taper between the hip-line and the waist (yes, I'm talking about guys' tr*users here).

I like a belt, sometimes, and I like something that just fits and stays in place without a belt or elastic.

That's where solid waistbands come in, whether the skirt will be "held up" by a belt or will stay in place on its own -- and this is when one needs to be aware that guys have curves too.

[AMM]

A few further observations:

1. Another alternative to darts is pleating. This doesn't necessarily mean the extreme pleating you see in traditional kilts. My trousers are identified as "pleated front", which means that there are about 4 pleats on the front, each about 1 cm deep. This makes it looser around front without making it look like I have hips on the front. All the skirts I make have some of this (typically a 56" circumference at the top put into a 46" waistband for a gored skirt, more in a tiered skirt.)

2. Adjusting the size of the darts/pleats/gathering to men's anatomy mostly matters if you're making a straight skirt, or at least one that is close-fitting around the hips. (This is popular these days for women, but I don't happen to like the look.) I prefer loose/full skirts, so my darts/gore profiles/pleats/gathering are even more extreme than most women's skirts have.

3. Most of my experience is with fabrics that have essentially no stretch. If you go for stretch fabrics, there are other possibilities. For instance, you can go with a simple tube of fabric the size of your waist. (Warning: I haven't tried this.)

4. BTW, my understanding is that the "panels" that kiltair speaks of are called "gores" in the trade (no relation to a recent presidential candidate )

-- AMM

[Emerald Witch]

When making skirts... create darts all around ...to accommodate ... curves.

What say ye dear Witch of the Emerald city?

I say you've answered your own question, baby!

Everyone's got body bumps. It's just a question of where, and how big. Find yours, and accommodate. That's all there is to it!

[SkirtDude]

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[AMM]

I have a Liz Claibourn "A-line" skirt that I really like the fit and feel of, probably partly because it doesn't have all the bulk around the waist. ... One of these days I'm going to make myself a similar skirt in either a solid or a more "manly" print.

Basically, you're talking about a gored skirt. They're not hard to make, with a little geometry.

The idea is to start with cloth cut into wedges with the top cut off rather than straight strips. You sew the sides together, with the narrow end of the wedges going into the waistband and the wider turned over to make a hem. Choose the number and dimensions of the wedges to give you the shape you want. If the sides of the wedges are straight, you end up with a truncated cone (think lampshade), a.k.a. an A-line skirt. If the sides are bowed out, you get a bell shape (well, cowbell.) Etc.

I also find that I need to make the skirt shorter in the front than the back -- the Utilikilt "beer gut correction." I prefer to do that at the waist, since it's my belt line that's not level, not the floor .

-- AMM

[trainman]

I must be one of the weird men out there. I have never found a problem with skirts, but at the same time I wear them on my hips to begin with (my gut is far too big to wear on my waist at the best of times). I usually find that most skirts sit on my hips properly, and then drape with ease.

The only Issue I could see with going for a stretchy material and simply making it the size of the waist, would be what it could show. And not just a bulge in the front. This can work well on a woman who has fantastic hips and no blemishes, but ona man it could look just plain hideous! Bony hips just would look way out of place under such a garment.

[Since1982]

I like to play darts...

I also like to sew my own skirts. Since mine are basically straight and I have no curvy hips, I guess my darts will remain stuck in the dart board.

[SkirtDude]

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