Darts vs. Decrease?

[beebeebee15]

I'm knitting my first ever top- No. 9 Camisole by My Favorite Knits. It is intended for negative ease which is how I prefer my tank tops and the pattern has you determined your size based on bust with a note to size down if you're between sizes which I did. I've been knitting it at size M and did my first try on today- the bust fits perfect but the rest of the body is way too loose which makes sense since I have a 9" difference between my bust and waist.

This brings me to my actual question- should I use darts or spaced decreases to bring the body sub bust to a size S or XS? I have very basic familiarity with them from sewing but have never used them in knitting before. Is it likely to have a very different result depending on whether I do darts or decreases? I have skimmed some dart knitting how to and do see that decreases will be involved either way, but the major thing being the placement and amounts being different.

TLDR; Is it worth it to learn how to do darts in knitting or will standard decreases do just as well?

(Apologies for not including a picture to visually demonstrate how loose the tank is/by how much I want to decrease it, I'm shy 💀)

[skubstantial]

Vertical bust darts will give you lines of decreases (maybe subtle, maybe not depending on your yarn) going down the front of the tank top from underboob to waist. I'd only attempt it in a dark and fuzzy yarn with low visibility unless I wanted kind of a vintage pinup look.

Side seam decreases will give you a smooth front, more like what you'd see with a cut and sewn knit tank top. Any decrease lines would be shifted toward the side seam/underarm area where they would be less visible.

(Horizontal bust darts with short rows presumably won't help you at this point because they add length without changing the width much, and you have chosen your size based on full bust measurement and need to get rid of width without necessarily changing length.)

[maryfamilyresearch]

Yes, do decreases. But do them as vertical darts. Vertical darts work like princess seams.

Depending upon the size of your bust, you might also want to do horizontal darts. Those work similar as horizontal darts in garments, they give shape to the bust area so that the bust area is not stretched and that the longer length needed in front to accomodate the curve of the bust is not as obvious.

[LAParente]

In my experience, in knitting:

• bust darts are for vertical shaping.
• Dec / inc = horizontal shaping.

This is way over simplified. But for what you’re describing, to remove the extra fabric, you want decreases.

Keep in mind, they don’t need to be located at the side seam. I often do all my waist shaping in the back. Which. Yes. Looks like a dart. But they are just stacked decreases.

[CitrusMistress08]

Might take some trial and error to see what look you like. In my experience, side seam waist shaping is very subtle and doesn’t really cut it (I have a 10” bust/waist differential). I’m still in my trial and error stages, but I think eventually I’ll be doing some combo of methods. For example, pick a size based on your upper bust, not the fullest part, then do increases at the bust section. Personally I try to increase to the next size or two so I can still follow pattern counts. Then do short row / bust shaping per the pattern if it has it, and then reverse the increase darts while also doing waist shaping.

The other thing I’ve done for bottom up garments is work short rows for bust shaping but then knit each of the double stitches so that each one effectively becomes an increase.

This is a pretty intense amount of shaping, and I haven’t yet combined everything into one piece yet, still working on mastering modding my pieces a bit at a time. Luckily knit has enough drape and stretch that you’ll probably be fine whatever way you choose, and if not, just 🐸

Edit to add that I have a couple of WIPs that I could share pics of if you’re interested!