Wednesday 16 November 2011

Anyone for Darts ?

I had a special request a few days ago from a young man down in Worcester.  Actually, although he's young and lives in Worcester he's also my partners younger brother.  I was asked to create a championship sized dartboard out of fabric, and as I love a challenge I said yes.  I must have been mad or drunk.

So, here is the start of it.  An 18" in diameter circle of black fabric stitched onto a backing fabric with warm and natural wadding behind for stability. 

The wedges are actually a soft beige colour.....more in the shade of what they are on a real dartboard and I need to place 10 of these wedges around the circle to create the illusion that there are 10 black ones in between. 

Here I've got all 10 beige wedges positioned and pinned.  Then I've lifted the outer section of the wedge to place the red inner circle for the triple points.  I've used a double sided adhesive tape for that and will stitch it down permanently later. 

Once that inner red circle was complete, I did the same for the outer circle for the doubles points.   See what I mean when I said I must have been mad. 


A little further along and the red rings are in place, the beige wedges are stitched down, the green pieces are now being overlaid on alternate wedges and I have one very gummed up needle in my machine.  This is the last time I use double sided adhesive tape on fabric if I plan to stitch as well. 

The next step will be to finish the green sections and then start the numbering.


It's the hand stitching of the numbers around the outside of the circle that has really been doing my head in today.  So I decided to put the dartboard to bed for awhile and do something else. 

I need to find a narrow silver cord that looks like thin wire.  When I've accomplished that then I can start hand couching it on around the circles as well as between each wedge.  More pictures to come later.