This invention relates to a template to be temporarily fastened to a piece of yard goods and used as a guide while sewing a dart in accordance with a dress pattern or the like. The invention also contemplates the method of sewing the dart which includes the steps of folding the pattern back along the bisector of the dart imprinted thereon, laying the template atop the goods thus exposed along the fold line of the pattern to form the missing half of the dart, removing the pattern, folding the goods back under the template so that the fold line coincides with the bisector of the dart, and stitching the double thickness of material together using the margin of the template remote from the fold line as a guide.