bar tack

{{Short description|Stitches used to reinforce areas of a garment}}

File:Bartacks (cropped).jpg opening.]]

In sewing, bar tack, also written bar-tack or bartack, refers to a series of stitches used to reinforce areas of a garment that may be subject to stress or additional wear.{{cite book|last1=Geer|first1=Sarah|last2=Shirley|first2=Lindsey|date=December 2011|title=Clothing and Textiles: Sewing Glossary|url=http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1085&context=extension_curall|format=PDF|publisher=Utah State University Cooperative Extension|access-date=25 January 2016|via=Utah State University Digital Commons}} {{open access}} Typical areas for bar tack stitches include pocket openings, buttonholes, belt loops, the bottom of a fly opening,{{cite book|last1=St. Germaine|first1=Tasia|title=The Sewtionary: An A to Z Guide to 101 Sewing Techniques and Definitions|date=2014|publisher=KP Craft|location=Cincinnati, Ohio|isbn=978-1-4402-3832-1|page=16}} tucks, pleats and the corners of collars.{{cite book|title=The Dressmaker|date=1916|publisher=Butterick Publishing Company|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/dressmaker01butt/page/22 22]|edition=2nd|url=https://archive.org/details/dressmaker01butt|access-date=25 January 2016|via=Internet Archive}} {{open access}} Bar tacks may be sewn by hand, using whip stitches, or by machine, using zigzag stitches. The process for sewing a bar tack is essentially to sew several long, narrowly-spaced stitches along the line of the bar that will be formed, followed by short stitches made perpendicular to the long stitches, through the fabric and over the bar.{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Clara M.|last2=Gorham|first2=Ethel R.|last3=Keever|first3=Aura I.|title=Clothing Construction|date=1934|publisher=Athenaeum Press|location=Boston|pages=53–54|hdl=2027/coo.31924003596800?urlappend=%3Bseq=73 |edition=Revised|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924003596800?urlappend=%3Bseq=73|access-date=26 January 2016|via=HathiTrust}} {{open access}} The bar commonly varies between {{convert|1/16|to|1/8|in}} in width and {{convert|1/4|to|3/8|in}} in length. In some garments, such as jeans, the bar tack will be sewn in a contrasting color.

Similar stitches to the bar tack include the arrowhead tack and crow's foot tack.{{cite book|last1=Rocke|first1=Helen|title=Extension Circular EC55-405: Arrowhead and Bar Tack|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4282&context=extensionhist|format=PDF|via=University of Nebraska-Lincoln Digital Commons|publisher=University of Nebraska College of Agriculture Extension Service|access-date=25 January 2016|date=1955}} {{open access}}