Are bust darts required on blouses for S bust dolls?

I've been practicing sewing doll blouses for my DD lately and I only have patterns made for 'standard size', noted as M bust (and up to L bust with a slightly different cut option).

I've noticed that the standard bust darts create a shaping in the chest that is a bit too pronounced for my doll that has S bust, she just doesn't really fill it out at all. It's very noticeably puffed in the chest when worn and you can easily press the puff down and make it concave with your finger.

In this case, would a bust dart be neccessary at all, or would a smaller dart fix it? I know bust darts are there to create the neccessary 3D shaping to accomodate the roundness of busts, but S bust is pretty small, so I'm not sure if it really needs the shaping to lay flat over the chest.

 

Normally I'd just trial and error it myself, but I'm a very slow sewer and after two no-go hand sewn blouses I want to be sure of my next steps before committing several hours again 😅

I don't have any personal experience with this, but I'd look up how to do a small bust adjustment on darted bodices. In human-sized sewing, when this happens it can often be a result of a sewing cup mismatch. In this case, it's your doll's high bust to full bust ratio being smaller than what's patterned

On whether it's truly necessary or not, it depends on what kind of fit you're aiming for. I personally think doing bust adjustments are most impactful for closely fitted formal clothing (if by blouses you mean like button ups, it's also very useful on those,) but its not that important if you're making something casual like a t shirt.

You can "trial and error" faster with making a mock-up, just sew the side and shoulder seams fast and try how it looks on your doll. Then if you are happy with it you can properly sew the whole blouse. You can also use cheaper fabric for the mock-up. This is a technique used a lot in also human sized sewing, and I do it also to test patterns in doll size. Just remember if you use a cheaper fabric that fabric weight and drape are a lot more important in doll size. (Not that they aren't important in human size)