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Early 1940's—Ladies' Garment Cutting and Making
by F. R. Morris

Appendix

LADIES' GARMENT CUTTING AND MAKING has now been before the tailoring trade for over twelve years and, while reports from readers have always been of the highest praise, it is felt that with the changing of style in cutting to a more accentuated fit and the changing of women's figures through the perfecting of foundation garments, uplift brassieres, and the like, the system perhaps needs some modification in practice though not in general principles.

While the system as laid down throughout this work is adaptable to any demands made on it, to save unnecessary fitting adjustments it has been decided to describe the basis systems in a revised form suitable to the modern style of cutting and the modern figure. The necessary adjustments are from the point of view of style only; the basic principles of the original system are retained.

The tendency of modern styling is to accentuate the width of shoulders at back and front of the scye, what is known in the trade as "drape," and whilst for a short period, in the "New Look" days, we had styling that narrowed the shoulders at front and back in order to accentuate the bust, the normal trend of styling is for width through the shoulders, tapering to a narrow waist.

To the users of the original system, this change of styling would present no difficulties; it would involve only the addition of width in the parts where required, and this would mean an easing out of the constructional points throughout the draft. For example, we need a ½-inch wider back and forepart over the bust. The addition of the extra inch in the locations, where required, would involve adjustments in the hip overlap and the waist suppression factors. The neckpoint forward from the front of the scye would remain constant in its present position, the extra ½ inch being spread over the whole across the bust width and necessitating an increased bust dart to achieve the increased bust contour shape. Below the bust, there would not be any change in the fitting of the waist and hip sections, unless it is desired to accentuate the waist still further, as is customary in styling these days. The pattern would need the extra width added through the bust to be suppressed at the hip level.

The extra width through the back is located at the sides and calls for increased waist suppression, but not of hip suppression as basically the blade points at point of hip prominences still bear the same relationship to each other as in the original draft system.

The shoulder slope remains unchanged, allowing for a small pad on the point. For thicker pads it is an elementary procedure to raise the height of shoulder slope by adjustment of the point located on the line squared up from the centre of the scye.

Figure 362Basis Draft for Short Jacket (Fig. 362)

The following is a description of changes and revision necessary to the basis draft for short jackets in order to eliminate unnecessary adjustments at fitting time for the achievement of the modern style outline.

It must be understood that the changes made are within the framework of the basis system as described previously and may be incorporated in the block pattern without recourse to the present system draft, if so desired.

The trend of style to-day is for a semi-draped jacket; tomorrow we may again be back to form-fitting style throughout the shoulders, but to-day semi-drape and drape are the current fashions.

It does not present many difficulties to add width in the pattern where required, but for those cutters who prefer the width to be incorporated in a systematic draft, then the following will be of value.

It has been decided, for example, to add an extra 1 inch across back and extra 1 inch across chest, i.e. ½ inch on the ½ x back measure and ½ inch on the ½ x chest measure. These additions will provide for a moderately draped front and back scye.

The measurements for the draft will read as follows—

To draft—

Commence by drawing line X to X, the full length of the jacket.

The width of scye from 6 to 12 may also be found as an eighth of the bust measure plus ¼ inch.

This is a useful variation from the system when a draft is being made on direct measure methods, using the across-back measure and across-bust measure plus the width of scye measurement as indicated.

We need at the hips, half hip measurement plus 1¼ inches for ease and seams, ¾ inch and ½ inch for two sideseams = 21¼ inches, which is ¼ inch more than 3 to 22.

We then need to suppress the front panel seams ½ inch and the back panel seams ¼ inch = ¾ inch.

This makes a total of 1 inch which must be added at the sideseams to compensate.

This equals half the difference between bust and hip measurements less 1 inch as stated.

To look at this from another angle—

Therefore, on this draft, the hips overlap always equals half the difference between bust and hip measurements less 1 inch providing that ¾ inch is also reduced at front and back panel seams.

FORMULA

The question of waist suppression now is considered. We have a standard ¾ inch taken from the sideseams, plus 1 inch from the front panel seams, plus ½ inch for seams, which makes a total of 2¼ inches to be added to the tight waist measure of 28 inches.

For ease on the draft, 1½ inches may be allowed which is sufficient these days.

Therefore the total allowances on top of the waist measurement are as follows—

The formula then becomes—

The draft is constructed to fit a figure of 5 feet in height.

The across-chest width is now a style factor rather than a fitting factor in modern cutting and can vary from half scale, less ¼ inch to half scale less 1 inch, depending on the amount of drape required in the jacket.

It is becoming increasingly apparent in modern pattern construction that the overall measurement of the draft is of no comparison to the size of the figure. The style factor plays an increasing part in the allowances over the bust measure, and, whereas in the past the allowances for ease, etc. had some relationship to the size of the bust, modern styling tends to ignore this and concentrate on the sense of style balance and, by predetermination, decide the style factor required in the draft in accordance with the alternate style objective.

For example, a pattern cutter may decide to cut a full draped jacket. He decides on a certain width of back and then adds to it a standard width of scye which his experience tells him is necessary and then adds his across-bust width to the amount decided upon. To further this example, take a 34 bust draft. He will decide to use a 7½ inch half back width plus a ¼-inch seam; this will register 7¾ inches. Add to this amount the normal scye width of 4½ inches, and then he decides the draped front scye will carry an 8¼-inch across-bust width. The overall total of these allowances will be 7¾ inches + 4½ inches + 8¼ inches = 20½ inches or 3½ inches over the bust size. Going back to our original close-fitting basis draft, this would indicate a jacket large enough to fit a 37 bust figure. On the 34 bust figure, however, the jacket will carry a well-draped back and front scye and with the waist accentuated by the normal suppressions, will give a style outline of wide shoulders and narrow waist and hips.

So to be au fait with style in relation to pattern cutting is an important point. There is so much that can be disregarded in pattern systems in order to gain style and it is necessary to remember that a system is only the foundation of cutting, the scaffolding to which style is added.

In the following diagram this subject is discussed in a practical way and shows the building up of a draft for pre-determined measurements.

Figure 363The Style Factor (Fig. 363)

The first consideration is the style of jacket we are going to draft. If a draped scye jacket is required, we must consider the quantity of drape, whether semi- or full drape. For this example, we will decide on a full drape.

The widths to be considered are as follows—

1. The back width.

2. The scye width.

3. The across-chest or bust width.

Normal widths for the above are, 6½ inches for the half back, 4½ inches for the scye, and 7¾ inches for the across-chest or bust.

Measures—

To draft—

The draft is now completed for the drape style basis pattern.

Figure 364Draft by the Chest Measure (Fig. 364)

This draft will be of interest to readers as it shows an approach to pattern construction that may be new to some students of cutting.

The importance of the chest measure, taken above the bust, has not been fully exploited in cutting systems, and yet the measure, taken in conjunction with the bust measure, provides the answer to the degree of bust prominence.

When measuring a figure, the chest measure registered above the bust line is normally 2 inches less than the bust measure, and it can be said that the two measures are identical up to the front of the scye. This fact indicates that the extra 2 inches is made up by the prominence of the bust. In short, the across-chest measure should be 2 inches less than the across-bust measure.

It is possible after this has been established to draft a pattern by the chest measure as a basis of construction and to add at the bust level the difference between chest and bust measurements; on the draft this would be half the differences between bust and chest.

In this way, we take the framework of the figure as a basis for pattern construction and treat the bust as a local prominence that must be allowed for, as an addition within the framework of constructional lines based upon the chest measure.

Measures as follows—

The scale taken from the half-chest measure is in accordance with the principle of this draft, i.e. a system based upon the chart measure.

To draft—

The principle underlying this draft is that while the chest, waist, and hip measurements may remain constant, the bust measurement may be variable and not in proportionate ratio to the other measurements.

For example, the bust measure may be either less or more than the proportionate 2 inch variation with the chest and the increased or decreased size will always be locally and the method of this draft is to apply the variation where actually required.

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