Garment cutting in the twentieth century

by Günther F. Hertzer

Coat and Vest Bases and the Angle of 135 Degrees.

Scale: One-half breast and 2½ in., divided into 20 parts. The common inch produces breast size 35. Bases: See Fig. [I] and [II] and Dia. [XI] and [XII]. Fig. [I] shows the angle of 135 deg. to be applied in measuring the shoulder slope. The angle of 135 deg. is the base. The cutter is to find the variation, which is seldom over ⅜ inch higher or lower, but the angle of 135 deg. will fit 49 in every 50 cases. Fig. [I] shows the angle of 135 deg. over the back as well as over the front. In this position the two angles of 135 deg. cover two backs and two fronts.

The center of the back and center of the front represent the center of each angle of 135 deg., as the center of back and front, a hole being cut for the neck to pass through. Dividing the angle of 135 deg. in the center of the back or center of the front leaves half an angle of 135 deg. on each side of the back and each side of the front. The two halves again united will form another full angle of 135 deg. placed on the body, as shown on Fig. [II] with the front line running forward 15 deg. of the plumb line, and after a hole is cut for the neck the back line can fall down to the center of the back, closing into the top of the shoulder, for the shoulder slope is within the angle of 135 deg.

Taking away 15 deg. in front of the plumb line leaves 120 deg., or 2 points of the circle, as shown in Dia. [XI] and [XII], each containing 60 deg. The center of the 120 deg. and the center of 135 deg. represent a space at the top of the shoulders, which may be used for the shoulder straps on military or society coats. The shoulder seam is cut through according to style or notion, and the forepart and side connected under the arm with the center of the back and the center of the front running parallel, as in Dia. [I]; or the back running parallel with the plumb line, as in Dia. [II].

Either the front or back line may be used as a base, as in Dia. [I], or the back line and plumb line, as in Dia. [II]. With the help of the diagrams, the bases ought to be plain to everyone. Yet the following in addition might be said: The angle of 135 deg. is ⅜ of a circle; cut on the double, it will give ¾ of a circle when spread apart. Three-fourths of a circle represents 3 squares, and a vest or coat, or any garment worn around the neck and shoulders, consists of a ¾ circle, or of 1 circle less 1 square. (See Dia. [XI] and [XII].)

When the square is cut away from the center of the circle, and a hole cut in the center large enough for the neck to pass through, and the front edges are again connected, then it will fit the whole outside of the human form, except the sides below the arm. The square cut out of the circle takes away all shoulder slope. Each of the two backs and fronts requires a reduction of 22½ deg., as shown in Fig. [I]; hence, 4 times 22½ deg. will take up the full amount for both shoulders. If each back and each front requires a reduction of 22½ deg., it will require 45 deg. or half a square to be cut out on each side of the body, as in Dia. [IV] and [V]. Thus the bases are:

1st. The full circle.

2d. Three-fourths of a circle.

3d. Three-eighths of a circle, or 135 deg., for the center of the back and front.

The angle of 135 deg. is again divided into 4 main parts, as 90, 45, 30 and 15 deg., and may be divided into as many minor divisions as fancy will admit, or points to be found in the variation of garments, as in Dia. [XII-A].

To measure the shoulder slope as shown in Fig. [I], is a thousand times better, and more reliable, than the so-called upper and lower shoulder measures, or whatever such measures may be called. But for all that, actual practice in taking this measure will show, that even here some guess work must be done, and while I have said elsewhere that the shoulder slope should be measured, and that it can be measured, as indicated in Fig. [I], yet it is equally true that that measure can be learned to be taken by sight, and such eye-sight measure may be acquired in one week, or after handling and measuring one dozen persons. After the eye of a cutter has caught the normal form of the shoulders, his eyesight will teach him most all variations, as good as a measure. That measure, taken by eyesight, or with any other instrument, must be taken over a coat with a good-fitting shoulder, or better, over a good-setting shoulder; for a shoulder may fit the body and still may not set well.

Again I must repeat this warning: Be slow in making changes, especially at the shoulder seam, for Dia. [II] will fit 49 out of every 50 persons, providing the sleeve does not drag the shoulder out of place.

The single garment, spread upon a flat surface, represents a circle, less one square, or less 90 deg., or a reduction of 45 deg. at each shoulder; but it must not be supposed that the form of Dia. [XI], after having the edges of the square connected again, will form a slope like the shoulders of a human form, that is a slope of 22½ deg. The shoulder slope is calculated at 22½ deg., but that is only on each side of the body, and the center of the front, and the center of the back run down more straight, and in order to bring the ¾ of a circle, like Dia. [XI], in harmony with the shoulders, the centers of back and front must be pushed nearly straight down, and then the sides will rise up, and form the slope for the shoulders.

If Dia. [XI] is cut from a piece of stiff paper, and the edges of the square are connected, and that circle formed in one continuous shape, like that of a lamp shade, it will form a slope of 30 deg., or near that slope, and corresponds to all diagrams, with a square of 17½, and with the plumb line base in front, from which base the shoulder slope is 30 deg., as shown in Dia. [IX].

Here it will be noticed that the bases, as adopted in this work, mean something more than imaginary lines. They mean actual slopes of the human form, and quantities which are parts of the square or compass, and which instruments are known and used by all civilized nations.