Garment cutting in the twentieth century

by Günther F. Hertzer

Stooping Forms.

(SEE DIA. [IX].)

Stooping forms have so many variations that it is impossible to describe them all. The term “stooping” is generally applied to persons with prominent shoulder blades. We find them combined with long and short necks, large and small waists, hollow or flat in the back and front of the waist, and arms thrown backward or forward. All of these conditions must be observed and separately calculated, and a cutter will be kept constantly busy and on the watch. It is only where a cutter is thoroughly acquainted with the workings of this system of bases that he will be able to fit all forms as near as he is expected to do. All kinds of measures have been devised, and all sorts of imaginary bases have been adopted to fit the forms of a man; but where one cutter succeeds with a certain appliance, others utterly fail. The fact is, even if all measures should give the correct amount, the body itself could not be fitted except on a few specified points, and all defects should be covered up in place of imitating them. To fit the stooping form in all its details would result in a misfit from the start, particularly when the back of the waist is very hollow.

If we take a coat that fits a normal form, and put it on a stooping form of the same size, and button it under the chin, the neck will fit, but will stick out behind at the waist and spread apart in front. A reasonable way of altering it is to reduce the back seam of the side piece from the blade down, which will produce more curve over the blade and give more length to the back; and what is taken off behind at the waist is allowed in front. It is generally taken for granted that a stooping form requires his armholes more forward, but this is not always the case, for some of them throw their arms backward; and we find the contrary in a great many erect forms, who throw their arms forward—all of which the cutter must observe.

Now, suppose we permit the coat to be loose under the chin, and button one or two lower buttons. In this case we shall find that the coat will fit in the back of the waist, but at the neck it will be too loose and will gape all around the front. If we gather the wrinkles together in front we can make the breast fit the form, although the top of the back may be too short. So we can make our alteration on the spot again, always providing, however, that we are altering the pattern only, by starting at the front sleeve nick and laying a fold forward to the amount of whatever the fullness of the coat may indicate. This again will alter the pattern from that direction. It makes the front shorter in place of making the back longer. This last is the most reasonable way to alter a coat for the stooping form, for it must be remembered that in both erect and stooping forms the change proceeds from front to back, and at the waist.

The backbone is solid, although it bends, but it never becomes longer or shorter on the same form. If the body throws itself forward into a stooping position, the back bends and the front contracts at the pit of the stomach. If the body throws itself upward in a more erect position, the back bends the other way and the front expands at the pit of the stomach. The front only expands or contracts at the pit of the stomach. The backbone must be considered a hinge on which the whole body swings, just like a door on its hinges; and all alteration may be made from that point, either by stretching some parts or by folding up the pattern before the garment is cut.

If a stooping form throws his arms forward, then the armholes must be further forward of the front sleeve base. But in that case the front sleeve base must be just as much advanced. And again: Whatever the front of the armhole has been advanced must be added to the back of the armhole, for a stooping form has no larger arm than an erect form. The armhole must be moved forward, but made no larger.

This constant backward and forward movement of the neck, waist, and shoulders is one of the greatest studies any cutter will be obliged to go through, as it is, in fact, the only variation to be found in the normal form which cannot be measured, but must be taken by the trained eye of the cutter, and his practical knowledge of how to alter. Actual measurement, by whatever measure or name it may be called, is a delusion, for all so-called long or short measures around the shoulders, neck and arms must be taken close over a body which we do not intend to fit as snugly as the measure itself. As a rule, said measures are seldom applied, or transferred to a flat pattern on the same line as they have been taken over the form itself.

For illustration, we will examine the so-called upper shoulder measure, from the top of the center of the back to around under the arm and back again to the place of beginning. Said measure is always to be taken close, because any slack would again cause great variation in the hands of different cutters. By taking it close the tape will not strike the body of the coat under the arm at all, because the armhole is lower than the body itself, but the tape pulls the sleeve up and passes above the armhole. If cutters will go to the trouble and make a line on their patterns over which they transfer that measure, and then draw stitches in, they will find that when the coat is on the body they cannot even follow said stitches with the tape line, unless it is fastened every few inches. If that be the case, what good is the measure? If that measure is to do a cutter any good he must be able to follow a certain trail on the pattern, as he does on the coat when on the body, but that cannot be done. There is no one so blind as he who does not want to see.

If the pit of the stomach contracts or expands, that is no proof that the shoulder and arms also draw out of their normal position. If the breast measure be taken correctly, as directed in this work, passing over the point of the shoulder blades, then the round shoulders of a stooping form, and the flat ones of an erect form are included within the measure. Consequently nothing can be added to the blade for a round back nor taken away for a flat back—the change must be above or below, notwithstanding the appearance of Dia. [II B]. The round back requires his armhole more forward, and what is taken out in front of the armhole is again allowed on the back, making the back broader. If the back of the armhole is not supplied with what is taken out in front, the under and back sleeve will drag and pull backward. Because the stooping form may throw his arm forward, is no indication that his arms becomes larger, but it demonstrates that his armhole must be located more forward.

But again: Because a man is stooping is no indication that his back must be round. A man may throw his neck downward in front, but may also throw his arms backward, and stand very erect in the waist. Such a form requires his neck hole downward in front but does not require his armhole forward. The front and back of the armhole may be located as for the normal form, or even for the erect form.

Further: Because a man is classed among the erect forms is no proof that his back must be flat. We find plenty of so-called erect forms who throw their arms forward, and their backs become very straight in length.

The terms normal, stooping and erect are very indefinite, and I do not believe that any man is, or ever will be able to describe a stooping form alone in all its variations and combinations. All that can be done is to point out certain forms; and the cutter who starts out on his cutting tour through life must always be on his guard, and study his customers, and imprint their forms upon his own brain.

Now, as the breast measure contains the full size of a round as well as a flat shoulder blade, we must come to the following conclusion: That the stooping form requires simply more length in the back, or less length over the front, and years of experience teaches me that ½ to ¾ extra length over the blade is enough for the extreme stooping form, but such a form requires its length in the center of the back, or from the blade upward; and whatever the back is made longer on top must be shortened at the front, as is shown in Dia. [IX], which illustrates the long as well as the short neck, and also the stooping form.

But there is no law to prevent a cutter from adopting a middle way, by leaving the forepart as it is and to make the whole back, say ½ longer and reducing that length again somewhere at the armhole, because a back that becomes longer behind requires no extra length at the side. This alteration is even to altering the back as for a long neck, leaving the front as it is for the normal form. If a coat fit at the neck but swings off at the waist, reduce the back of the side piece, say ¼ in., at the waist and stretch it downward to make it again long enough—all of which is required to lengthen the back ½ in. But if the stooping form should require his armhole further forward, ¼ is enough for the extreme. Point 8 remains the center for the back sleeve, all extra length being allowed on top.

In the conclusion of this article, I will say that I have given different views as to the making of alterations, because while cutting we can alter as we please; but if a garment must be altered after it is made, it must be altered as best we can, and if a garment is worth altering at all it is worth altering right. I will here again point to the fact that coats for stooping forms usually have a tendency to swing off at the back of the waist, and such garments can most always be brought to the body by giving the center of the back and the back seam of the side piece a good stretching under the smoothing iron from a point over the shoulder blade downward.

All alterations between the stooping and the erect forms can be better comprehended if we consider a well-fitting coat on a normal form as follows: Consider the coat cut through from each side to each back, and to each front, and consider the sides as on hinges, and then consider what the result would be if the form imitates the so-called erect or stooping positions. In that case the cuts across the hollow of the waist would open in front or back, as the case may be, and contract at the opposite. The result of the backward and forward moving of the body must be imitated by contracting or folding the pattern, just as a coat will full up in the back when the body becomes erect. Under the head of stooping forms also belongs the so-called “hunchback,” and to fit such forms will always be a hard job.

To fit them is not the right term in my opinion. They do not want to be fitted, for to fit them would just show their deformity, which should be hidden by his coat, at least in the back of the waist. Such forms are often very erect ones, and most of them throw their arms and shoulders up, making them extra square, and may be at right angles with the side of the neck. If the armhole is left, as for the normal form, as it should be, then the angle of 135 deg. must have a gore cut at the neck, and in the shoulder seam, of at least 1 in., and the top of the back placed say 1 in. lower, and the front of the neck 1 in. lower, while the side of the neck may be widened ½ in. only. This will not disturb the armhole and sleeve. The top of back and the top of front must be shortened, because there is no slope of the neck; the cloth runs straight over, and for this reason the side of the neck is to be cut out more, while there is no change whatever at the armhole.

Now, while the upper part of the back must be made shorter, that part of the back which passes over the shoulder blades and which is in this case extremely large, must be made longer, as far over as the enlarged shoulder blade requires it. But at the armhole the back requires the normal length only. On a frock coat such length may be given in the back, and that length again reduced by a larger gore between the side piece and the back. But on a sack coat this cannot be done, as no seam runs over to that point, and in consequence the extra length must be put in otherwise, and I will here give the best way to do it, but it may not be the shortest way.

If the back requires say 1½ in. extra length over the haunch, cut the whole back ¾ longer in the portion of the back armhole, and reduce ¾ at the shoulder seam toward the armhole again, which will leave the balance of the armhole as it was before. Next, stretch the center of the back ¾ over and along the shoulder blade, and over toward the arm, say about 4 to 5 in. each way, or as far over as the enlarged shoulder blade requires it.

In the article on “[Center of Back and Front],” it is shown why the center of the back can be fitted on straight lines, and this is true of the back of a hunchback, though a modification may be made for such a form and some taken off above or below the hunch, or something be thrown out over the center behind. But it is not width, that such a coat wants; it is length over the blade, not over and clear across to the armhole, but only as far over as the deformation requires. In this respect let me allude to an article and diagram in “The American Tailor and Cutter” of August, 1890, pages 34 and 35:

“That pivot, from the armhole across to the center of back, which must be done on straight lines, can not work, unless the body of a man is first pressed flat from side to side, leaving the center of front and the center of back on a sharp edge, or what would be the same illustration: on a form cut from a one-half inch board, the sides being flat. In this case only, the form can be fitted from back to front, and on curved back and front centers. But as long as we must fit men having the present form the back must be fitted from back to side and on straight lines at the center of back. The opening of the lines over the back, as shown in that illustration, is too straight, it will make the back either too long at the center, or too short at the middle of the back, and may fall smooth over the middle of the back, but will draw at the center and at the armhole.”

The above should receive the attention of every cutter, as the term “Hunchback” is simply a combination of extremely stooping and extremely erect forms.

To sum up the whole stooping form: The back of such a form does not become longer, but it bends and produces a larger curve over the blade, and consequently the coat back will go with the body and requires no extra length. But the front contracts either all over the chest or at the pit of the stomach, and the coat must be contracted or shortened there, but as there is no seam there we must fall on to the next best place where we can find a seam, and here we find the shoulder seam in which the surplus length of the forepart may be taken up. Now, if we use Dia. [II] or Dia. [VIII] as a model, we simply lap the shoulders toward the blade, the same as for the normal form, but omit the lap toward the neck. This is the most reasonable way of altering for the stooping form.