Shears. Coat Pattern Book. Wax. Goose Stand. Needle and Thread.
Rantering, like stotting, is intended to conceal a join in the cloth. Here, however, it is requisite to make a strong as well as a neat joining; and therefore a seam is first sewn with a fore-stitch, and then the rantering-stitch is worked upon or over this seam. It should be worked with a very fine silk thread, or with twist that has had one of the strands taken out. The needle should be both long and slender, and must be passed forwards and backwards over the seam, so as to catch hold of its two sides, and draw them closely together. But in doing this care must be taken not to take a deep hold of the cloth: the nap or wool is all that should be taken hold of, and this must be done with a light hand, while the stitches must be placed close to each other, so that the seam may be well covered with wool; when this is done, the seam has to be “rubbed up,” that is to say, it must be held between the fore-finger and thumb of each hand, these being placed upon the fore-stitching, and its two edges brought as closely together as possible. The rantering must then be slightly carded or scratched backwards and forwards with the point of a needle, in order to bring the wool out again where it has been drawn in with the stitch; the seam is then ready for pressing, and, if this operation be properly performed, will be as much concealed as may be necessary; while it will be much stronger than if it had been merely back-stitched.
In fine-drawing, the stitch is formed in the same manner as in rantering, but there is a difference in the way of placing the pieces that are to be joined, i.e. if they be separate pieces, for this stitch is mostly used to close up places that have been accidentally cut, or torn; the two edges of the place requiring to be fine-drawn are first trimmed by cutting away the loose threads or ends of the cloth which may be upon them; they are then placed and kept in as level or flat a position as is possible, either with the fingers, or by fastening them to a piece of stiff paper. The needle should be both very small and long, and the thread used, whether it be of silk or twist, should be very slender. Greater care is here necessary than in rantering, to avoid taking a deep hold of the cloth; the needle should be passed forwards and backwards, over the opening, and the thread should be drawn no closer or tighter than is quite needful in order to hide it in the wool. The stitches must be placed as near to each other as is possible, so as to prevent the edges of the cloth from being visible between them; if it be needful to make a strong as well as a neat joining, the fine-drawing should be repeated on the under side of the cloth, but here it will not be needful to put the stitches so close together. When the fine-drawing is done it must be pressed, but with as light a hand and in as short a time as is practicable, otherwise the sewing, however neatly done, will be visible, and so far as it is so, the design of the fine-drawing stitch will not be answered.
The stitch called prick-drawing is now but seldom used, yet it may be proper to notice it briefly. When this stitch is intended to be employed, the edges of the cloth are first stotted together, after which the needle is passed backwards and forwards in diagonal lines, under the stotting, so as to make the join more strong and durable than it can be made by merely stotting the pieces together.
This stitch is used where the cloth is very thick, or hard and unyielding, and, consequently, where the stotting-stitch would quickly give way without this support. It is also better than a back-stitch seam for cloths of this description, inasmuch as it can be made to lie more flat, and thus to be more neat in its appearance, than a common seam.
Overcasting is used merely to secure the edges of thin and loose fabrics from “ravelling out.” In using it, the edges of the cloth, whether it be woollen, linen, or cotton, are first trimmed clear of the loose threads; the needle is then passed through the cloth in a forward direction, at about the distance of one-eighth part of an inch from the edge of the cloth, and when drawn out it is carried (from the left to the right, and not, as in other stitches, from the right to the left) about a quarter of an inch; it is then again put through, and on being drawn out it is made to pass over the thread leading from the preceding stitch, so as to form a kind of loop on the edge; which loop secures the edge from becoming too much frayed, or ravelled.
All the tools that the apprentice or even the journeyman requires may be bought for a few shillings. A yard of linen for a lap-cloth; two pairs of scissors, one pair moderately large, for common use, and the other small, for button-holes; a thimble; a small piece of bees-wax; and threepennyworth of needles, are all that he will have occasion to buy so long as he is not a master, or a journeyman working at home, when he must procure a sleeve-board and an iron. The more expensive part of even these few implements, viz. the scissors, will, with tolerable care, last for a number of years with only the trifling expense of being occasionally sharpened by the cutler.
All the implements used by the Tailor are so well known as to need no particular description; the sleeve-board is used to place in the sleeve of a coat while the seams are pressed with the heated iron or the goose. In the measure book the dimensions are written when measurement of a customer is made, and the French chalk marks the direction in which the cloth is cut to the pattern of the various shapes, which are afterwards sewn together to make complete garments.