Garment cutting in the twentieth century

by Günther F. Hertzer

If pants seem to have the above described faults, I would advise cutters to give the inside of the bottom ⅝ more on the double, that is, locating the center of heel and foot ⅝ more toward the inside without disturbing the angle of 10 deg. This taking off at the outside and putting it on the inside must start at the thigh, and amounts to about ½ at the knee, than what it is at the bottom.

In cutting and making pants, or any other garment, a cutter must know whom he is trying to fit, and for what occupation the garment is to be used. It wants to be considered as to whether the person mostly stands or sits. A person who wants a suit for a wedding requires a different thing entirely than a person who hitches up horses or who works in the field, or digs in a trench. A tailor requires a larger pants waist than a clerk, and any tailor who ignores this fact is mostly found squatting down with the top button of his pants open. Now, if a person who writes all day wants to sit down comfortable when he works he must have a pants which is loose, and even too loose when he stands or walks, but that can not be helped, and a customer should be so told when he orders his pants, and he can have his choice. But it must be observed that persons who sit a good deal and want a loose waist require the allowance in front and side and the back slope should be made liberally large, in order to obtain a longer seat, even if the seat shows surplus cloth when standing. A long back slope prevents the pants from pulling up from the bottom, when sitting down, and we find that pants which fit very neat at the seat when standing, are more apt to crawl up when the person sits down, than such pants which show surplus length of seat when standing. But right here let me warn of an error into which many cutters fall:

A pants cut on certain lines or angles, like Dia. [XIX], [XX] and [XXI], requires a certain amount for fork and a certain amount for back slope, or length for the seat. Each has a certain function to perform. Not enough fork, and too much back slope, will allow a man to wear such a pants, but the seat will wrinkle too much. Contrary, too much fork may be drawn backward to supply a short seat, but such a pants will never hang or feel comfortable, unless the surplus, whatever or wherever it is, is thrown to where it is wanted by stretching certain parts, as described elsewhere. The same may be said about allowing cloth for a large waist, which requires a certain part to be allowed in front and a certain part at the top of side. Surplus cloth on the top of side, which ought to be in front, will be thrown forward, and form a fold, starting at the side of thigh, running forward, and when a person sits down, he will have his whole lap full of cloth.

Such are points which nobody will ever be able to teach to a certainty, or to learn from the books. All that can be done by a teacher is to point out causes and effects and approximate amounts for alteration; and a cutter must use his brains to pass judgment as to the amount taken off here, and given there, in each individual case, and that the ever varying forms of men will require an ever watchful cutter to fit it with such garments as a changeable fashion from time to time requires. Learning rules or going to cutting schools and hanging up a diploma near the cutting board don’t make successful cutters. After receiving certain instructions, a cutter must get the “right hang” of it by experience, and if he is a “natural born” cutter, he can use a horse shoe or a boot jack for his rule, and he will succeed as easily as a fish learns to swim, but if he is not a natural born cutter, or it may be better said, a natural born Fitter, he must acquire the “Art” by hard study.

Stripes.

If Pants are cut from striped goods, the stripe should run parallel with the center line of the angle of 10 deg., both in front and back, though on the forepart it may be located an inch sidewise on the top of the waist; but the back part must have its stripe on that line. This is important to bear in mind, particularly on large pants, which are to be seen often with the stripe running inward or outward. On plain goods it makes no difference where the seams are cut, but on striped goods the forepart should be cut narrow at the side of the thigh, and broad at the side of the bottom in order to run the stripe parallel with the side seam.

It is quite an accomplishment to be able to determine the location of the seams on all kinds of pants without causing them to lose their balance. The top of the front may be cut ¼ full waist for the middle sizes, but the smaller sizes must be cut large enough to make room for the button-hole fly and the pockets. On large-waisted pants, it may save a good deal of piecing to cut the top of the forepart broad, and even as wide as the angle of 7½ deg., and then cut the pockets forward independent of the side seam; but if the material is striped, the stripe will be too crooked over the center of the front. On the front, the stripe may run 1 in. to the side of the top of the center-line on all pants, but on large waists, it may run 2 in. sidewise on top. On the back the stripe must run with the center line.