Dia. [XIII] is one of the illustrations upon which I have worked for years, until I have brought it out as it now is. The idea of joining the two angles of 15 deg. at their widest part, came easy enough, but the true position of the two points toward each other, and the fitting points, of all the garments in detail, kept me busy for more than ten years. To be sure, I did not work at it all the time, but on each garment I cut, I had to change this and that, either at the neck or waist of a coat or vest, or at the feet or at the waist of a pants, and the alterations I had to make afterward, and other indirect losses, such as misfits, and worse, loss of customers, cost me a fortune; but I have the satisfaction of having been able to write down and record my experience, and if it does me no good, it may save some of my fellow men the trouble it has cost me.
Combination of Frock and Sack.
Diagrams [I], [II] and [III] are the same, and are made over the same pattern. Dia. [I] represents the center of the back running parallel to the center of front, as it must be when the garment is on the body. Back and sidepiece are connected at the hollow of the waist, within a square of 20½ numbers. The back’s position, running parallel to the center of the back of the body, requires a spring over the seat and hip, starting at the hollow of the waist. Here it will be noticed that that square running parallel to the back of the body, meets the seat, and must spread apart to cover the seat, and the inserted spring furnishes the cloth required over the seat and hips. But what is put on behind must be taken off in front, for the run of the square brings it outside of the body in front of the waist, and must be reduced 15 deg. from the front of waist down, and the bottom of the front must be lengthened 15 deg. in order to make it level. If the center of the front and the center of the back be of any value as a base, then the base lines must run parallel to the front and back, or at least they must be so considered in order to obtain the amount which gores and wedges may require, or the location of the same.
In Dia. [II] we find the fore part in the same position as in Dia. [I].; and, in fact, all fore parts are in the same position, and whatever change is seen is caused by the turning of the sidepiece or back, or both. But the back and sidepieces have been changed, and in place of their being 15 deg. out of plumb, we find them on a plumb line resting at the shoulder blade, and thence straight downward. Thus turning the back base 15 deg. will cause the original square of 20 to form an angle of 15 deg., or a curved line of 20½ numbers, which is the position of Dia. [II]. This diagram represents an angle of 15 deg. at such a width that it will cover the whole body, seams included, for a man’s coat.
In order to find the width, the starting point for a garment is at a point where the angle of 15 deg. has a width of 17½, as in Dia. [XIII]. Hence the square of 17½ within the angle of 15 deg. That angle of 15 deg. represents a sheet wound around the body, which body we must here consider without arms. Said sheet closes in at the breast and shoulder blade, and at the side of the thigh and the back of the seat. In this position the back of the waist must be reduced by one or two gores, as on a sack or a frock coat.
Now let me say, that the theory of deducting the actual waist measure from the breast measure, and thereby finding the amount of gores to be cut out in the back of the waist, is a delusion, because the space which is taken up by that sheet at and around the waist is never measured. It so happens that the angle of 15 deg. requires a reduction of about 2 in. in all at the back of the waist, which is equal to 2 in. less than half breast. But the angle of 15 deg. is always the same, while the waist proportion changes. But suppose that the actual waist measure is as much as, or more than, the breast measure. Would not that same sheet, wound around such a form, require a reduction in the back? By using two bases in front, as the front base of the square of 20 and the front base of the square of 17½, which are just 15 deg. apart, we are able to shift the back from one base to the other—not to uncertain points, but just 15 deg.