Garment cutting in the twentieth century

by Günther F. Hertzer

To recapitulate: A three-seamed overcoat can be cut over a three-seamed under sack, and two sizes larger, by the following changes: Top of back ½ higher; back ½ shorter, over the blade; armhole ½ more forward and ½ lower; ½ allowance at the front sleeve seam to follow the armhole; ¼ to ⅜ more spring toward the neck in the shoulder seam. At the center of back 1 inch more spring over the seat, and 1 inch more spring over the seat in the side seam, which must be started pretty well up, so that the hollow of waist receives about ½ inch.

In Dia. [X] the front of the neck is placed at 4, resting on the front line of the angle of 135 deg., which is as low and as far forward as it ought to be made for a short roll. Overcoats which are intended to button clear up, should have that point ½ higher and ½ backward, and the same may be said for the long roll. A long roll requires a smaller lapel, but a larger gore. Reducing the top of the front by a gore under the lapel will make a far better front than if the top of the front edge is shaved off that much, because it produces an oval shape to the breast, and takes up the surplus cloth in the center of the front—and more so on an overcoat where the front may lap the distance of 3 inches.

To produce a three-seamed over sack for a larger or fuller waist, allow say 1 in. more at line 20 and at the side seam, starting somewhere below lines 9 and 13½ and above line 15; but this allowance should not be more at the bottom than at the seat. It is not required, however, behind, or in the side seam, but more forward, and in order to throw that allowance of an inch forward to the side of the waist, the side seam of the forepart must be stretched perhaps ⅜ of an inch at the hollow of the waist and above, because stretching below the waist would do no good, as the width must be thrown to the waist and hip. A three-seamed over sack can be very much improved by judicious stretching, as well as by shrinking, for the reason that the forepart is a very large sheet, and if made up flat will never fit the outlines of a man. At least, if all parts are first properly stretched or shrunk a better result can be obtained than if made up flat. For instance, the front edge will never lap over the center of the body 3 or 4 in., and button smoothly, if it be not drawn in at least 1 in. all the way across the chest, unless the surplus length is drawn upward and balanced by a gore under the lapel. Now, although a three-seamed over sack can be made, I know that a five-seamed one can be made better. Cutters and tailors may try ever so long to bring a three-seamed overcoat correctly to the body without stretching or shrinking some parts, but they will never succeed as well as with a five-seamed one, and I refer you to Dia. [X].

It must be admitted that a great deal of the spread of the body is sidewise over the hips, or say in the middle of the forepart. On a three-seamed garment, this must be put on either in front or at the side seam, but on a five-seamed one this can be put just where it belongs, by enlarging the square and cutting the surplus width out again under the arm as the fifth seam. By so doing, the lap of the forepart and back over the seat of a three-seamed garment is thrown sidewise, and the back and sidepiece of the five-seamed one just meet at the largest part of the seat. All other points are the same in either the three or the five-seamed garment, except the length of back above the armscye, which must be shortened ½ inch on a five-seamer, and the side seam stretched ½ upward, which stretching upward will re-balance the length of back again over the shoulder blades.

The height of back, from line 9 upward, should be a trifle shorter on all overcoats than on undercoats. All overcoats should be cut so that they lean more toward the erect form, and also toward a large-waisted form. It is a fact, which should be well understood by cutters, that a good-fitting overcoat for the normal form will fit well, as an undercoat for the large-waisted form, because a large waist requires a shorter back, and again, the waist of an overcoat cannot be cut according to a waist measure with the tape drawn tightly over the undercoat, and as closely as the body will allow it to be drawn together, but the waist measure must be taken over the undercoat, as loosely as it hangs on the body, and this represents a large waist. If an overcoat be buttoned up, it must just pass around the undercoat as it hangs loose at the waist, and as soon as the overcoat is compelled to draw the undercoat together at the waist, it will be too tight for the purpose.

Dia. [X] is intended for a loose coat, and if a close fit be desired, the measure must be taken very close, and for such, a loose measure over the vest may be used, and in no case should a reduction be made in one place unless for an abnormal form. Dia. [X] is purposely made large, but it will hang well on three or four different sizes, or on anybody who can put it on, and is not of the odd forms. Furthermore, it will produce an overcoat which goes on, or comes off almost by itself, and which will not require the whole household to help to pull it on or off.

Dia. [Xa] is intended for a closer fit, but I will here warn trying to make overcoats fit very closely, for more are spoiled in the attempt than are made better. It is without gore under the roll, and may be used for a soft roll, either long or short. Being without gore under the lapel requires the coat drawn in pretty well over the front. It may be cut with a gore, by which surplus cloth may be drawn upward from the center of front, providing the amount used up for the gore is again allowed in front.

I will again repeat that Dia. [X] is for an erect form, and will cut a large but good-hanging coat. If this diagram be used for a more forward-leaning form, the spring in the center of the back may be reduced to 1¼ at line 30, starting at line 17½. All overcoats are the better off by having plenty spring over the seat, and if there be too much spring, it is easy to sew it in. Dia. [Xa] will be found to represent an overcoat for a more forward-leaning form, but not for the stooping form. The neck is cut pretty well upward, and besides the three-eighths spring at the shoulder seam, the side of the neck must be stretched at least ⅜ to ½ inch on each side, or else the collar will be too tight. Stretching the side of the neck, as directed in this work, requires that the shoulders at and around the side of the neck must be made up thin, and that all canvas and all padding must be cut away gradually, so that the facing can be stretched also. Holding the collar full, and without stretching the neck, or working the shoulders according to the shape of the body, may result in a fit, but one coatmaker may put life in that fit, while another makes the fit dead, or flat, or stale, or whatever it may be called.

Now a word about the bottom of the back. It may look odd to some cutters to see the bottom of the back shorter behind than at the side; but the whole bottom of Dia. [X] may be considered correct for the normal form, and it is the same in Dia. [II]. The shortness behind of any back is caused by the back being laid out in such a position that nothing is hollowed out at the waist behind, but a spring thrown outside of the center over the seat. The backs are laid out in such a position, because the armhole and the sleeve can not be connected, as they are, on either Dia. [VII] or [X], in any other way. But though, most all Fashion Reports have the backs hollowed out behind, and at the hollow of the waist; still I claim that it is a natural way, to lay out the upper parts of the backs on straight lines. When we observe the run of the center of the back, and when a coat fits the body well, we find that it runs down straight from the shoulder blade, to the hollow of the waist, no matter on what lines, or bases such backs are cut, but below the hollow of the waist, the back comes in contact with the seat and must be sprung out gradually.

To run a line for the center of the back inside of the square, can be done with the same result, but all other points must change, and it would show that the draft does not conform to the natural run of the body, which is flat behind and on straight lines. Now, right here, it might be observed by some that the seat and the shoulder blades are on about the same line, and which line may be called a plumb line, and that the back should be hollow at the waist and not come outside of that plumb line. If we observe the Fashion Reports we come to the conclusion that all diagrams are based upon that idea, and for more than twenty years I have labored under the same delusion. If I claim that the back of a coat runs straight down behind, I do not mean it to run straight down over the seat, like a shirt, but to run straight down from the shoulder blades to the hollow of the waist, which is about 15 deg. from a plumb line. Consequently the back of the seat is outside of that line, and the natural run of the coat back is outside of that base, but may be divided between the center of the back and the sidepiece of a frock coat, and also partly between the center of the back and the side of the back on a sack.