Garment cutting in the twentieth century

by Günther F. Hertzer

This brings me to another point. An extremely broad frock coat back at the bottom line of the armhole requires a pretty straight sidepiece toward the back, and such a seam may be the better off, if the back is held a trifle full over the blade; while an extremely narrow frock coat back requires a very curved sidepiece toward the back, and such a back should be basted or sewed pretty close on the sidepiece toward the blade. Each of such backs assumes a different height of back when laid out in the angle of 15 degrees, and each requires a different treatment when sewed on the sidepiece.

All the heights of the frock and sack coat backs in this work are calculated to be of certain width at lines 9 and 11¼ over the front, and all back widths at that point should be as shown in the diagrams. The swing of the back, or the turning point of it, is calculated from line 9, no matter if the back lays in a square of 20, or if the back part of that line be turned 15 degrees. No article in this work is more important than this one, and every cutter should make himself thoroughly familiar with its meaning, because it is a new idea in garment cutting, and I will predict that in the Twentieth Century all cutters will recognize that principle. It may be brought to a finer point, but the principle will stand as long as the square and the compass are recognized and used. Neither do I expect such recognition without some “tall kicking” for few men will acknowledge that they have been groping in the dark while they have been claiming that they knew all that is worth knowing about garment cutting.

The Neckhole and Shoulder Seam.

If it is not desired to connect the sleeve pattern into the armhole and on both seams, the shoulder seam may be cut into any shape or form as long as the balance is retained; but whenever we intend to connect the sleeve with the armhole, as in Dia. [II] or [VII], we must cut the normal shoulder seam with a lap or spring of from three-eighths to one-half at the neck, and which lap must be run down fully to the middle of the shoulder seam and then reduced to nothing at the armhole, and in such a shape that the front part is on a curve. On a vest the angle of 135 degrees furnishes the correct slope, and with the neck band properly worked and turned up, gives enough spring around the side of the neck. But a vest collar and necktie give more bulk, and a coat is also cut closer to the center of the neck, and consequently a coat requires more width, or spring, in and on top of the shoulder seam, of which three-eighths is enough and five-eighths not too much, but it is always better to cut that part close, so that the collar may be sewed on easily; that is, the sides of the neck stretched say about one-quarter of an inch. Again, the coat collar gives more bulk than the vest collar and for this reason the overcoat requires three-fourths spring, as in Dia. [X], which is cut still closer to the neck.

Policy, no doubt, has caused the fashionable shoulder seam to be thrown backward of the center of the shoulder, for the reason that it passes nearer to the shoulder blade, and a curved shoulder seam helps to fit it. If the shoulder seam were located on top of the shoulders it could not be curved, but would necessarily be hollow in the center, though the back and front lap at the neck. The position of the shoulder seam as in Dia. [II] allows the sleeve to be connected with the coat on both the back and front seams, and the lap of sleeve and shoulder give the sleeve enough width for all fulling purposes, and the sleeve can never be too large or too small. I have tried my utmost to lay the shoulders in such a position that no lap would be found at the shoulder seam; but, after I considered that the back is never cut on the shoulders, I came to the conclusion that the said spring might just as well be there, inasmuch as by its use a more correct sleeve connection can be made.

On account of the lap between the back and front at the shoulder seam the top of that seam at the neck can not properly be connected, and for this reason should be notched at the center. The lap between the back and front of the shoulder seam and toward the neck may be accounted for in a different way, and as follows: The diameter of the body at the center of the back and center of front is almost double what it is at the arms, and if we turn the back forward and the front backward so that both meet at the shoulder seams, then the center of the body, or the side of the neck, requires a longer swing than the side of the body at the arms, hence the three to five-eighths more at the neck.