Cutting and draping

by John W. Stephenson

Fig 115A

Fig 115B

Fig 119

For spaces such as 113 A, where the surface is longer than wide, it is possible to economize in covering by joining two pieces together on the centre line of tufting, B——B; take width from the lower right hand C to the upper B, nine squares, and the number from B——B to A, upper right hand corner, five squares, and multiply each by three inches, as before, and we find that two pieces, 27 x 15 inches, with tack allowance added, will be sufficient to cover the spaces thus divided by line B——B.

The covering is turned face downward upon the table and divided into the requisite number of three-inch squares, leaving the tacking allowance beyond the outside lines and keeping the lines parallel with the edges of the material, similar to Figure [114B].

Attach the centre mark of the lowest line on your material to X, the lowest button mark on your tufting surface on line A, Figure [113A], and temporarily tack the next marks on the bottom line at X——X, Figure [113B]. Stuff the fullness thus allowed between your button and X——X, and then put in button B, as Figure [113B]; the space between A——B and X forms a triangular pocket of fabric, which is stuffed up plumply and button pulled into place by following the marks on cover and tufting surface; the rest of the tufting now is a repetition of this procedure, stuffing up the three-cornered pocket, pulling in the fourth button to complete the square, and forming the surplus from button to button into a straight pleat. When all filled the edges are stuffed up plumply and tacked all around, the surplus fullness around the edge being formed into pleats running outward from the outside row of buttons, as Figure [113B].

This is by no means an easy task for a novice, but patience and perseverance will accomplish the result, and the method of square marking for the covering and diagonals intersecting similar sized squares on the article will give the proper allowance for fullness for all sizes and nearly all coverings.

Square or bun tufting, as shown in Figure [114], is marked as Figure [114A], dividing the space into three-inch squares (or larger, if desired) and the covering marked also into squares (as Figure [114B]) from one to one a-half inches larger than those on the surface of the article. Thus, for three-inch squares, rule your cover into four and one-half inch squares and add tacking allowance. The size of the covering can easily be ascertained, as you need the same number of four and one-half inch squares of covering as there are three-inch squares marked out for tufting.