cutting systems and machines

Hold the phone and shut the door!!!!

https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/2441

Cutting a Fashionable Fit: Dressmakers’ Drafting Systems in the United States

Kidwell, Claudia B.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5479/si.00810258.42.1

Date: 1979

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!

This book!!! I have had very old very worn photocopies of this book since I was at university and it’s here! In full! In high res and low res!!!! Get it now, seriously if you have any interest in costuming this is a must have!

I cannot believe it’s genuinely distributed, the pdf turned up in a google search so I tracked back to the full credit and OMG!

 

So I was looking in general for cutting systems as I love them. They give a much better insight into how different eras accomodated different body shapes than anything else. Drafting books are good but these show the impact of changing a measure on other points of measure.

And now there is another book I’d love to track down:

https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=NWNUDIqC_jMC&printsec=frontcover

The Female Economy: The Millinery and Dressmaking Trades, 1860-1930

Wendy Gamber

University of Illinois Press, 1997 – Business & Economics – 300 pages

This is a very different take on the effect these systems had on those working in garment making. In truth it’s the same sort of reasoning behind tailor’s manuals being restricted initially, or throughout, I haven’t read all manuals just many!

It includes pages of cutting machines at a size it would be possible to recreate.

 

https://archive.org/details/mauderussellsyst00russ

The Maude Russell system of garment cutting; text book ..

by Russell, Maude (Westerman), Mrs., 1885- [from old catalog]

Published 1917

I love these! Currently hunting down older versions as they are more helpful for me as someone doing earlier work, but these kinds of adjustable templates are reasonably common. But this is very nice because it may be possible to print out your own and transfer to card.

 

Also of interest is this book from the 1870s

https://archive.org/details/guidetodressmaki00symo

Guide to dressmaking

by Symonds, J. Henry, pub. [from old catalog]

Published 1876

Topics Dressmaking, Garment cutting. [from old catalog]

This does feel like a reprint, but the details on trimmings and stitching and assembly is exactly what I really want. I mean in conjunction with a fitting system! This really is an incredibly good guide and it’s free!

https://archive.org/details/nationalgarmen00gold

The National garment cutter

by Goldsberry, Doran & Nelson. [from old catalog]

Published 1884

https://archive.org/details/nationalgarment00gold

The national garment cutter book of diagrams. Goldsberry & Doran, proprietors ..

by Goldsberry & Doran, Chicago. [from old catalog]

Published 1888

Topics Garment cutting. [from old catalog], Dressmaking

Two editions by the same company. Very easy to understand and each includes a yoked kilted (pleated) skirt of the kind worn in Bram SToker’s Dracula, and seen in Patterns of Fashion 2. I use the principle a heck of a lot in my skirts to allow for an agressive or subtle train.

 

Perhaps the most recognised drafting machine is the McDowell.

http://www.google.ms/patents/US342216

Publication number US342216 A

Publication type Grant

Publication date 18 May 1886

Filing date 30 Jul 1885

Inventors Albert Mcdowell

 

Anyway, I am now happily thinking of ways to recreate these in a stable material.

last day of 2016

It’s been a tough one, for many of us both in public and private ways.

I have finally had a reprieve from my disease- not a full remission, about an 80% reduction in pain and other issues. ANd for the last week and a bit I have been pushing myself to do, to make, to live.

I do not choose my therapy it is defined by a mix of my body, my disease type and systemic response, as well as what I have access to not just in terms of the therapy but people who can prescribe and administer it.

It is not a choice as many would think- it’s this or nothing. That is not a choice, but it is a decision.

But I do choose to fight with whatever tools are available. In order to use them it means some changes in other parts of my life such as having to make the decision to stop being vegetarian. It has made a significant impact on the quality of the rest of my well being- but only by sticking to low fat low salt options (my chicken recipe is poach in water with peppercorns and bay leaves, done.)

So the end of this year has been spent crafting (pearl work), researching, and exercising. And while I can’t be with friends I am with family so all in all a very good final day of the year.

Yes my feet and hands hurt, but I am here and it is now.

 

perlenmutzer

Progress from 2006:

Progress 2016 after stripping all the fire damaged bezants and sequins:

New pearls on the upper right, the same pattern was repeated on the upper left and a matching overlapping design added to the lower part.

Yes, it looks very wobbly. This is part of how the fabric was eased over the original support. I’ll be clipping the cotton tulle to let it ease as well.

Stash of pearls used for the update. There are a good number left to be able to use over the seam once assembled.

I am about to add the leaves again, these are different, they are what I used on my Krantz for my laurelling, so these are very apt 🙂

Again the pearls look wibbly, I don’t want to stretch the stitches once I put this back on the support so am having to live with it until then. Once on the support these will have heavier thread passed through to support the curves.

So happy to get this progress. I am doing eat therapy on my hands every couple of hours, 10mins at a time.