The secret of successful tailoring

Preface

HIS little handbook is compiled from the series of twelve articles on "The Secret of Successful Tailoring" which were published monthly in L'Art de la Mode, concluding in the April (1910) number. The author, Mr. Edward Watkins, who was formerly with the Mrs. Osborn Company, is now recognized as one of New York's most distinguished tailors and an authority on the art of tailoring and dressmaking. Mr. Watkins writes from his wide experience in a way that gives practical information of inestimable value to the ambitious tailor and dressmaker, as well as to the woman who makes her own clothes. No new ,or essential point on this interesting subject has been overlooked, and we believe the chapters present the clearest, most accurate and most condensed work on the subject ever published.

While the articles were appearing serially in the magazine, readers of L'Art de la Mode were encouraged to write personally to Mr. Watkins, who cheerfully solved for them any puzzling problems. Many of these questions and their answers have been incorporated in this handbook, as we believe them to be of general interest to those who now study the book for the first time. — Editor L'Art de la Mode.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Choice of Material and Design. 7

11. First Fittings 13

Chapter I. The Choice Of Material And Design

|HEN ordering a suit, the first thing considered is the material, and to this subject the present chapter will be mainly devoted. Impress upon your customer the importance of using the best materials when she is considering a tailored suit.

Here you must depend upon good workmanship, the cut, and material to give the desired effect of smartness.

The average woman thinks a good tailored suit should wear longer and give more service than she would expect from three gowns, and if you remind her that it costs just as much to make up a poor material as it does a good one, the chances are that she will not hesitate to pay the ten or fifteen dollars more you must ask for the better suit, especially as she and not you will receive the full merchandise value of the additional charge.

Materials that are obviously cheap are not worth the attention of the tailor who desires to turn out first-class work. Avoid every suiting that is not all wool and of the softest kind. It may be loosely or closely woven. The cheaper suitings are often made in the best designs and are most alluring when the difference in price is considered, but they contain cotton or a poor quality of wool, and although carefully sponged and shrunk before cutting they continue to shrink each time they go under the iron. Much altering is the result and you almost lose confidence in your own fitting because of the "queer puckers" that are so much in evidence and are so hard to explain.

The next thing to be considered is the purpose for which your customer intends the suit.

If for town walking, the rough, mannish woolens, plainly tailored, are considered the best form. A small amount of braiding, on such a suit, is not a breach of good taste, and where your customer's wardrobe is limited and a fancy tailored suit for afternoon wear is not available the braided, plain suit may be used on semi-formal occasions where the strictly tailored suit would be more or less out of place. For afternoon wear, the high finished cloths are most desirable.

These later materials lend their glossy sur-

THE CHOICE OF MATERIAL AND DESIGN

faces and soft folds most admirably to designs that are as elaborate and ornate as the customer's tastes and requirements demand. Of course, if the suit is elaborate the skirt should be trailing, but one sees at present a large number of women wearing very fancy and much ornamented coats over short skirts. The combination, however, is not a happy one, according to the writer's way of thinking.

The design of the contemplated suit should next receive consideration. Becomingness, rather than prevailing fashions, should influence the selection, for no suit or gown that is unbecoming can be smart or stylish. Study the individual requirements of your customer, emphasize her good lines and coloring and strive to conceal those that are not good. If she desires something that you know will not be becoming or appropriate, don't hesitate to tell her so. Obtain her confidence by demonstrating your ability to make her gowns more becoming than she has ever had them made before. Guard against over-elaboration. Simplicity is much more effective and you will find it represents the highest development in the tailoring and dressmaking art.

Here, in the selection of the design, you will find your greatest opportunity for artistic development.

Remember the mamifacturers can offer the smartest materials, embroideries and designs, but they can't offer ''individual" gowns. By this I mean gowns that are designed for, or adapted to, a given personality.

That is why your customers pay you more for your suits and gowns than they would have to pay for a ready-made garment in the shops, and if you don't give them more for their money, in an artistic way, than they get there, you may be assured that it is only a question of timx when they will join the ranks of those who buy ready-to-wear garments.

SPONGING.

The material and design having been selected, attention should next be directed toward the careful shrinking and sponging of the material, for if this part of the work is not carefully done much trouble results later on in the construction. It usually appeals to one as of minor importance, but it is not. If the sponging is not properly done at the beginning, it is more than likely to cause much trouble, not only to the tailor, who will have to spend much time making alterations made necessary by the goods shrinking while being pressed in the later stages of construction, but the customer as well will be annoyed by her suit losing its shape if she hap-

THE CHOICE OF MATERIAL AND DESIGN

pens to wear it on a damp day or be caught in the rain. The shrinking quahties of all kinds of goods used in tailor work should positively be eliminated before the shears are used.

Different materials should be treated according to their various needs. Broadcloth should be shrunk by steam. On a well padded table, the larger the better, spread two thicknesses of the cloth and over this lay a thick cotton cloth that is quite wet. With a rather hot iron, press this wet cloth, forcing the seam down and through the broadcloth, and continue this process until the cotton cloth or sponge rag is nearly dry. Next remove the sponge rag and with your iron, which by that time will not be too hot, press your broadcloth until it is quite dry, and there will be very Httle "shrink" left.

Cheviots, serges and all worsteds that are made without a glossy finish should be shrunk by being rolled on a board w^ith a wet cloth between the folds.

Unbleached muslin, a yard wide, makes the best shrinking cloth, because it is wide enough to extend beyond the edges of the woolen, and all parts therefore receive an equal amount of moisture. It should remain rolled in the wet cloth for about two hours, after which it should be pressed until it is dry. Use irons that are only moderately hot, for the shrinking will be

II more complete if the pressing is done slowly. If broadcloth is sponged this way the glossy finish is much impaired and the beauty lost. Broadcloth does not shrink as much as the average woolen; the steam process above described is therefore sufficient, but is not effective enough for the other suitings. Linens that are intended for tub suits should be immersed in water and dried in the open air. Repeat this treatment two or three times, for linen shrinks more while it is drying than when it is in the water.

Before it is entirely dry, after wetting it for the last time, linen should be pressed smooth with moderately hot irons. The average linen suiting can remain in water overnight without injury. While the drying is taking place, care should be taken not to have too strong a light on the linen, for the best dyes are sometimes damaged if left in a very bright light for any length of time.

Chapter II. First Fittings

HEN taking measures, stand behind and not in front of your customer. You will find it much more convenient and comfortable than taking measures from the front. And just here I cannot refrain from saying a word about "systems," for I am sure that at present there must be many tailors and dressmakers who are not satisfied with the quality of work leaving their workrooms, and, in an effort to improve their work, are asking themselves, just as I did a few years ago, if there is not some system with which they can cut garments that will not require alterations.

It must always be borne in mind that no matter how accurate your system, no two materials stretch or work up the same. If your material would not "stretch" or "give" any more than paper, then it would be a mechanical possibility to draft a perfect-fitting pattern, but mathematics cannot always make allowances for the different ways different materials stretch and "work up."

If six coats are cut by one pattern, in various

1.3 textures, no two will require the same alterations. That means that no matter how good your patern is, there will be a certain amount of fitting necessary when the garment is tried on.

Let your study therefore be devoted to your fittings and not to the defects of your "system."

I know one very successful cutter who does not have a stitch in the coat when it is first fitted. He cuts the coat by a well-shaped pattern, allowing about one-inch seams, and with the various pieces on his arm goes down to the customer, on whom he pins the several parts in about the position they should go. After these are placed he pins the seams together. If a seam does not run in the right slope or direction, it is a small task to remove a few pins and re-pin the seam where it should be.

When one-half of the coat is put together in this manner, his first fitting is completed, and the other side of the coat is made like the first part, the canvas or cambric is put in the front of the coat, the sleeve is basted in, and when it is next put on the customer there are fewer alterations necessary than in any garment I ever saw that had been cut by a pattern drafted by a "system."

The reader may think that the cutter I refer to is exceptionally expert, and so he is. But he has not studied nearly as hard as the tailor who has been trying to draft a perfect-fitting pattern for

FIRST FITTINGS

each coat he cuts. If you have a ''system" with which you can make a well-shaped pattern, use it by all means, but let the most of your study be devoted to the actual fittings. The following method of pattern making and construction, which is at present employed in my own establishment and is the same I used when I was personally doing the cutting and fitting for more than half a hundred tailors at the Mrs. Osborn Co., is undoubtedly the safer and more economical plan.

The first fitting of a coat should be prepared in unbleached drilling, which does not stretch and has about the weight of the average suiting.

Only one-half of the coat is required and it should be pinned together and not basted.

To cut this drilling fitting, a great number of measures are not necessary ; in fact none is really required if you will give your eye a chance to do the work the average cutter requires of his tapeline.

A glance will tell you that your customer is about the size and general build of Mrs. A. or Mrs. B., whose patterns you have. Better still, buy a good pattern from some pattern house which is recognized as an authority on lines and proportions. Then by this pattern cut your drilling fitting, making it a little larger or smaller as you think the case may require. The cutting and pinning together can be done in from five to ten minutes, and the customer would usually rather wait this time for a fitting than come again. In my own establishment we keep a number of these canvases prepared, in small, medium and large sizes, so that when a customer places an order we are instantly prepared to give the first fitting. This saves a great deal of time to both customer and tailor.

The drilling should now be fitted just as carefully as if you were fitting the coat proper. Study the lines, improve them every place you can. Try the seams in different positions if there is any doubt in your mind as to where they should be. Look it over and over again until there is nothing you can improve. Study to emphasize your customer's best lines and to cleverly conceal any that are not so good. Mark the size, shape and length of the lapels and fit a canvas or crinoline back collar if there is to be one. Fit a drilling sleeve, getting the proper length and width; in fact, get every line and detail, at this drilling fitting, that you possibly can, for it will save much time later and we all know that time is money.

Next carefully mark with colored chalk the position of every pin; the waist line, which you have indicated while the pattern was on the customer ; cross marks at the shoulder seam to show

i6

FIRST FITTINGS

the exact place that the front joins the back; and the length of the coat.

In taking the pattern to pieces, remove the pins from the shoulder seam first. Spread the pattern out so that the armhole lies flat on the table. While in this position, mark the armhole, the size of which you indicated at the fitting.

After this remove all pins from the drilling and press the pieces flat. Lay one piece at a time on a press board, the cloth surface of which prevents slipping as would be the case if you attempted to work on a smooth table, and with colored tailor's chalk, the edge of which is sharpened, draw a line through the row of dots you made where the pins were.

When this has been done to all the various parts, the pattern should be trimmed, cutting exactly in the marks you have made so that the edges of the pattern have no seams allowed.

The above described process will give you a pattern that no "system" can equal, for the lines have been taken from the person who is to wear the garment, and not from a square, chart or tape line.

You can readily see how naturally you are making "individual" garments, and as I said in the last chapter, this is what you must do if you desire to protect your trade from the temptations of the manufacturer of ready-to-wear clothes.

First fittings for skirts should be done in the same manner that I have described for coats, only instead of using drilling, cambric, which costs less, may be employed.

With a little practice, you can hang a cambric, take up the darts, mark the waist line and get the length to the floor by simply marking with a lead pencil, all in less than five minutes and the alterations necessary when the skirt is tried on should be very trifling. Don't try to get the length of a walking skirt at the first fitting. When the belt is basted on at the second fitting, and is not to come off or be disturbed any more, then the length may be taken in a manner that will be described in the next chapter.

iS

Chapter III. Cutting

UTTING is the next logical subject to discuss, and to this subject the present chapter is devoted. In laying the patterns on the cloth or other material that is to be cut, much care is required to get each piece on the proper "grain" of the goods. If the coat is to have all the customary seams, the back and underarm pieces should be cut with the straight of the goods running through the center, so that each edge is slightly bias.

The next two pieces, which form the fronts of the coat, should be cut so that the cross grain of the material has a decided downward slope, as indicated in the illustration on page 20. If your goods is cut on this grain, and is otherwise properly fitted, the fronts will not fall open when the coat is unbuttoned.

That is one of the best tests you can make. How many coats have you ever seen that would not fall apart when they were unbuttoned?

It can be prevented by cutting as I have described. But this is not the only advantage gained, for you will find, especially in checked or striped goods, that the lines are vastly improved.

CUTTING

The figure is, in effect, tilted forward, while the opposite tendency is noticeable when the front of the coat is cut on a straight edge of the goods. What is true of the coat is also true of the skirt. Take, for instance, a five-piece skirt (which is one of the very best for walking models and may be varied in detail in a hundred different ways). The proper and customary way to cut the front and back gores would be with the straight of the goods through the center of the gore, but what a world of difference may be produced by the manner in which the side piece is cut.

If the straight of the goods is put to the front, and there joins the front gore, the side piece must naturally be bias at the back, with the result that the skirt falls to the front, giving an ugly flare at the sides and a most unbecoming "skimpiness" or lack of fulness at the bottom of the back; it makes the wearer look as if she were standing very badly, and the longer it is worn the worse it will look.

If the straight of the goods is put through the center of the piece, an improvement is at once noticeable, but it is far from being satisfactory yet.

But if the straight of the goods is put to the back, joining the back gore, and with the bias joining the front piece, the effect is almost magical.

The woman with large hips looks slender, and she has a * 'poise" that could not have been obtained in another shaped skirt. From this it must not be inferred that the slight girl would appear at a disadvantage if she wore the same shaped skirt, for there is a principle involved, and it applies in general in the cutting of both coats and skirts, and to all sorts of figures.

An ordinary gored skirt is much improved if the cross grain of the goods runs slightly down toward the front. Both edges of the gores should be slightly bias, but the front edge should be a little more so than the back. Sleeves, for a plain tailored coat, should be cut on the same principle — that is, so that the cross grain runs down slightly toward the front.

A very economical method of estimating the amount of material required for a suit or gown is possible when the canvas and cambric fittings are used, for after the patterns have been prepared, a "layout" may be made (on the floor if your table is not large enough), care being taken to keep the patterns confined to a space that is the width of the goods to be cut. In this way you can ascertain the exact quantity of material required and not have to "guess" you need so many yards "but to be on the safe side, I think I will get an extra yard."

These "extra" yards, in the course of a season.

CUTTING

amount to a considerable sum; certainly much more than enough to pay for all the cambric and drilling that you have used in the preliminary fittings. The garments having been cut, allowing about a three-quarter inch seam, the edges of the pattern should be carefully marked with tailor's chalk (and the edges of the chalk should be kept sharp in order to make a clean, sharp line), after which the pattern may be removed from the goods. "Thread marking" is the next process, which is done by laying the two pieces flat on the table (I say "two pieces," for, of course, the material was cut on the double), and with double basting thread take deep, .clean stitches directly on the chalk line and about a quarter of an inch apart. Instead of drawing the thread tight, each stitch should be left loose, so that it will make a little arch about a quarter of an inch high.

After this, the edges of the two pieces should be most carefully pulled apart as far as the loose stitches will permit ; then, with your shears lying between the two layers of material, cut the threads in the middle. These ends are then trimmed off, close to the goods, and the garment is ready to be put together, for, of course, the object of "thread marking" is to get an exact duplicate of the lines of the pattern on both pieces of material. Another method, somewhat quicker, but not at all in favor with first-class tailors, is to turn the pattern over and mark the second piece with chalk just as the first piece was marked.

The coat is then put together by the chalk marks instead of the thread marks. Personally, I think this way all right where the lines are long and loose as they would be in an evening wrap, but for accuracy the thread marking is the most reliable.

When basting a coat together, start at the waist line and baste down. Then come back to the waist line and baste up. When stitching, sew down one seam and up the next. That is, one seam should be stitched down and the corresponding seam on the opposite side of the coat should be stitched up, the object being to prevent the possibility of a twist in the coat, which you will be glad to avoid if it has ever been your misfortune to encounter such trouble. After the stitching is done, remove the basting threads and press the seams open.

If it is desired to keep the coat very soft, use cambric instead of canvas for the fronts of the coat. In either case, cut the cambric or canvas on the same grain of the goods as the outside part is cut, or a trifle more bias is sometimes desirable.

This cambric or canvas should be searned up

CUTTING

separately from the outside, the seams pressed open, after which it is ready to baste in the outside part of the coat.

When this is done, the coat is ready for a fitting. Exactly the same processes I have described for coats should be followed in the making of a tailored skirt. Very few walking skirts have any lining; sometimes a silk drop skirt, entirely separate from the outside, is made to go with the suit, while some of the recent importations show a lining made in the skirt. In this latter case, the outside part of the skirt is seamed up entirely separate from the lining, after which the lining is fitted in and felled just as you would put in the coat lining.

This sort of lining in a skirt is highly desirable when the skirt is a plain or gored one, but it does not give such satisfaction when the skirt has plaits, for the lining would prevent the plaits from lying in close, sharp folds if i]t was put in every plait. While the skirts intended for walking purposes have been very plain for the past season or two, the newer models show a decided tendency toward plaits.

Chapter IV. Second Fittings

HEN the coat is tried on the customer for the second time, the front edge should be turned in and basted ; the bottom should be turned up and basted ; all seams, except the underarm and shoulder, should be stitched ; a bias piece of thin, loosely woven, French canvas should be in readiness for the collar fitting; the seams of the sleeves should be stitched, gathered at the top, and properly turned up at the bottom, but not basted in the coat, and you should have a feeling, born of the painstaking effect you should have put in the former fitting, that there will be very little alteration required.

Having put the coat on the customer, allow the fronts to lap in a comfortable and easy manner, and pin them in this position. The material of the coat, being usually of a looser weave than the cambric or drilling pattern which you fitted, stretches a small amount, and the fronts of the coat, consequently, may not lie as close to the figure as they should. If such is the case, open the shoulder seam and move the front of the coat closely to the figure, after which pin your shoulder seams together. It is well to fit both shoulders at this fitting, care being taken that the two fronts join the back of the coat at the shoulder seam in relatively the same position, for the shoulders of the average person are slightly different. One shoulder may be higher than the other, or the shoulder joint may be placed farther front on one side of the body than on the other, but in either case it is best to fit both shoulders in order to have the coat drop squarely from the shoulders or "balance" properly, as many tailors refer to the matter.

If your customer has very sloping shoulders, or is round-shouldered or stooped, do not attempt to fit the coat too closely around the arm.- hole, but rather leave it loose, and build it out with several layers of cotton wadding basted together. This pad is to be sewn in the coat before the lining goes in.

This will greatly improve the appearance of the shoulders, making them look less sloping, and the person with the round back is made to look more erect.

The same principle holds good in fitting the front of the coat. If your customer is hollow in front of the arm, instead of fitting the coat closely, leave it a bit loose, so that the line from the shoulder to the bust is straight.

Then if there is too much fulness, build it up with wadding. It is often desirable when planning for wadding to experiment a little in an endeavor to ascertain what the finished effect will be, and a bit of crumpled tissue paper placed inside the coat where the wadding is to be used, will show both the customer and the fitter what result the padding will produce. The armhole of the coat should receive your most careful attention. It should be just as small as the customer can comfortably wear it, especially when the sleeve is to be small, for you cannot make a small sleeve look well if the armhole is too large.

A small armhole also gives greater freedom of the arm, for it is obvious that if the armhole is cut out too much, the sleeve will drag the coat upward when the arm is raised. The coat should be a little higher at the back of the armhole than it is in the front, and keeping the coat high in the back will greatly assist you in fitting a sleeve that will permit the wearer to bend her arm and move forward her elbow without an uncomfortable drag in the back where the sleeve joins the coat.

The "gentleman's" collar, regarded by the average tailor and dressmaker as the most difficult part of the coat to make, is very easily put together and fitted, if a few principles governing its shaping are understood.

Start with a piece of thin canvas about five inches wide and nine inches long, cut on a true bias, as indicated in Fig. i.

FIG. I

(Right here I think it well to tell you that every coat should have an individual collar pattern fitted to it. Many tailors and dressmakers try to use the same pattern on different coats, and that is the beginning of many of their troubles with back collars. After you have fitted a few collar patterns, according to the directions here given, you will find that the making and fitting of the entire pattern will not consume more than two or three minutes.)

Next fold your canvas on a line that runs like the dotted line C C, Fig. i. The edge A is to become the under or standing part of the collar, while B is the turnover part. Stretch the edges A and B all that the canvas will permit. Your canvas will then look like the drawing in Fig. 2. Next, starting at the center of the back, pin the canvas to the neck line of the coat as indicated in Fig. 3.

FIG 3

FIG. ^

The folded line of the canvas should run downward, so that if it were continued it would form the line on which the lapel of your coat turns over. Having pinned the canvas to the coat as indicated in Fig. 3, turn the collar and lapei over as shown in Fig. 4. If the collar seems too tight, turn it up again and raise or lower the forward part of the canvas (D in Fig. 3) as the case may require. After you have found the place it fits best, mark, with a piece of tailor's chalk or pencil, the line E E, Fig. 4, or any other desired shape. The line