Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/36

28 evident, that when the arm rests at the side, this variation is one of width or circumference from centre of hack to centre of chest, as well as length from the gorge over the shoulder to the wrist, for a wide or narrow back, invariably means a wide or narrow shoulder: but when the arm is raised as it is when the customer is being measured for the length of sleeve, what was circumference becomes at once length: hence whatever is lost to the back must be compensated for in both length and width, and this the system of itself works out admirably, forming the sleeve for the wide back flat, and the one for the narrow back with a lot of fulness; this is a necessity in tailoring wherever applied, if the seam does not go exactly over the prominence it is desired to provide for, hence the various modes of manipulation needed to suit different styles of cutting. It is, of course, too much to expect that garments cut with extremely wide or narrow backs can have sleeves made to fit as nicely as those cut a natural width; the prominence of the shoulder must be provided for, necessitating in. the case of narrow backs a much larger amount of fulness; whilst, if the back and shoulders were excessively wide, the sleeve would need to go in plain or even positively tight.

Illustrates the three styles of sleeve heads, and it will be readily seen that as the back is made an inch wider or narrower, the distance across the scye would be that much more or less. This is evidenced as from to 4½, 5½, 6½, and producing the amount necessary to fill up the round of the shoulder, and as the scye increases in size as the back is made narrower, and vice versa, so the measure from back pitch to front is made to vary 1 inch for every inch of difference in the back; the pitch of the sleeve being kept on a horizontal line makes a difference of a 1 inch whenever the back is varied, as in the present case; hence 0, 4, 4¼, 4½. The topside is naturally the part that is the most affected by variations in the back, but the underpart also needs some changes, necessitating the use of judgment in the sleeve balance as found by the square, in the working of the system, which naturally produces a slightly larger under sleeve for the narrow back. The variations to be introduced by the aid of judgment are shown on

And consists of not hollowing it out so much for the narrow back. The dotted line shows the changes to make for the narrow back, the dot and dash line illustrates the normal, and the solid line the wide back. These variations are necessary to allow the arm being brought forward or raised, for it must always be remembered the arm is the freest of all the members of the body, moving backwards, forwards, up and down, in a manner which defies the adjustability of the most elastic materials: consequently we have occasionally to err on the side of a little too much material, to permit these movements in garments held closely to the waist, otherwise a grand split would be the result, especially if the scye happened to be a trifle too deep. This is very important in Riding Habits, as the lady invariably lifts her arms well up in the act of mounting, hence a too deep scye and an under sleeve too much hollowed is to be specially avoided. Some ladies, however, are content if their jackets fit nice and clean at the back scye and do not require to raise their arms, trusting to the elasticity of the material for those occasions when this is necessary. For such, the under sleeve should be well hollowed and made slightly shorter and strained up to the hindarm of top sleeve when making.

The fancy style of sleeve head, which, during the past year or two, has been received with so much favour, has made the sleeve problem easier. The slashed sleeve head, the pleated topside, those arranged with sleeve capes, as well as the high puffed sleeves, all have the same result, though the extreme to which they are carried clearly indicate that the original purpose of merely providing sufficient room for the shoulder has been lost sight of, and fashion has been allowed to hold the reins of fancy.

Variations in the width of the elbow should be made equally at fore and hindarms, though the preference should be given to the hindarm, to make the larger share of the increase, and the forearm to decrease. Variations in the width of cuff should be made one-third at forearm and two-thirds at hindarm.

A fashion has been introduced during the past few seasons of putting a loose sleeve on the top of the ordinary sleeve, forming a kind of sleeve cape. The cutting of this is very simple, but it may be well to give it a place in this work. A reference to diagram 52 will show how to cut it: all that is necessary is to put the top and underside sleeve together at hindarm, and either arrange the elbow to touch, as in the present case, or if any amount of drapery is desired at the back, to arrange it open at elbow accordingly. The outline may be completed by drawing the forearm straight down from forearm to cuff, or cut as illustrated; the shape at the bottom is also a matter of taste. This diagram explains itself, so we will not dwell on it further than to note that in addition to illustrating how to cut the new