Page:The practical designer, for women's, misses', juniors' & children's cloaks & suits, shirt waist suits and dresses.djvu/254

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THE PROBLEM OF SPECIAL GARMENT CUTTING.

The use of special garment cutting for women is still misunderstood tor many reasons. The majority of tailors who make special garments to order fail to understand the use of special garment cutting, and clothes are cut carelessly, and the result is that after the garment is complete it is useless.

The fitting of ladies' garments particularly requires the knowledge and familiarity with a system of special garment cutting. But this part of the knowledge is not generally known to those who make use of garment cutting; so, therefore, garments made by them are not fashionable, being misfitted and crippled. Another reason why these garments do not fit is because those who cut them have no system and are not familiar with the fashion of all sorts for ladies' garments, which are as follows: Half-fitting, 3/4-fitting, 7/8-fitting, or a very full garment, which is called a box coat. It is understood that in these are many failures of the ladies' tailormade garments.

I have, therefore, prepared a set of twelve measurements for ladies' garments in such a way that they cannot fail to prove the build of all kinds of forms as: Normal, stooping, slim, erect and stout forms.

We need no complicated rules for this measurement, only a tape measure is necessary. Anyone who follows the instructions will be able to take a correct measurement. They are transferable to anyone who can cut garments by a special measurement system and will be useful for this purpose. These measurements are planned on the style of musical notes; that is, anyone who can cut by a system of special measurements can also read the build of a form when measurements have been taken.

The build of the form will be distinctly shown by the measurement, and these measurements will indicate the build of the form as follows: The full or flat chest, small or large waist, small or large bust, small or large hip, also regular or over-built back, short or long side length, short or long natural waist length and front waist length, short or long back or front, straight or round back, square or sloping shoulders, short or long neck, or if the figure is short, slim, erect, stout or normal.