Instruction Book - Drafting and Cutting Dress, Basques, Sacks, Coats, Etc #231285

The invention of our method of measurement, and the machine to simplify it, are the result of our careful study and experiments with the various systems, charts, etc., in use. We have devoted the last twelve years to investigating this subject, and found that when these charts or systems were used their success was due entirely to the judgment, talent and experience of the party using them, and that the systems themselves proved most indifferent guides, and were only satisfactory when the good sense of the dress fitter detected their mistakes and rectified them. While most of these systems and charts claimed to give actual measures, nine out of ten were merely proportional scales, some on pasteboard and called charts, and others on tapes and squares, called systems.<br><br>Each was based on the idea that all forms were perfect and exactly similar, and that, because one lady was straight and fully developed, every lady must be the same, forgetting that ladies' bodies vary as absolutely as their faces, and that to base a system on the measures of any particular figure as a guide would equal the absurdity of selecting a photograph of a beautiful face to represent the features of all mankind.<br><br>Some ladies after buying a paper pattern that gives no satisfaction, are surprised that her neighbor, with similar bust and waist measures, procures a pattern that fits her perfectly. Experience only teaches that the old style charts, systems and patterns are inaccurate, and that we have no reliable rule of proportions.<br><br>Having arrived at this conclusion years ago, we discarded the old theories, and have since devoted our time to perfecting a method to overcome the objections to the various systems in use, and then, in so simplifying that method that anyone could use it correctly.<br><br>Our system of actual measure is the simplest in use, and yet gives the contour of the body, or shape of the lady, more perfectly than any other.<br><br>The Garment Drafting Machine is as variable as the measures themselves, and gives to each part of the garment its proper shape, and accomplishing perfectly and simply what the taking of the impression of the form failed to secure.<br><br>It requires no guess-work, and almost entirely discards figuring, and enables one to perform five times the work that can be effected with any other system. It also so simplifies the work that a fifteen-year old child can easily learn to fit garments.<br><br>This being the only method that can be implicitly relied on for the making of dresses from measure, without refitting the figure, and having the testimonials of many of the best cutters and dressmakers that our country affords, showing its vast superiority for ease and perfection of fit to anything of the kind obtainable elsewhere, we submit it to your consideration with supreme confidence.<br><br>An extract from one of our references embraces the whole subject within a very small space: "You have the easiest method to learn and the best to use, and nobody with common sense could be induced to return to a chart, square or patterns."