Tag Archives: The New Dressmaker

Once you’ve altered the length of your pattern, according to the New Dressmaker, the next step is to do fitting in a muslin.

Ah, terminology. As I mentioned last post, “Waist” means, as far as I can tell, “bodice.” The focus is on making the changes in the muslin. And, it appears that (quelle surprise!) women in the early 20th century had the same figure issues we’re always talking about today: large or small bust, square or sloped shoulders, straight or curved back… The only one they don’t much go into is waist. I guess the corsets were still taking care of that.

Voila!

A while back, my mother (antiquer and thriftarian par excellence) presented me with several vintage-to-antique sewing related books. I thought I’d try to feature a few things from (at least one of)  them while I’m In Transition from one city (and province) to another.

The New Dressmaker

Meet The New Dressmaker—Copyright 1921, but with illustrations that hint at their earlier origin.

I like several things about the New Dressmaker—for one thing, it’s very well-illustrated. I’ve read (or tried to read) several early-20th-century sewing books and between the terminology differences (“plait”=pleat, “waist”=bodice) and the lack of illustrations it can be fairly flummoxing. And while it doesn’t have much in the way of pattern-drafting information (it is, after all, produced by a pattern company), it has lots on sewing techniques, and everyone’s favourite—fitting. 😉 So I figured I’d share the various fitting chapters over the next few posts.

This first fitting chapter discusses making basic length adjustments to the pattern itself.

See what you think