Günther F. Hertzer

“ All that can be done is to point out certain forms; and the cutter who starts out on his cutting tour through life must always be on his guard, and study his customers, and imprint their forms upon his own brain. ”

“ It is wonderful what a different appearance you can give to the back of a coat by making the back and sidepiece lining longer or shorter. The peculiar manner of different persons in sewing the seams, or basting in the lining, will also have a decided effect upon the appearance, if not upon the fit itself, and a good cutter must understand all that; that is, he must be a good coat-maker, otherwise he will always be in trouble. In recent years the question has often been asked: “Can a cutter be a good cutter without knowing how to make a coat?” ”

“ There is one thing very strange about the tailor. Although the pantaloons he turns out are constructed on correct principles, he makes them all cross-legged. Like other men he pants for renown, but is mainly concerned for the renown of his pants. If you say ought against his trousers, I trow, sirs, he will give you fits. No matter how he may wear with others, the tailor tries to make others wear well. If he trusts you for your breeches, do not repay his kindness by breaches of trust.
He cuts his cloth economically, and yet much of it goes to waist. ”

“ To fit the shoulders and the sleeves together is really a question of how not to fit the body of a person, and still, produce a garment which will take the eye of the public. A tight-fitting shoulder at the arm, and a tight-fitting waist in the back, are not the present conception of fit, or of style, for men’s garments, and in all probability never will be. ”

“ Well, as long as a boy is fit to be a tailor, well and good, he needs no other qualification, but the qualifications to become a good tailor are just as various as that of a lawyer, or a doctor, or a preacher. If a boy is not brought up to work, but has been loafing most of the time, I would not risk him as an apprentice. ”

“ Fine garment-cutting and making are something more than can be learned from a multiplication table. It requires a practical knowledge of what a customer really requires, and what he ought to have; it also requires practical knowledge of the proportions of the different parts of a garment. It is, for instance, of little importance if a pants leg is half an inch larger or smaller, so long as the garment hangs nicely when on the body, and the bottom corresponds with the knee and thigh, and so on—all of which is something that cannot be learned from the books. ”

“ Whenever an infallible system of garment-cutting is to be invented, it must be something like a machine, which always does the same thing with the same result. Such an invention cannot be acceptable so long as the fashions and the styles are constantly changing. ”

“ If a customer gives you a thousand and one directions, take them all in, study what he wants, or what he really needs, make his garment accordingly, and he will usually turn out as a customer not hard to please. But if he tells you that you are the tailor; that you know best what he wants; that you shall make it according to your judgment, do not think that he will take anything, for he will usually turn out to be a very particular customer, who expects you to know your business. ”

“ At night he wonders how many suits will come back on the morrow, and when he sleeps he dreams of processions of angry men walking over him with misfit garments, and a disgusted employer trying to persuade him that he is a complicated idiot. ”

“ Guarantee nothing but the fit and good sewing; all other guarantees are worthless to either party. How can you guarantee the color of any material when you know that rain and sun and time will change even the color of a live animal? Guarantee the color only so far as to be as good as any other of that kind, or as far as you know, and your customer will always be satisfied with you if not with the color of his garment.
Pieces of silesia are just as good for stays as Holland linen is; therefore cut your sleeve lining or your vest lining out of the whole cloth. ”

“ All that can be done by a teacher is to point out causes and effects and approximate amounts for alteration; and a cutter must use his brains to pass judgment as to the amount taken off here, and given there, in each individual case, and that the ever varying forms of men will require an ever watchful cutter to fit it with such garments as a changeable fashion from time to time requires. Learning rules or going to cutting schools and hanging up a diploma near the cutting board don’t make successful cutters. ”

“ If a body were to be pressed flat from side to side, and then a cover cut for that form, both the center of the front and back would necessarily be cut on curved lines, because it would be essential to fit from front to back, or from back to front, just as we may take it. But on the human form both front and back must be fitted sidewise from their respective bases, and as both of the bases are on a flat surface it follows that both of them must be fitted, or nearly so, on straight lines, at least as far down as the hollow of the waist. ”

“ The square shoulder coat don’t fit as close around the arm as the one with the low shoulder, but the square shoulder hangs good, sleeve included, and no one will ask anything better. Any cutter can satisfy himself on that point by trying on different good fitting coats, on the same person, and by doing so he will soon find that a solid measure around the arm and shoulder, or a so-called “Balance Measure” is one of the greatest delusions the Nineteenth century has brought forth, in so far as fitting garments is concerned. ”

“ In short, all linings in the pants should be put in plenty large on both back and front, both in width and in length, on the same principle, as the lining in the back of coats is put in large. The larger it is, the better it will be. The outside of a pants mostly stretches, but the lining does not, and often shrinks from the moisture of the body.
If we should cut two pairs of pants over the same pattern, and make one up with, and the other without lining, we would find that the one without lining feels the larger when on the body. All pants lining should be cut bias. ”

“ In cutting and making pants, or any other garment, a cutter must know whom he is trying to fit, and for what occupation the garment is to be used. It wants to be considered as to whether the person mostly stands or sits. A person who wants a suit for a wedding requires a different thing entirely than a person who hitches up horses or who works in the field, or digs in a trench. A tailor requires a larger pants waist than a clerk, and any tailor who ignores this fact is mostly found squatting down with the top button of his pants open. ”

“ All kinds of measures have been devised, and all sorts of imaginary bases have been adopted to fit the forms of a man; but where one cutter succeeds with a certain appliance, others utterly fail. The fact is, even if all measures should give the correct amount, the body itself could not be fitted except on a few specified points, and all defects should be covered up in place of imitating them. To fit the stooping form in all its details would result in a misfit from the start, particularly when the back of the waist is very hollow. ”

“ There is always a class of men found who complain that they seldom have a coat large enough in the armholes, unless the coat is too large all over. Such persons are usually well filled up at the side of waist and hips, and require their coats large there, and if this is not done, the sewed up back cannot give, and consequently the coat must give in front, and the whole of it is drawn backward, taking the armhole with it, and striking the front of the arm, while the back of the armhole shows too much cloth. ”

“ A cutter must also take into account the occupation of a customer. A musician who blows a great horn requires his armholes backward, and a full breast, while a person who plays the violin requires his armholes pretty well forward, or, at least, he needs extra length in the back sleeve seam, no matter if it is a trifle loose when the sleeve drops downward. But if everything is well balanced it is wonderful how small, and again how large, an armhole a man can have in his coat and feel good in either of them. ”

“ The fit of a seamless coat must be put in by the maker, and it takes a cutter and a maker who knows what he is about, and one who don’t care how long it takes to make one and what it costs; in fact, it must be a work done for pleasure—not for profit, except perhaps to gain knowledge, for “Knowledge is Power.” ”

“ Any person who walks slowly throws his upper body more to a position of standing on one leg, than a fast runner, hence the slow walker is seen wabbling his head from one side to the other by every step, the same as a goose.
In this work the pants are calculated each leg for itself, and each leg has its own base; and they are so adjusted, that a person can stand, walk, jump, run, sit, etc., and it must be understood that when a pants is on the body the base goes with the leg, so that the base runs straight down when the person makes a step, or when he stands on one leg ”

“ Actual measurement, by whatever measure or name it may be called, is a delusion, for all so-called long or [115] short measures around the shoulders, neck and arms must be taken close over a body which we do not intend to fit as snugly as the measure itself. As a rule, said measures are seldom applied, or transferred to a flat pattern on the same line as they have been taken over the form itself. ”

“ I do not claim that the outer sides of a person’s legs actually slope fifteen degrees. In fact, I know they do not, but they come near enough to that to be practical for garment-cutting. It may be fourteen or sixteen degrees, and it may be even more than that, as on short and large-waisted forms, or it may be less than that, as on tall and slim persons, but fifteen degrees is the sixth part of a square and is easily found by spreading two lines one-fourth of their length. Going up from a certain point one yard, and across one-fourth yard, will make the angle of fifteen degrees. ”

“ If the body throws itself forward into a stooping position, the back bends and the front contracts at the pit of the stomach. If the body throws itself upward in a more erect position, the back bends the other way and the front expands at the pit of the stomach. The front only expands or contracts at the pit of the stomach. The backbone must be considered a hinge on which the whole body swings, just like a door on its hinges; and all alteration may be made from that point, either by stretching some parts or by folding up the pattern before the garment is cut. ”

“ But it must be observed that persons who sit a good deal and want a loose waist require the allowance in front and side and the back slope should be made liberally large, in order to obtain a longer seat, even if the seat shows surplus cloth when standing. A long back slope prevents the pants from pulling up from the bottom, when sitting down, and we find that pants which fit very neat at the seat when standing, are more apt to crawl up when the person sits down, than such pants which show surplus length of seat when standing. ”

“ The run of the seams, when covering the crooked form of a man, must always assume a different position when laid out on a flat surface, which is fully demonstrated in the back slope of pants. But a cutter should know how much they are out of gear from a certain line or base. If a cutter is able to cut a frock coat with a waist seam running horizontally around the body when the coat is on, then it will be easy for him to produce a square bottom, which is always in good style, and a coat that is too long or too short at one place is always a misfit. ”

“ We all know that a great many good coats are made every day without any gore whatever in the forepart, but we also know that such coats are pretty well worked, and the front edge drawn in, which is equal to cutting a gore somewhere. A gore under the lapel is always vexatious in the hands of an inexperienced journeyman, for it is quite easy to throw the shoulder of the garment out of place when basted on the canvas. ”

“ For illustration, let us suppose we have before us a man with a well-fitting sack,—not one that fits skin-tight at the waist and spreads out below over the seat, but one that is just what the ideal sack should be, which is loose, yet showing the outlines of the form. Say we button it in front, and draw over the waist a tape-line. We shall find that the more we draw it together the looser and wider it will appear to be; and the bottom of the back will become too short, because the line closer to the body requires more length, which in this case will be drawn up from the bottom. ”

“ If a coat is too small in the breast and no outlet anywhere, cut the canvas, and all lining and all padding through downward, and at the center of the breast, and insert a wedge of say one inch, after which the outside can be stretched that much, and the stretching will never go back. If the armholes are too small and no outlets, and the breast will become too small if the armholes are cut forward, cut the lining and padding through, under the arm down to the waist, insert a wedge of say one inch and stretch an artificial wedge in the outside until the armhole is large enough ”

“ If a cutter goes to the trouble to mark a line for every degree or fraction thereof, and draw stitches in them, he will find that the legs will fold, or can be pressed into shape, on any of these lines, and on no other. When such a pants leg is sewed together, it may be turned in almost any position, with or without back slope, and will always turn from the point of the angle, though cut off at the ankles; and the sweeps at the knee, or at other points, swept from the point of the angle, will always fit together. ”