Wow. My cunning plan to connect has worked. I search for new digitisations/publications of tailor’s patterns pretty frequently (I mostly find long essays of the early 20thC atm) and my Frock Chick Files site pops up each time. This is great because I use a non invasive preview file and link directly to manuscripts and articles/books about it. So this means it’s easier to find some deeply buried archival links.
I have doubled my pre 1700 books thanks to wonderful friends who understand what I’m doing and I understand what they are doing and respect it all.
But I need to remember that Social Media is a really important tool, so I’m going to add SM links to authors of printed works because I know how powerful a simple like can be while wrangling a few centuries of manuscripts and published works alike.
Today I found the transcribed text of the Schuster manual and it pretty much ignored all the frocks. I’m not surprised, I think the forward is of a time where that was valued less, and it’s why I have dedicated my focus to frocks- but frocks for all. If you want or need a frock I want to help. I am more interested in how my understanding helps everyone including all genders because it is really tough as it is.
My pattern book is the same. I’m apparently of a height and size that works for the Spanish manuals and several extant garments, but that doesn’t help people who are not. So a huge part of what I’m doing now is to take the frock based garments and turn them into metric graphed patterns and to take the extant garments and look for all the piecings to both extend a hem and to add to the body seams.
It’s actually really cool. The language, not so much.
I think about my community and how that language is so negative and I am working on taking the best and leaving the rest in both how I share the originals and my work.
My spoiler here is that most body adjustments happen at the side. I know! When patterning though you start with a stable back panel, and adjust side and CF seams. What is maybe suprising is how very little that CF seam varies. I think in my system (and Alcega et al) with cutting the shoulder straps off you wind up able to adjust the side and the join where the shoulder meets the bodice. It’s a really cool little zone that acts like a hinge to change the direction of fabric and so can change the fit into that really complicated curve at the front of the join between arm and body.