But I have genuinely started to find major commonalities across all tailoring manuals and that means my next step is really important. The El and Baras both really neatly fit into metrics. Really nicely.
But.
Metrics is a division of 10s, 5s, and 2s for whole numbers, while the el and baras were mostly into halves, quarters, and thirds, with divisions of each.
My problem is that the nicest quad/graph paper is 5mm which then means each division would sit within such a large number and it would be hard to distinguish between 3 and 4.
But it really is a fantastic size that allows me to do 1/10 and 1/5 scale patterns that are really easy to recognise the cutting lines.
Imperial is worse to be honest. Despite being able to be divided into 2, 4, and 8 it’s how the thirds and sixths wind up as well as the actual dimensions of each unit.
I do have a better idea of how readily fashions were able to adapt across time and space, but it’s not really easy to explain how freeing it is even while extremely limiting!