The Secrets of Drafting: Patterning a 1920s Men's Coat 

Here, here!

Seconded. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown

I think small-scale drafting can be a great way to navigate the more obscure drafting instructions. Figuring out the tricky bits beforehand and also checking if things look about right, before you delve into the human-sized drafting process. Plus, tiny patterns are cute :D

Oh my god that is why this weird way to say “holding weight“, “mass”

@@olhamukhina7570 Yes and no (I think). To me it sounds simply like a more technical way to look at the data that is relevant. What are the expected measurements and proportions vs. those of the actual person. For example, as someone with a female body I'm having problems with most drafting guides for female clothes because my weight distribution is not what they assume it to be. Talking about where I am "holding weight" means focussing on the important bits for the task at hand without being judgemental about my body. A more abstract way to look at the body - that is also gender-neutral :)

@@craftlete I understand your point, though holding weight in different ways for different people is different from carefully avoiding calling female breasts what they are🤔 or at least one can use comfortable euphemisms if shy. But calling breasts just weight.. well it’s not what that actually is. It’s the question of definition and meaning

@@olhamukhina7570 But it is just weight/distribution when it comes to drafting a pattern. The definition and meaning of words are ALWAYS context-dependent, not set in stone. This is why there tends to be lot of confusion where, say, science and medical reporting interfaces with non-scientific readers, for example, since the terminology used on one side can mean vastly different things to those on the other, depending on the context and lexicon they're familiar with. And of course, terminology shifts dramatically over time (like Nicole's difficulty figuring out what "high shoulder" and "low shoulder" referred to). A man could have a very similar amount of weight up front as Nicole (say, a dude with a fleshier power-lifter shape) and obviously still not have "female breasts." Likewise another person could be very muscular across the back with almost no weight across the front and little hip-held weight, and yet still be fully female in terms of their identity, or carry a lot of upper body fat while having small breasts (male or female). If you end up using gendered terminology like "breasts" to identify what is being accounted for or measured, when what you really mean is "full bust" or "upper chest," it just can create more confusion than clarity and result in different people measuring different things depending on how they interpret what is said. The terminology being used here means everyone can reference the exact same terms and get consistent, accurate results, no matter what they may personally call those areas. tl;dr - specific industries, crafts, disciplines and other sectors have specific terminology that may not be the same as lay terminology for the same things. When it comes to drafting and cutting patterns, weight distribution is the more appropriate terminology for creating accurate results.

@@sonipitts Thank you :D When I wrote my original comment, I couldn't really put into words why focussing on measurements and data without relying on gender-specific terms made sense to me from a logical point of view. Which is why I related it to discribing a body without judgement. But reading your reply I realise that focussing on measurements and the mass distribution around a circumference is useful in a universal way - provided the units are established, of course :D

Oh my you are so funny

@@lovecats6856 Aww, you're sweet. I was serious though! Historic buildings, warehouses, office buildings, grocery stores, restaurants, one of the smashing pumpkins recording studios! 👍🏼 A garment for myself? 😒 Nope! I might have been scarred for life when I got my belly ring caught on the pencil ledge of a drafting table 😬

And that's what I Love about sewing. There's always another iteration of a technique. My Lockdown thing was teaching myself how to sew from You Tube. After around nine or ten tries I was able to draft my own shell dress for the Foundations Revealed competition. Took most of the year. Thirty years drafting - it definitely is magic. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown

@@stevezytveld6585 I learned to pattern draft while I was pregnant with my son, I took a semester long class at our junior college. My final project was a maternity dress! Every time I wore it to work, I got complements. Maternity clothes in those days was a bit too cutsy for my job.I ended up making my wardrobe for work.

Whenever I have to do something in metric I just re-measure entirely in metric first. Easier than doing any conversions. I have a couple rulers with both and I just try to forget that the numbers "mean" something 😂

@@NicoleRudolph I'm the same with measuring tapes. The worst part is when I start measuring in cm and somehow end up finishing it in inches 😂

@@Noel.Chmielowiec then you only find out when it's too late 😆 At least that's how I've experienced it

@@Hair8Metal8Karen Yeah, lately I've been working on 1895 walking skirt and managed to make it 20 cm too big because the pattern instructions were in inches and I've spaced out while drafting. It was hilarious when I've put it on and it slided to the floor :D But the best part is that I thought I've corrected it, but nope, still 10 cm too big. It took me 3 times to get it to correct fit.

I use a roll-end of newspaper (that doesn't have these dots) that a friend gave me when she found a stockpile of them in the house she and her husband bought, but a lot of wrapping papers have a 1-inch grid on the reverse - and you can get them at a steep discount just after Christmas. If you don't need the grid, you can also use butcher paper or builders' paper. Builders' paper is the sturdy paper builders lay out on the floor so they can traipse through your new house in their muddy workboots without destroying your new floor or permanently embedding grit into the subfloor and risking that it might be enough to affect your finished floor. It's similar to the paper in paper grocery bags and therefore more useful than slick butcher paper. My local Home Depot (a hardware/home improvement store) carries it.

If it's loose along the entire width of the shoulders (one big long gap) then you can shorten the entire back/shoulder area. If it's just at the center back you should start by opening up the shoulder seams. Figure out where your back height should stop and then figure out how the shoulders reattach. They won't line up the same angle so pin on the body if you can!

Thank you! I read that three times slowly before I could totally visualize, but I've got it and I'm taking a screen shot!

Grid pattern paper of course 😊

It may be the measure of the full bust vs the measure at the highest arm pit point. I usually figure these things out by seeing where they have me apply the measurements. Manuals often have measuring instructions in the front as well!

@@NicoleRudolph that makes much more sense, thank you so much for replying!!!! and I'm sure that most of them have super detailed measuring instructions, I just seem to have found one of the few that has diagrams but not labels, which is of course super helpful lol

Drafting manuals were often systems with their own proprietary set of rulers, so what you’re missing is probably the accompanying tool that’s meant to be used with that specific drafting manual.

@@ragnkja That would certainly make even more sense than simply missing a regular tailor's square, given that the few I've seen haven't had the measurements I expected!

It's very much the same! The proportions will change as there is less ease and the shoulders are more narrow, but the instructions themselves are VERY close. I definitely recommend using one of the many drafting books instead of magazines to start. There are so many great vest drafts in those with great instructions and variations!

Any good tailoring manual would help if it’s a jacket or vest. Some include pants. I know there are free pdf ones online because I have seen them posted, previously. However, a more modern book may help because they include color pics.

@@mcomeslast thank you!!