Zuzana Kraemerova wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone know a good book on drafting patterns for historical
> costumes? I mean drafting custom patterns, like tailors do. I've been
> searching for some such books on amazon.com, but I haven't found
> anything promising. Since I can't look inside the book, I never know
> whether it's a "tailor - drafting" book or not. P.S.: I'd welcome
> periods from the middle ages to the turn of the century (19/20)
It would help if you could refine your question a little bit. Do you
want information on creating modern-style paper patterns of historic
clothing? That would lead to theatrical patterning books like Jean
Hunnisett's and modern drafting/flat patterning or draping textbooks, of
which there are any number.
Do you want information on how people in various historical periods cut
clothing? If so, you'll need to specify a period and location. People
in different eras went about this process in very different ways,
including but not limited to:
paper patterns (which you can find all the way back into the late 19th
century--check out http://www.vpll.org/ for examples from various
decades) created by drafting, flat patterning, or draping
drafting systems, some of which relied on specialized tools (especially
popular in the 19th century--check out many reprinted books at R.L. Shep
http://www.rlshep.com/)
measuring and marking directly on the fabric (there are tailor's manuals
based on this method from the 16th-18th centuries, but it really helps
to know what you're doing before you attempt to use them--see examples
at http://www.elizabethancostume.net/schnittbuch/index.html
http://www.vertetsable.com/research_freyle.htm
http://www.elizabethancostume.net/Tailors/)
draping and fitting on the body, postulated by Robin Netherton for the
fitted gowns of the 15th century (for a collection of her posts to this
list on the topic of the Gothic Fitted Dress, see
ftp://netherton.net/FittedDressPosts.txt)
geometric sewn construction cut to maximize fabric use and less
concerned about a close fit--this is what we think was done for most of
the middle ages (it varies by time and location--if you can specify a
time and location, someone on this list will be able to recommend a
source of information)
geometic draped clothing with few to no seams, used by various peoples
including the ancient Greeks (sources on this vary depending on what
culture and century you're studying).
I'm afraid that there's too much information about historic garment
cutting for it all to fit in one book. If you can specify a time and a
place, someone can probably point you in the right direction.
Melanie Schuessler
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
