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Road To Tailoring For Beginners by mezebel(f): 5:30pm On Sep 24, 2015 |
Please read this all the way through. It is over 2600
words long and did this for your benefit so start
your journey in tailoring the right way by taking in
this treatise. Thank you.
Beginners, Home-sewers and those
passionate about tailoring.
I wish to welcome you to the Cutter and Tailor
Forum and glad you have found this little vault of
tailoring knowledge on the web. I am not an official
spokesman for this forum, just a passionate
contributor and thought this will help cover the
absolute basics to help one get started, this will
help keep the posts down asking the same
questions over and over again while giving a
central depot to all the beginning information to be
referred to.
As alluded to above, over the past few months or
so, there has been certain reoccurring themes in
the threads started by those new to tailoring that
has prompted me to write this guide. In this guide I
will give the beginner a step by step focused look
into how to get the most out of this forum. From
where to start to beginning your first garment. But
first, lets take a moment to look at some basic
information that will make this forum more
enjoyable for all and give the beginner some back
ground.
What this Forum is:
The forum was started in March of 2009 by Sator, a
passionate enthusiast of tailoring, to give the trade
a place to “talk shop”, to educate, and to learn from
experienced tailors throughout the world. As the
trade has declined over the years, the trade
journals and sense of community has started to be
lost as well. This forum is a step forward for a new
and progressive community of, for, and by tailors.
As such, the majority of the topics on this forum
are advanced in nature and well beyond the skill
set of the beginner. So with this in mind, new
sections have been added as the forum grows for
those just starting in the trade. The "The
Apprentice Cutter and Tailor" <click> section was
set up to allow those new to tailoring to be
educated by either the pinned posts or by posing
your question to other forum members.
Remember, the only stupid question is the
question not asked. When posting a question, be
patient and humble with the replies, no one is
getting paid to help you. I will tell you now, being
demanding, a know-it-all, or telling the tailors how
to teach WILL NOT gain you any favours and the
gift cow will dry up as quickly as it produced!
What the Forum is not:
While the purpose of the forum is to educate, be it
for beginner or advanced practitioners of the
trade, this is not your own personal tutorial site . In
the past people have even made demands of the
contributors. This is rude and frowned upon .
Please realise many of the contributors to the
forum are busy and make a living out of tailoring,
their advice is given with the best intentions and
from their own time. While the contributors are
more than willing to answer your questions and
help, remember that you can only be helped as far
as you are willing to help yourself. With this said,
please let me guide you in how to help yourself.
First off, this is NOT a historical or costuming
forum for home sewers, if you ARE a professional
costumer please read this thread. If you come here
to learn how to make a Victorian Frock coat by the
weekend, FORGET IT! You will be shown the door as
this is NOT the scope of this forum and there are
many costume forums available for this sort of
thing. Some may think I am hypocritical in my view
of this as I, myself, am considered an expert in the
field (toots horn) and openly write on and make
historical garments. To answer this, I respect this
forum and its rules. I respect the members of this
forum and their expertise and thus follow the
guidelines probably more than most here. While I
do make historical garments, I am, first and
foremost a tailor. Lastly, on this subject, DO NOT
message me if you think Sator or any of the mods
are being unfair to you or your aspirations to learn
historical tailoring, I will always side with the ToS
(h) * of this forum. Thou hast been warned.
Beginning your journey:
As the forum has been up for well over a year now,
and through the prolific and tireless scanning by
Sator and others, it should be some time before
you actually have to ask your first question. In each
section there is more than enough to keep one
busy until you hit a snag and need to ask for help
or advice, typically around the first fitting. We do
understand that a little help is needed to discern
what is important to where you are and where to
need to be, so the following will give you a rough
guide in how you should focus your efforts. Again,
there is more than enough information to get you
started in tailoring, please be aware though that no
book, article or on-line tuition will ever be a
replacement to an apprenticeship or personal
mentoring in person by a practising or retired
tailor. There are a few here that learned from
retired tailors and have built up a good living.
Others here have had proper traditional
apprenticeships. Never-the-less they will all tell
you, no matter how broad and exhaustive this
forum becomes, this forum will never replace
experience, wisdom and knowledge that you can
only find with a tailor. Seek out a tailor if you can!
Some steps to make your learning experience
better:
1.First thing you will need to do is leave any desires
of grandeur, big dreams, ego and enthusiasm at
the door. While these are important, they will only
hurt you in the beginning.
2.Be humble and respectful not only to the art of
tailoring but to the contributors as well. They have
years of experience and are willing to share, so in
return take in, evaluate and apply their advice if
applicable.
3.Remember tailoring has a thousand years of oral
traditions passed from master to apprentice, it has
only been resent, in the long history of tailoring,
that these “secrets” have been put to paper. As the
trade is no longer a large as it once was
apprenticeships are few and far between and at the
present moment this forum IS the best resource to
learning the art of tailoring. As mentioned before
though, it is NOT a replacement for learning from a
tailor in person.
4.Make an effort. Take a little self initiative with the
following advice and put it straight to practice. The
more you show, the more willing we are to give
input and advice to help you develop your skills.
5.Lastly, we will be honest with you even if you are
not honest with yourself. We have passion for what
we do and as such respect the art and science of
the trade. With this understood, not being honest
in our thoughts and actions will be disrespectful to
the trade. Also bearing this in mind, some posts by
contributors my come off or perceived as
condescending and/or condemning in nature, this
is not the case. Unlike costuming or home sewing
forums where everyone is nice and give
compliments over every little thing, we will not. So
please do not take it to heart, as professionals we
have professional standards. This is good, as you
will always know we will be honest in our critiques,
which will help you better yourself in the end.
The Basics:
As with any trade, there are certain foundational
skills that need to be mastered before making a
serious study of the trade. You can not build a
house if you can not swing a hammer so to say. So
here are some recommended steps to get you to
the absolute basic skill set before you attempt any
tailored garment.
Starting out
Your first hurdle, when starting out, is to hold and
use your thimble properly. A simple enough thing
you might think, it's not for most people. This in
itself will test your mettle in wanting to become a
tailor, or at least learn tailoring methods to
improve your home-sewing projects. Your thimble
should be an open top thimble, to make sure it's
the right size you must place the thimble on the
table, wide in up. Now place the middle finger of
your sewing hand into the thimble. The tip of the
finger should be able to touch the top of the table
easily yet not fall off when you lift your hand. This
in mind, lets find a thimble, look at this thread
<click>!
Once you get a thimble that fits, you need to
purchase a blister pack of multi-sized betweens.
In Continental Europe, get Prym no. 5-9 betweens.
The no 5 needles (the longest) are used for basting
and buttons. The no. 7 (middle) is for general
sewing and seaming. The no. 9 (shortest) for felling
and thick cloths.
In the UK and North America, get John James no.
3-9, The no 3 (largest) then would be used for
basting.
Soon you will get a feel for the different needle
sizes and can purchase them by the size as you
need them.
Now that the thimble and needles are sorted, you
will need a bit of good worsted cloth, preferably
with a pinstripe, a cake of bees wax and a spool of
40wt mercerised cotton in a contrasting colour to
the worsted. Once you have these simple tools
read this thread!<click> Paying particular attention
to the opening section of Liberty's work as this
explains how to sit and hold the thimble and
needle. If there is any doubt if you are holding the
thimble and needle correctly watch this <click>
about 1:37 in until about 2:00 then watch it again.
Look at where the base of the needle is on the
thimble and mimic the movements.
Here are some helpful hints, start with ONLY the
fore stitch. This will help your muscles gain
memory of the movements and holding the
thimble without making any extra movements.
Hold the needle so as your fingers are about a 1/4”
from the point. The reasoning behind this is when
you bite the needle into the fabric and break the
cloth over the point you should always have a 1/4”
stitch. Think of it as the amount past your fingers is
the stitch length and when you grab the needle at
the same point each time you, have calibrated the
length of that stitch and each succeeding stitch. If
you have problems keeping the thimble in that
position as you are not used to it/ can't get the
muscles to work that way, try this <click>.
NOW
Do this exercise until each fore-stitch is evenly
spaced and straight and you have full control over
the needle and thimble. Be honest with yourself,
this will take a week to a month depending on how
often you practice. Then move on to the back-stitch
and repeat the process all over. I am not being
funny, I am dead serious about this. This is a
serious trade, not a hobby, and it will not be easy.
If you do this right from the beginning, I guarantee
by the time you make your first garment the
workmanship will be much cleaner and you can
take a little more pride in the finished product.
Once you have a thorough understanding of the
fore-stitch, back-stitch, cross-stitch, padding-stitch
and prick/side-stitch you are ready to move on to
Your First Garment.
Your First Garment should either be a skirt
(recommended) or a pair of trousers. I had been
an advocate to start out with a commercially
available pattern, but I have come to realize much
work would be needed to make them suitable for
tailoring that you might as well draft your own. It
can be a little daunting at first but like the stitches it
gets easier with practice. Once you make up a few
you will start to see how the pattern truly works
and be able to adjust more readily.
Each person here has their own drafting system
that works for them, and if you ask them they will
tell you “it's the best” so we will try and start with
something simple. Mansie has been kind enough to
provide a nice trouser draft in metric <opens a
download of the system>.
For this you will need some craft paper, a yard/
meter stick, a tailors square (fairgate) and hip
curve (fairgate) along with a good pencil, I use a
.07mm mechanical with H lead. After you draft
your pattern, cut it out, place pieces on your toile
cloth and trace the patterns with a good sharp
chalk. Add inlays and add marking threads and
then cut out.
Now we are ready for making up!
But now, how do we actually make this up? Simple,
get a book. The most basic work on the
fundamentals of the trade can be found in Roberto
Cabrera's “Classic Tailoring Techniques: A
Construction Guide for Men's Wear” . It's not the
best in my opinion, but it's the easiest and most
widely available text on beginning tailoring. This is
probably the most recommended book on the
forum and is a good base to launch from. There
are a few methods scanned in the apprentice
forum, but they are a little more advanced or
antiquated and you will be scratching your head
more than if you use Cabrara's book. Make up a
few trousers, perfecting your patterns and using
Cabrera's methods. Once you achieve proficiency
using this book, move on to Trouser Making By
Archibald Whife and Phillip Dellafera . This will give
a more in depth look into classic trouser making
and will give you much more professional results.
As a side study whilst making your trousers have a
look at Jeffery's blog:
http://tuttofattoama...ral-divide.html
http://tuttofattoama...completion.html
http://www.cutterand...p?showtopic=435 |
Re: Road To Tailoring For Beginners by saintkel(m): 9:05pm On Dec 28, 2015 |
Swthrt pls summarize 1 Like |
(1) (Reply)
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