Pattern-Cutting Made Easy

book on patterning by Thomas Brophy, Junior

I. Introduction

II. The Primary Pattern

• describes a slotted paper method
• mean shape
• removes a wedge from the back of the heel forward to the waist for proper draft
• recommends against any adjustment for toe spring in patterning
• [refers to this later as the “Electic System”, after the pen name he used to publish in trade journal]

III. Principles of Design

[almost entirely a theoretical or philosophical chapter]

• Competition is a foster-parent given to man for his guidance and protection…

• comfort, attractiveness, utility

• Never speak about anything big in the presence of the fair sex, or you may make an enemy for life.

• “Wurtemburg heel”

• More people have died by unsanitary boots than people are aware of, or care to inquire about.

• extremely pointed toes under Richard II, extremely broad toes under Henry VIII
• straight lasts coming back in fashion in France
• beauty
  • proportion
  • symmetry
  • utility
  • perfection
  • decorative art or ornamentation
• Venus de Medici: 5’2” tall, 9” foot]

• proportion is often odd, whereas symmetry is always even

• Or, as “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” let the shoemaker himself start the racket, and the support that ought to come, will and must come. We are too much content with supplying the demand: why not cause an extra demand by beginning supply?

• we must remember that what might please the “upper ten” is often contemptible with the “lower orders.”

• Any residue of the “tinsel age” should be erased.

• “seam-to-toe”

• Always put a lighter colour in the legs of your upper than in the vamps or foxings, if you want your contrast to prove effective. With black materials place the dull colour also in the leg, while glazed enamelled or polished stuff surrounds the remainder.

• Hogarth’s “line of beauty and grace”
• Polygraph designs [like a modern Spirograph]

IV. Practical Designing

• vamp height
  • general rule: “low enough to go on easily, and high enough to look well”
  • average: one third length of standard
  • shorter for ladies on high Wurtemburg heels

  • One-eighth inch or one-fourth inch above or below this makes very little difference…

  • too low
    • unsightly
    • can slip on lasting
  • too high
    • hard to take on and off
    • burst on lasting or treeing
• vamp length
  • usually double AB

  • the wing of vamp is usually the same length as height of vamp

• The depth or width of wing is one-third the width of vamp, i.e., each wing is one-third, and the space between them another one-third.

• it is always well to have gol quarter never lower at back than front, for if otherwise an awkward seam comes upon a very tender part of the heel, besides it looks far from stylish

• adjustments
  • add quarter inch up front seam and back seam
    • for seaming
  • cut half inch from top of leg
    • will be covered by top band
    • prevents frayed edge at top
• mistake to use same pattern for lining
• no spring at all
• quarter inch difference between outside and inside leg quarters of button boots
• usual seam allowances
  • sixteenth inch for light material
  • eighth inch for heavy
  • quarter inch for woven fabrics, overlaying 3/8

• The front of all quarters or legs (at B, Fig. 6) should contain a little extra allowance for contraction in maching.

• For lasting ¼ in. is sufficient for hand-sewn, and ⅝ in. for all other sorts of work.

• The designer must always keep three things in view when cutting any style of pattern—first, its utility, second, its beauty, and third, its economy.

• Utility must not be sacrificed for beauty, nor beauty for economy.

• good economy
  • extreme bottom corners of vamps, since lasted away
  • vamps and straight toe caps as separate pieces, not overlapping [false toe caps]

    • also enables a pointed last to throw off a better shaped toe, as there is not so much bulky stuff at this spot

    • Some bespoke masters have a piece of inferior stuff whipped to the vamp in place of the portion cut off.

    • Every clicker knows that it is the peak fo the toe and the projecting corners of lining patterns that cause all the waste in cutting.

  • Shoe linings should be divided in like manner, and not have the seam at the usual and very bad spot in a shoe—the back of heel. The seam of the quarters is there, and that is more than enough..

  • Top bands should always be divided at the back seam. They look equally as well as when whole, and are most economical in clicking.

• A very common blunder I see in a vast amount of work is that side-springs are inclined forward, and laced boots backward. This is decidedly wrong.

• button boots get shorter vamps than Balmorals, since harder to get foot in and out
• “Lorne shoe”

• The tabs of a Derby pattern should be situated two-thirds the length of the whole from the back seam.

• don’t round tabs of Bluchers, Derbys, Lorne shoes

• The majority of the usual designs can be changed into different patterns by a few slight alterations.

• Derby to Navvy:
  • quarters whole back
  • straight tops

  • tabs elongated into peaks almost coming to the toe

  • add water-tight tongue
  • tongue at top: heel measure minus ankle

  • The machinist in attaching the quarter and tongue to vamp has to pull this slit very open to make it fit on the vamp, which actions throws a permanent spring into the tongue, and causes it to stand up well. No blocking is necessary, and the pattern is rendered very economical in cutting.

  • All water-tight tongues should be closed on top of vamp and not under.

  • ordinary straight tongues annoy by failing to stay in place
    • stitch to one side at top of facing
    • fasten to quarter under last eyelet

• In pitching whole back boots forward so as to make them sit in well at back, don’t overdo it, for, as the material used in this style of work is generally very heavy and hard, it would be likely to chafe and inflame the leg of the wearer.

• “army rejects”
• shoe patterns
  • modify boot patterns
  • best to work from last instead
  • 1832 Henley ploy
    • assembled tons of shoemakers
    • claim: shoemaker could make six pairs a day with sufficient materials

    • This grand and valuable secret, gentlemen, consists in simply cutting the legs off of boots.

  • “seven shoe”

  • Theoretically speaking, all shoes should have inside and outside quarters, so as to fit the ankles properly.

  • graduate scallops from bottom to top
• discusses question from City and Guilds of London Institute Examination Paper of 1888 No. 6: “How would you cut a whole golosh pattern?”
  1. joined gol vamp
  2. slightly spring the gol wings
  3. spring so inside edges of gol wings touch at back
  • some use the cutout in the middle for boys’ tongues
• slippers should be sprung

• All the parts of a design have a certain proportion to the length of standard or to themselves.

• method from American Reporter
  • divide length in twelve equal parts
  • [compare Sabbage’s Sectionizer]
  • Ball 2/12
  • Instep 4/12
  • Heel 6/12
  • Ankle 4/12
  • Leg 5/12
  • Length of Vamp 4/12
  • Length of Quarter on Bottom 4/12
  • Location of Ball Measure from Toe 3/12
  • Location of Instep 6/12
  • front leg line perpendicular, starting seven twelfths from toe

• “Jack” or hunting boots, apparently all in one piece, but in reality having one seam coming down the front of the leg, across the throat, terminating at the inside waist, closed with a flat seam, and completely hidden in ingenious enamelling.

• describes Oxford prize shoe without any visible seams

• Many of us laughed at the idea of making long work to fit closely around the ankle, yet this is accomplished in an Italian boot by a spring, and by a bellowsed opening in the “Field boot.”

• “Garibaldi”
• method for taking bottom paper from a last
  • fasten paper
  • trim with scissors
  • finish with knife
• laced, button, elastic boots: higher in front of leg than back
• strong lace boots: “full up to measure, and sometimes over at the ankle, and especially at the heel”

• All tongues should appear half an inch above top of quarters.

• button boot standards 1/16 inch larger in fitting than laced
• elastic designs: make spring as narrow as possible

• As a general rule, the width of gore is quarter of the whole ankle circumference.

• method: measuring tape from back of heel over the toe

• If anything, have your standard quite dead, for no laster can fully eradicate the pleats round the upper which eminate from an excessively sprung pattern, especially when working on a spite-toed last with such material as crup or enamelled leather.

• Never peak the bottom corner of heel by hollowing the waist…

• A great number of cutters advocate that the end of wing of vamp and side seams in all work should come in the waist of pattern (bottom of instep), or halfway between heel and toe of standard.

• Take in all the trade journals that you can afford to buy and read.

• “I have learned enough to know how little I do know.”

V. Regular Gradation

The numerous methods of for graduating.–Repeated construction.–Arithmetic fractions.–How to compile a correct and complete scale of fittings.–Simple and useful method of grading.–American process.

VI. Mechanical Grading

The property of the triangle.—Explanation of geometric grading.—Grading tools.—Use of mathematical instruments.—The proportional compass.—Universal system applicable to all patterns.—Unproportional grading applicable to various countries.

VII. Appendix

Bespoke work.—Improved system of measurement.—Last fitting.—Cutting to irregular measures.—Long work.—Metallic patterns.—Systematic arrangement of working patterns.