The Old Way

There's a thread building up at one of my go-to-daily spots on the Net, www.cutterandtailor.com, that might interest pant makers that are interested in traditional and vintage tailoring techniques. It started a couple of days ago with some beautiful, clear scans of the trouser chapter from an early 20th-Century book on how to tailor, with lots of diagrams and plenty of arcane description (I'm not suggesting you should all go read it start to finish, just a scan will be interesting enough!) But then there's some responses so far that look like they might lead to more details on how current tailors make trousers, and on whether or not they bother with all the shaping and other intricate steps described in the text.

Part of my 1st comment was, "I'd love to somehow observe a fresh, new pair made as described here on the figure it was made for and demonstrating all the subtle points of shaping deemed essential by this text, compared to a modern garment that doesn't include them," and it looks like some folks might be willing to do just that, or something close.

So, I'm watching with interest. It's a fascinating forum all around, for those with a taste for pro talk about tailoring. By all means, check it out, if that sounds like you!