Padding canvas flat and inserting darts after - opinions?

[Despos]

So many illustrations here in German. Wish I could read them or find translations.
Creating/working in the hollow close to the neck really helps the shoulder stay planted on the client. It's complimentary to working fullness over the shoulder point/bone. I hold that area convex from the underside (concave from the face side) when padding  the canvass. I do this best I can but would love to hear more ways or methods to achieve this.

[TSjursen]

Here is a rough translation of the text I posted on the previous page. Some points are not explained fully, I suppose the original text must have been edited to fit on a single page, but most of it should be discernible from the diagrams in connection with the text. (Abbildung / Abb. means "figure".) The text talks about the three neck point positions, these are fully explained in other parts of the journal, I might translate them and put them up on the forum if I have time. They give a really clear and understandable explanation of how different positions of the neck point (all else, posture etc., being equal) are used according to how the ironwork to create chest shape is done. I think I have their method of ironwork for the shoulders somewhere as well. If I remember correctly they were already against doing a lot of stretching in the armhole area at this point. The text is from a 1930 edition of the German journal "Der Schneidermeister". It was swallowed up into Rundschau / Müller & Sohn sometime after the war.

The text describes making a linen canvas with a hair canvas or haircloth chest piece. Elsewhere in the journal using hair canvas instead of haircloth is recommended to avoid problems with the hairs working out and poking the wearer. No shoulder pad or only a very thin pad is used, unless a padded effect is desired (artificially heightened shoulders, as they call it). The padding is done from the outside / fabric side of the canvas. No domett is used. Keep in mind that the shoulder seam of the coat described would have been much further toward the back than in a modern draft. The position of the large cut in the armhole should be at the point of greatest prominence of the shoulder bone. It is not specified in the text, I guess you were expected to know approximately where this point was on the particular cut you were using. The piece of canvas used to cover the cuts from the inside must be cut on the bias and stretched with the iron to the same shape as the canvas. Also important to note is that when they talk of keeping the gorge short they do not mean to actually pull the stitches so tight that the canvas gathers. It is only to aid in preventing the canvas (and fabric) from stretching out in the gorge.



How I Make a Hollow Shoulder!

It is no wonder the question of shoulder manipulation has caused many of our colleagues countless troubles, as it is truly among the most difficult in the art of tailoring. To begin with, it must be kept in mind that success in the proper making up of the shoulder depends on both the type of cut, the fabric used, and the correct working up of the shoulder with the iron. In cutting the forepart, we differentiate between the straight, the "universal", and the crooked neck point position. In a straight cut the entire chest shape is worked in from the armhole only, while in the "universal" cut the round over the breast is achieved by shrinking in the same amount at both the front edge and armhole. With a crooked cut, all the chest shape must be worked in from the front edge. From this it can be seen that the crooked cut is only suitable for fabrics that take particularly well to the iron. It must also be seen as very old fashioned, and today really only comes into question for corpulent cuts. For normal figures, the universal and the straight neck point is used.

Both the cut and the canvas must be adjusted to the desired neck point position. Firstly, I cut the canvas according to figure 1. For a straight cut I place the canvas with the straight grain along the front edge, in all other cases however, I cut the canvas on the bias. Since in a straight cut the front edge is not worked up with the iron, the canvas can be cut on the straight here. With a universal or crooked cut on the other hand, the front edge must be worked up. This is easier to do well with a canvas cut on the bias.

As figure 1 shows, the shoulder part of the canvas is not cut on the same line as the shoulder seam of the forepart. For this reason, about 1.5 to 3 cm is added to the armhole on the canvas. Then, a cut is made about 1 cm from the neck point, extending 5-6 cm downwards as from a-b, figure 1. In addition a cut is made from c to d. In doing so, care must be taken to ensure that the ends of both cuts are placed about 3 cm apart.

The darts in the canvas are cut with curved lines, and are butted up and sewn together with a baseball stitch or a cross stitch. The position of the horsehair chest piece is shown in figure 2. The cuts in the chest piece from e to f and g to h are at least 3 cm from the cut in the canvas at the armhole, and closer to it, about 1 to 1.5 cm away, at the end of the cuts. The chest piece is also cut near the neck point from i to k as shown in figure 2. These cuts near the neck point are only intended to open very slightly. A gusset is then cut to fit the final shape of the large cut, adding 1 cm to all edges. It must cover the exposed part of the chest piece completely when sewn on. The chest piece is then basted on to the canvas from neck point to the break line, so that it won't shift during the next steps of making up.

Now, with the canvas side up, the shoulder part above the large cut is held in place while the canvas is rotated downwards until the cut opens up about 2 cm. Here, too, special care must be taken to make the edge of the cut curved, as shown in figure 3. This gives a nice run to the shoulder hollowing. If it is not done in this way, the shoulder will tend to crease or show a kink later down the line. In the same way as just described, the part below the cut is now held in place while the top part is rotated upwards to open the cut an additional 2 cm. The top edge of the cut is then basted down with the same degree of curve as the lower edge. At the neck point, a piece of canvas is placed underneath the cut, and the cut opened to about the width of a seam [0.75 cm] and basted down. A canvas prepared in this way will have attained the exact shape of the body.

Now turn to the inside of the canvas and baste on a piece of linen canvas as shown in figure 4 by the outline c-d. This covers all the cuts on the inside. Figure 4 shows how the various parts fit together. The canvas can now be padded, beginning with the front part of the shoulder from the middle of the canvas, as shown in figure 3. This area is kept hollow when padding, in effect giving some extra length to the chest piece here. The direction and position of the pad stitches also has the effect of keeping the gorge slightly short. The other half of the shoulder is then padded in the same way, but here no extra length must be given to the chest piece. The rest of the canvas is then padded lengthwise as shown in figure 3. In doing so the canvas is held round over the hand. If all these points are observed, and the ironwork of the shoulder done properly, a nicely hollowed shoulder is produced, which readily accommodates the exact shape of the body. Any slumping or nasty creasing is thus avoided in the finished garment.

[Schneiderfrei]

You beat me to it TSjursen,

Thank you for your interpretation and explanatory notes.

G