The Cutter's Practical Guide, Part 10 E-Book

W. D. F. Vincent

• Herausgeber: BoD - Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: The Cutter's Practical Guide
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 110

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

"Time tries all things, and no better test can be desired than the fact that after years of widespread recognition as a standard work on Cutting and Practical Tailoring, this book has so grown in favour that edition after edition is demanded. This, the tenth part, deals with all kinds of Waistcoats and similar garments, and though it comes late in the series, it is not by any means the least important class of garments the tailor is called upon to produce. No pains have been spared either by author, artist, or printer to make this part a worthy companion of the preceding ones. In conclusion, we can justly make a further quotation from the Preface of Part One, which will be found to apply with equal force both to the individual part now before us and to the Cutter's Practical Guide Volumes as a whole: "Very rarely, if ever has a work so comprehensive been published in connection with the Art of Cutting, as this great work by Mr. W D. F. Vincent.

Leseprobe

"W.D.F. Vincent was born in Junie 1860 and began his career as an apprentice with Frederick Cooper in Yeovil. After completing his training, he briefly established his own businesses in Oxford and later in Maidenhead as a clothier and tailor, though neither venture was financially successful.

While in Maidenhead, Vincent won an essay competition on tailoring, which was open to all members of the National Federation of Foremen Tailors, titled "The Great National Work on Trouser Cutting, or Defects in Trousers." He submitted his entry under the pseudonym "Oxonian" and won the first prize. This success led him to secure a position with The Tailor and Cutter magazine. In the early years, Vincent contributed numerous articles on tailoring methods and techniques to the magazine. However, due to the terms of his employment, these articles were published without attribution to him.

By the 1890s, Vincent became a leading tailoring authority. His books, such as The Cutter's Practical Guide to the Cutting & Making of All Kinds of Trousers, became standard reference work. By 1917, Vincent referred to himself as a journalist. He died in June 1926.

The Tailor and Cutter magazine and academy were operated by John Williamson & Co Ltd. In the 1950s and 1960s, many tailors displayed their Tailor & Cutter Academy Diplomas, signed by W.D.F. Vincent, as the Chairman of Examiners, as a centerpiece in their shop windows. One such example can still be seen on display at the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans in South Wales."

(cf. https://vincents.org.uk/family-history/w-d-f-vincent-tailor; 15.12.2024)

This edition is a reprint of the legendary Cutter's Practical Guide series; the first book was published in 1890. Although W. D. F. Vincent wrote many books on tailoring, these are the most popular. The entire text has been meticulously read, and the images have been carefully cleaned and edited to ensure the highest quality.

Part 01 – Juvenile Garments

Part 02 – Body Coats

Part 03 – Trousers, Breeches & Knickers

Part 04 – Livery Garments in all their varieties

Part 05 – Overcoats

Part 06 – Ladies' Garments

Part 07 – Defects, Remedies, Trying on

Part 08 – Economical Cutting

Part 09 – Lounges, Reefers, Norfolk, Sporting & Patrol Jackets

Part 10 – Waistcoats for Gentlemen, Ladies, Military & Naval Officers, etc.

Part 11 – Shirts, Undergarments, Collars, Cuffs, Aprons, etc.

Part 12 – Clerical Dress

Part 13 – British Military Uniforms

Content

Preface

Origin and History

Variety of Material and Style

Taking the Order

The Measuring

Check Measures

For Vest Cutting

Scale of Proportionate Measures for Vest Cutting

The Draft of the Back

Drafting the Forepart

Variations

Different Degrees of Openings

Vest from Lounge Pattern

The System in Brief

The Back System

The S.B. Forepart

Fashionable Styles of Nocollar Vests

S.B. Nocollar

Horseshoe Front

Fashionable Dress Vest

Livery Vests

The Linings

Double-breasted Vests

D.B. Nocollar

The New D.B. Vest

Practical Details

Clerical Vests

The Clerical Standcollar Vest

Cassock Vests

Bishop's Apron

Unusual Styles

Vests as worn at Court

Military Vests

Vests worn by Naval Officers

Vest Slips

Full Dress Livery Vests

The Cummerbund, or Waist Belt

Combination of Shirt and Vest

Sleeve Vests

The Difficulties to be Overcome

Disproportion

Variation from the normal Figure

Special Provision for Corpulency

Other Kinds of Disproportion

Stooping Figures

Erect Figures

Sloping and Square Shoulders

Sleeves for ordinary Vests

Ladies' Vests

S.B. Nocollar Vest

D.B. Nocollar Vest

D.B. Vest with Lapel sewn on

Steproll Collar

Stand Collar

Fall Collar

Hints on Making

Economy

Defects in the Fitting of Vests and their Remedies

Too low at Back Neck

Too high at Back Neck

Loose Round Back Scye and Dragging from Sideseam to Nape

Loose on Shoulderends

Tightness over the Hips

Tightness at Shoulders

Vest too Large

Too Large at the Chest

Too Large at the Waist

Tight at the Chest

Tight at the Waist

Vest too long

Vest too short

Loose round Neck

Tight on top Button and looseness at front of Scye

Looseness of front Edge

Loose at Crease Row

Surplus Material in the Shoulder

Crease in the Shoulder

Looseness at Crease Row

Bottom Standing away from Figure in Front

Irregular run of Bottom

Vest Making

Washing Materials

PREVIOUSLY PRINTED BY THE JOHN WILLIAMSON COMPANY LIMITED, 93 & 94 DRURY LANE, LONDON, W.C.

https://www.becomeatailor.com

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

FIFTEEN YEARS after the publication of the first part of the first edition of this Encyclopædic work we are publishing a revised and enlarged edition of the Tenth Part, and in doing so we cannot better express our sense of doing the right thing in the right way than by repeating what we said at the time of publishing the THIRD EDITION OF PART ONE, viz, "That the confidence with which this work was introduced has been thoroughly justified by the result." Several of the parts have gone through five editions, while a glance at our stock book reveals the fact that two or three others are running so low that steps for reprinting will be immediately necessitated to provide for the large and continuous sale the work now commands. "Time tries all things, and no better test can be desired than the fact that after fifteen years — or rather during fifteen years — of widespread recognition as a standard work on Cutting and Practical Tailoring, this book has so grown in favour that edition after edition is demanded.

This, the tenth part, deals with all kinds of Waistcoats and similar garments, and though it comes late in the series, it is not by any means the least important class of garments the tailor is called upon to produce. No pains have been spared either by author, artist, or printer to make this part a worthy companion of the preceding ones.

In conclusion, we can justly make a further quotation from the Preface of Part One which will be found to apply with equal force both to the individual part now before us and to the Cutter's Practical Guide Volumes as a whole: "Very rarely, if ever has a work so comprehensive been published in connection with the Art of Cutting, as this great work by Mr.

W D. F. Vincent.

THE JOHN WILLIAMSON

COMPANY LIMITED.

The garment we purpose dealing with in this volume is generally looked upon as one of secondary importance to the coat or trousers, and in a certain sense this is correct, for being largely hidden from view, and frequently of the plainest type, there need be little wonder that only a scanty amount of attention is paid to it. It was not always so, however, for in the olden days, when dress was of a richer and more artistic description than it is to-day, the vest came in for a very much larger share of attention, with the result that it often gave relief and brightness to an otherwise sombre costume. This, however, has long since passed away, and to-day we get but a few faint echoes of the departed glory of the vests of long ago.

We do not wish to ignore the attempt that has recently been made to revive the taste for fancy vests, which has, to a certain extent, been successful; but even these,with all their richness of design, are not worthy to be compared with those worn in the 18th century both in England and France. Whilst, however, we frankly admit the decay of vests from the elaborate standpoint, we gladly call attention to the increase of practicability observant in them at the present time.

Usefulness has become the ideal which has supplanted grandeur, with the result that we have practicability instead of fanciful design, and this is clearly in line with the character of the age, which is certainly utilitarian in the highest degree.

ORIGIN AND HISTORY.

Waistcoats appear to us to be a comparatively modern garment; they found no place in the dress of the Puritan age; their first popularity seems to have been made some two hundred and thirty years ago, though they are mentioned in the latest inventories taken in the reign of Henry VIII., 1547. But the day of their real birth is described by Pepys as follows: — October 15th, 1666 — "This day the King, Charles II., begun to put on his vest, and I did see several persons of the House of Lords and Commons too, great courtiers who are in it; being a long cassock close to the body, of long cloth, and pinked with white silk under it, and a coat over it. — On the whole, I wish the King may keep it, for it is a very fine and handsome garment." The King had declared his resolution of "setting a fashion for clothes which he would never alter."

Plate 1.

In his council meeting of October 7th, 1666, in the short space of ten days, the fashion had so caught on that the historian above referred to says: "The court is full of vests; only my Lord Albans' is not pinked but plain black, and they say the King says the pinking upon white makes them look too much like magpies, and hath bespoken one of plain velvet."

The vests at this time reached down to the knees, thus bearing a certain resemblance to a bishop's apron. These garments were made with large pockets and flaps, and this style remained in vogue till the reign of George III., a hundred years later, when they began to be cut down; first of all they were deprived of their flaps, then made shorter, till at last they only reached to the waist, and they were indeed only "waist"-coats. These appear to us as ridiculously short, as the original style was unnecessarily long. This continued for some time, so that the vest of the time of William IV., now close on seventy years ago, is described as being of buff colour, reaches only to the waist, has a Prussian collar, and buttons at the top hole, then two buttons are left open for the frilled shirt to project through, whilst for Evening Dress the style was roll collar, and the colour of lavender.

When Charles II. set this fashion, he little thought he was introducing a style which would be adopted by the most intelligent nations of the world for hundreds of years, and though it is true the vest has undergone considerable change since that time, yet the garments of to-day are certainly belonging to the same family.

VARIETY OF MATERIAL AND STYLE.

We are inclined to think men are very prescribed in their choice of materials, etc., when we see garments of the old style, and yet it is not so really, for we doubt if our forefathers could draw upon such a list as the following: Cloth, Tweed, Silk, Velvet, Velveteen, Satin, Knittedwork, Crochet, Cashmeres, Piqué, Linen, Drill, Valencia, Plush, Corduroy, Moleskin, Leather, Fur, Flannel, etc., etc., all of which are used in a great or less degree at the present time.

In the matter of style, we also have an almost unlimited repertoire, so that our customers may indulge their fancy to a very much wider degree than is generally supposed. For instance, here are a few fancy styles drawn to our instructions by our artist, whilst there is a large variety of the plainest styles to be found in the following pages. There is no doubt that customers are more willing to order novelties in vests than in any other garment, hence they hold the field for variety, though at first sight their scope may be circumscribed.

On approaching this subject for practical consideration, we find that the variety of style is really very great, for we have special styles for Juveniles, a different set for Gents, and still more so for Ladies, whilst each class or profession has its speciality. The working-man has his long-backed D.B. vest, the coachman and the Groom his Sleeved vest of striped valencia, the Naval Officer has his regulation pattern, and the Military Officer is not behind in this respect, whilst the Clergy have a still larger variety, which are looked upon as their exclusive styles, and in addition to these we have the more ordinary styles worn by the middle-classes, who do not attempt to display their calling by the waist-coat they wear.

By this time, we have no doubt our readers will be able to realize there is plenty of scope before us, and as we have a desire to get to the essentially practical as soon as possible, we will proceed to give a few hints on

TAKING THE ORDER.

It is very seldom that a vest is ordered by itself; it either forms part of a suit of the same material, or of the same material as the coat. In some districts, however, it is the trousers and vest which go together, but as the vest is almost sure to last longer