This Victorian dress cutting instruction booklet was found with the belongings of my great Aunt about 45 years ago. It was printed in 1887, according to the cover of the book. It's fascinating, especially if you love historic costuming and pattern-making. I have scanned it all into PDF format; there are 40 pages, with 31 diagrams and one artistic plate showing how to measure a woman's figure . Also included is an 8-page, small brochure with "Advanced Lessons in the Art of Dress Cutting"; which has 14 diagrams.
This is the Fourteenth Edition of the book, written by W. R. Williams, and originally came with cardboard pattern blocks from which other designs were developed. Mine is missing the cardboard pieces, however, the illustrations and directions in the booklet are very detailed.
Examples of patterns to be drafted are a "One piece Bell Skirt' which measures 4 yards around the bottom, along with collars, flounces and a "Sleeve With Enlarged Top". There is a ''Dartless Basque" and directions to draft a "polonaise, wrapper or princess dress", plus more.
I am not selling the actual booklet, I'm still having fun with it, but I want to share it with you so--- it is in a scanned PDF format. Because of this method, there are No Refunds and No Returns on this order. AND... there are also no shipping costs : )
Send your payment to Paypal and I will send the PDF copy of the booklet to your email address as listed in Paypal. If you want your PDF booklet sent to a different email address, please contact me and let me know before you pay.
This file is available for your own use, however, you may not sell the PDF booklet itself or copies of it because I formatted it and produced that myself. I did actually find one hard copy of this book, on line, in a rare book store and it is retailing for $375. I am happy to share my PDF version with you for a much lower cost!