Year: 1889

page_text: We, GUSTAF FREYTAG and ELISE FREYTAG née Eschenhagen both of 23
Invalidenstrasse Berlin in the Empire of Germany, Manufacturers do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
Our invention relates to an improved adjustable pattern-plate for drafting garments,
and the object of our said invention is to provide a pattern-plate which fully answers
the chief requirements on which the usefulness of the apparatus depends, namely, to
allow its being flattened down on to an absolutely plane surface, after adjustment, to
enable the measures of the body to be copied, thus allowing the several pieces of the
garment pattern to be drafted with mathematical accuracy. The application of our
improved pattern plate may be readily understood by any persons without experience
or skill, and it would enable them to draft patterns and make clothes and garments
which fit exactly and need no trying on.
Pattern plates of various constructions for drafting garments have been, hitherto,
known and used, but most of them fail to fulfil the chief requirements as stated above,
because, most of them consist of a frame-work which, for overy separate part of a
garment, is composed of several triangular, quadrangular or polygonal pieces,
rigidly connected to each other, when copying the body, and forming rounded or
curved surfaces that cannot be flattened down to give the accurate draft, as will be well
understood. Further, with the use of such frame-work, the outlines of the garment
pattern are determined by curved bars or rods, which, on account of their rigid and
unchanging curvature, are unable to cover the varying outlines of the patterns which
may be different for every individual body.
Both of these insufficiencies connected with apparatus of this kind hitherto
employed, are fully overcome by the pattern plate of our invention. The outlines of
the garment pattern are determined by a system of ordinate, coordinate, and
radial bars, by which any desirable number of points of the pattern outlines may
be determined and maintained; the outer ends of said coordinate bar or strips,

page_text: which determine the outline of the pattern are connected to each other by elastic
wires, which, owing to their natural suppleness, readily and exactly conform
themselves to the actual outlines of the pattern, without establishing such a
rigidity of connection that would prevent the pattern plate from being fully
flattened down.
In the accompanying drawings, in which like parts are indicated by like reference
letters:
Figure 1 represents a woman's figure encircled by the pattern plate to copy its
measures.
Figure 2 represents the pattern plate removed from the body and flattened down
to a plane.
Figure 3 represents one part or standard of our improved pattern plate, drawn
to natural size, and
Figures 4 and 5 are detail views of sundry parts, drawn to an enlarged scale, as
will be hereinafter more fully described.
One half of the improved pattern plate consists of the front part or standard A
with the two bodice fold parts A¹ and A³, the two side parts B and C and the back D
hereinafter referred to as ordinate bars. For each of these parts or standards a long
central blade a, preferably of elastic, flexible sheet metal is provided, which carries a
number of cross blades or strips 6 adjustably arranged in steps one over another, and
branching off to the right and left of the longitudinal central blade a. The blades a
and 6 cross each other within a sliding loop or casing c, where they may be adjustably
secured to each other by a binding screw f Figure 4.
The outer ends of the cross
blades 6 are turned up or rolled to form lugs or cars 6 Figure 4, through
which the flexible wires d loosely pass. The upper ends of said wires d are
fastened to the cross blades while their lower ends extend freely down. The
undermost cross blades 6 and the uppermost cross blades 63 64 66 of every two
adjacent parts or standards of the pattern plate are united to each other by rivets e
forming link joints, by this means the pattern plate for one half of the body, as a
whole, is composed of the several parts or standards A¹, A1, A2, B, C, D riveted or
linked to each other.
In taking the measure or copy from the body for a piece of garment, the outer
ends of the coordinate or cross blades 6 are so adjusted as to adapt themselves to the
respective seams of the garment on the body, accordingly, the two adjacent wires d
of two adjacent parts or standards of the pattern plate will coincide with each other
and exactly cover the seam between the two corresponding parts of the garment. To
determine the position of the lower edge of the waist, as well as the seams of the
neck and arm hole of the garment, no special connecting wires d are required, as the
outer edges of the coordinate blades 663 64, in those parts, would almost exactly
coincide with such connecting wires, the more so, if such blades are rounded off to
some degree. The ends of the radial blades 6' determing the exact outline of the
shoulder seam, are preferably connected to the adjacent neck and arm hole blades by
means of intermediate blades 66, instead of wires d, in order to secure the link joint
connections or rivets e.
In flattening the apparatus down to a plane, the adjacent connecting wires d will
spread asunder, leaving between them ellipsoidal or similar spaces, as shown in
Figure 2, which are to be cut away from the cloth or fabrics, in order to adapt the
same to the form of the body. Above the hollow of the breast, a similar, but
horizontally extending piece must be cut out of the cloth or fabrics, in order to
allow the cloth to well adapt itself to the depressions. These spaces in the two front
halves of the garment used to be cut from the under cloth for the purpose of avoiding
the upper or outside cloth to be spoiled by horizontal seams. To determine the
exact shape of this horizontal front space above the hollow of the breast, we proceed
in much the same manner as described with reference to the other or lower parts,
by using the ordinate blades 6 and wires d. Only, the outlines need not be fixed by
so many points, it will be sufficient to determine the two ends of this space and the
highest point of the hollow. For this purpose we have provided the ordinate

page_text: blades 6 and 610, connected or pivoted to the radial blades 67 and 68. The rear ends
of said radial blades 7, 8 are slotted and connected to the longitudinal central blade a
of the fold part or standard A¹ by means of a sliding loop or casing c, the screw f of
which passes through said slots, thus enabling the said blades 67 and 6 to slide out
and in, and turn on the screw pin, as shown in Figure 5. In taking the measure or
copy from the body, the sliding loop c is shifted to the lateral end of the breast
hollow, the ordinate blades 6 and 610 are adjusted to keep, with their outer ends, the
highest point of the space, thus making the blades 6 and 68 to coincide, as in
Figure 1. When flattened to a plane, the blades 67 and 68 will spread asunder (as
before described with reference to the wires d, which may, if desired, be used instead
of the said blades) and form a wedge-shaped space, which constitutes one half of
the void to be cut out of the cloth, as indicated in Figure 2. The other half of said
void belongs to the other half of the body and pattern plate, and is indicated by
dotted lines in Figure 2. The longitudinal blade a of the front part A of the pattern
plate is interrupted at that part of its length occupied by the breast hollow, for the
purpose of avoiding any obstacle in flattening the pattern plate to a plane. Similar
indentations are to be formed in the hollows of the back, the extent of such being
A determination of the amount and
easily determined in the manner described.
shape of these horizontal pieces to be cut from the pattern and cloth or fabrics, has
never, to our knowledge, been tried before with any of the pattern plates and similar
apparatus hitherto employed; with the frame pattern plates, generally in use, it is
quite impossible to copy the exact amount of such horizontal voids. On the contrary,
the tailor has had to try the amount of removal according to arbitrary estimation and
repair any deficiences after trying the garment on. With the use of our improved
pattern plate, no trying on is required at all.
Our improved pattern plate with co-ordinate blades accordingly, offers three essential
and particular advantages, namely,
First, it allows of an absolute flattening down of the apparatus.
Second, by increasing the number of ordinate blades (cross blades or strips) any
desired amount of exactness in copying may be attained, and
Third, it allows of determining the exact amount of the horizontal openings to be
made in the pattern and cloth.
To provide an easy and reliable connecting and disconnecting means of the
central blade a with its cross or ordinate blades, we prefer the following con-
struction :-
On to the longitudinal blade a flat casings or loops c are passed, consisting of a
hollow casing open at two opposite sides as shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5. A screw f
secured
passing through a tapped hole in the upper surface of the loop c has a lever
to it, which lever is made elastic in a vertical plane. From the lower surface of said
lever g a pin g¹ projects, catching into one of the recesses of the casing c to lock
the screw f. Between the lower end of screw f and the blades a and b to be
connected, a washer i may be arranged, serving to distribute the pressure acted by
the screw, and thereby preventing any shifting when the screw has been tightened.
The screw thread is of sufficient pitch to enable the connection or disconnection of
the blades to be effected by a very short turn of the handle g. Within a loop or
casing of the kind described three to five thin metal blades may be arranged to cross
each other and to be adjusted and secured in any desired position. The cross blades
may be made of strong or tough paper, parchment, or any other suitable material
instead of metal.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. An adjustable pattern plate consisting of a series of longitudinal flexible blades
or strips a one for each longitudinal seam of the garment, each of said longitudinal
blades or strips carrying a series of cross blades or strips b adjustable both in the
the antral hlada

page_text: 2. An adjustable pattern plate consisting of a series of longitudinal flexible blades
or strips a, one for each longitudinal seam of the garment, each of said longitudinal
blades or strips carrying a series of cross blades or strips b, adjustable both in the
lateral and longitudinal direction of the central blade, in combination with flexible
wires d loosely connecting the outer ends of said adjustable cross strips, substantially
as and for the purposes set forth.
3. An adjustable pattern plate consisting of a series of longitudinal flexible blades
or strips a, one for each longitudinal seam of the garment, in combination each with a
series of cross blades or strips b, adjustable both in the lateral and longitudinal
direction of the central blade and with flexible wires d loosely connecting the outer
ends of said adjustable cross strips, the uppermost and undermost cross blades of each
contral blade a being hinged to the adjacent cross blades 6 of the adjacent central
blade a, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
4. In an adjustable pattern plate consisting of a series of longitudinal flexible
blades or strips a, each carrying a series of adjustable cross-blades or strips b, the
combination of said central blade a and cross blades with sliding loops or casings c
and screws for other suitable clamp for the purpose of adjustably securing one,
two or more cross-blades to the central blade a at a single point, substantially as
set forth.
Dated this 21st day of Ton 1900