The McDowell Garment Drafting Machine
ICOM (International Council of Museums) classification 12.5, Dressmaking Materials
The McDowell Garment Drafting Machine was first patented March 18, 1879. Subsequent patents were received on January 6, 1885; August 10, 1885; and May 18, 1886. This information, along with "9956 The McDowell G.D.M. Co. 6 W 14th St New York USA," is stamped on one of the brass bars making up the front template. An 1885 county directory from Fort Jones, CA, lists a Mrs. E.A. Christie as "State agent, McDowell Garment Drafting Machine." The instruction booklet quoted and scanned here is the "eleventh edition" and was registered with the Office of the Librarian of Congress in 1887. This Drafting Machine was designed to replace numerous older pattern-making processes, including a number of "square and chart" systems in use. These all generally required a great deal of fitting the nearly finished garment on the actual wearer, causing the dressmaker to expend much more effort than should be necessary. This Drafting Machine automated most of the difficult drafting and accommodated virtually every body type. According to the extensive instruction book included with the set, it "so simplifies the work that a fifteen-year-old child can easily learn to fit garments scientifically."
Dressmakers saved up to thaf the time it took to cut and fit a garment. This savings repsesented an enormous advantage for them. At the time, a ladies' dressmaker made approximately one-fifth what a tailor made for a man's suit. This was in spite of the fact that the suit, particularly the predominant sacque suit, required considerably less exact fitting than a fashionable woman's garment. The inventor, A. McDowell, advised, "Let your motto be: Better work and better pay."
The Drafting Machine itself consists of four pattern pieces and a 48-page illustrated instruction manual. Each pattern piece is an interlocking grid of calibrated brass bars joined with screws. Each bar is inscribed with markings corresponding to various measurements. The user takes a lengthy set of measurements (more than 20!) from her customer, then sets the various rules in a given order. When all the measurements are set, the pieces create templates for drawing customized patterns -- bodice front, underarm, back, and side body. The templates are expanded or contracted according to the wearer's height and girth.
These are traced onto paper for creating a permanent pattern with darts, cutting lines, and stitching lines all accounted for (trace inside for stitching lines and outside for cutting lines). You can see on this image of the bodice front piece the many adjustable parts, designed to take into account every vagary of a client's physique. The form of the two darts, just as in my study garment (link to be added), is clearly visible. A checklist of questions -- Is the wearer high-waisted? Is the skirt plain or bustled? Is the back rounded? et cetera -- provides specific directions for altering the templates to further fine-tune the finished pattern to the wearer. In case the user erred in making measurements, remedies are suggested. Directions are also provided for creating many different styles, according to the wearer's taste, from the basic pattern pieces. To complete the rest of the garment, detailed instructions are given for creating paper patterns for various styles of sleeves and skirts. These patterns are based purely on geometric systems, not on templates.
The seamstress is also exhorted in the introduction to be an agent for good taste, encouraging attractive and becoming dress, with appropriate colors, fabrics, and trims, for her clients. "Study these points, and when seeking a position as forelady, or cutter, and fitter, your value will be greatly enhanced. If you would become an expert, and we hope that such is your aim, you can command your own price."
The basic front pattern created by the template can be adjusted to be double-breasted, made more suitable for a "fleshy" woman, lengthened into a polonaise, loosened into an overcoat, etc. Geometric formulae for various styles of sleeves are included in the instructions. These are drawn freehand, based on measurements, not with a brass template.
Skirt patterns are drawn freehand as well, based on the wearer's measurements. Different styles could be created easily. This is for a trained skirt.
Accurate measurements are essential to the success of using the Drafting Machine, but with the correct measurements in hand, a seamstress could create a custom-fitted garment for a client she's never even seen. The seamstress is urged to learn the correct use of hte tape measure to obtain true "actual measurements." The drafting square also comes into play.
The instruction book also gives considerable attention to correct basting techniques, considered the foundation of a well-made garment. Helpful tables are provided for figuring the amount of fabric of varying widths required for different style garments. Overall, virtually every aspect of information a seamstress would need to successfully use the system is covered int he instructions.
I have so far been unable to determine the actual selling price of the Drafting Machine. However, the instructions have numerous testimonials printed on the back, and several satisfied customers had these things to say:
Enclosed please find check for another machine for a lady friend. I like my machine more and more every day. I would not take $500 for it if I could not get another. -- Mrs. R. H. Lansing, Williamstown, Mass.
I have been using your Garment Drafting Machine for over a year, and have not used a pattern since. I can cut and fit a dress in less than half the time. ... I would no sooner do without it and do dressmaking than I would do without the sewing machine. I recommend it to all dressmakers. -- Laura E. Fredericks, Saratoga, Ind.
I have tried the machine on a great variety of forms with the best result, and can now say it is the most accurate and quickest mode of dress cutting in existence. I have been dress making since 1857 and have used many different chart and square systems, they did not suit me, but the machine is perfect and saves so much time. -- Mrs. Sophia Sternberg, Olympia, W.T. (Washington Territory; it wasn't a state until 1889)
The Vigo County (Indiana) Historical Society has one of these drafting machines in its collection.
I purchased this set -- complete, in its original box, with its instruction book -- for $59 years ago at an antique show, but have never actually attempted to draft a garment with it. When the sewing room recovers, perhaps I'll give it a try and see if I agree with Mrs. J.A. Mickle of Bloomington, Wis., who said, "It saves me so much trouble that it seems to rest me to use it"!
