I'm just a 40-Something gamer, writer, editor, role-player, multi fandom nerd. This blog is a wacky mix of anything that happens to catch my fancy so hold onto your butts.
There are 3 main types, but from my research, this looks to be American Gregg Shorthand.
As you can see, there are set symbols for every letter.
Let’s break one of the words down:
Using the Gregg Alphabet as reference, we can see most of the letters in “atrophied” are present. But why no “o” vowel, and why is “ph” written as “f”?
Simple. In shorthand, you cut out all vowels in a word when writing it down, with the exception of words that BEGIN or END with a vowel (hence the “a” at the start being present), or like in the “i” in “atrophied”, to make it more readable when the sound could be harder to distinguish if it isn’t written. In “atrophied” if the the “i” isn’t written, it could be hard to tell if the writer meant a “fud”, “fad”, “fod” or “fid” sound, for example.
Also, since Shorthand is a phonetic writing system, you are encouraged to write down the phonetic sounds of words rather than the actual letter blends - in this case, write an “f” instead of a “ph”.
So in actuality, these aren’t just meaningless scribbles - it’s Gregg Shorthand, a writing system developed to take down notes more quickly than when written out in full, which is very useful in a medical or journalistic environment.
Some people can even write over 100 words in a minute! And, it’s been in use since John Robert Gregg invented it in 1888! Wow! So old!
First of all, the sartor system- the sartor system is convenient because it is made to draft patterns. It’s designed for men but it can be used for womens patterns just as easily with a great deal of success. These two pages can be found in the “sartor intro” file or the “sartor reference guide” pdf. Essentially, these are the bread and butter of pattern drafting- there are MANY systems of pattern drafting but because this is a very old one it is used for period costume a lot.
Basically, this is just a lesson in geometry. It tells you what measurements you need and how to adjust them and how to map out the entire pattern. There is also an extended body block for long coats and a sleeve block. This is a Lot of Math and it tends to stump many students, but this is one of my favorite things- similarly to math class, it’s turns pattern drafting into a problem with an answer. The only “trick” with the pants block is that the knee and hem measurement is up to taste and style, NOT a body measurement like everything else
So without detailing every tiny step of the block drafting, you now theoretically have a basic pants pattern. You can do a couple things from there- you can either make a mock-up out of muslin and adjust it from there, OR (and this is what I always do) you can head over to the sartor reference guide for patterns and adjust it to be closer to the end product BEFORE you make a mock-up. So say, the pants I want to make are c. 1775. If you look in the “by period” folder in the drive, you’ll see a file that includes 18th menswear. The breeches pattern is this.
The thing that’s great about this is that, do you see the dotted lines behind the breeches pattern? That is a copy of the pants block you have just drafted. So all you have to do it superimpose this pattern on top of your pattern (which is already drafted to your measurements) and you have a pattern for your own 18th century breeches!
You’re probably thinking, but hold on, this is 1730! Well yeah, that’s true. But breeches cutting probably didn’t change that much, right? Well let’s double check that. If you look at Waugh’s Cut of Mens Clothes in the folder-
And as you can see, the cut of the breeches is pretty much identical to the 1730 ones. You might consider lengthening them slightly, as these look potentially a bit longer, although you can always expect to adjust your hem in fittings anyways. These also look like they made have been for a slightly taller and thinner person, so that may also be why they seem longer. But remember, that doesn’t matter too much because your pattern block is already in proportion to YOUR body- it’s just important you look at the style lines from the period in comparison to the body block and adjust them to fit.
Once you’ve superimposed the pattern, you can go ahead and make a mock-up (which I would very much recommend for anyone using this for the first time) and adjust as you see fit.
PLEASE hit me up with flat patterning questions, I’m always trying to learn more on my own and I’m the most experienced with this method in the shop I currently work in, so I’m always looking for more problems to solve and advance my knowledge as well.
Clear as mud? Let me know if this is at all helpful. And shoutout to @vinceaddams and I hope their anon finds this useful as well!!
“This Belle Epoque opal and diamond choker was made at the turn of the century, in 1900. Four incredible rows of glimmering, pastel-hued opals alternate with three rows of sparkling diamond-set flowers, each centered with a lustrous natural seed pearl. These are bordered at top and bottom by a row of pearls. The flowers are set in platinum, the opals in 18 karat yellow gold.”
I have a physical, visceral memory of watching 15 of these get carefully swabbed for explosives residue then handed to me in a big loose pile at LAX in 2003 because they couldn’t go through the x-ray scanner.
yeah but never saw a white one before?? Why the hell would it be translucent???
Papercraft Fai from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle! When I was a teen, this sad smiling lying whistling magician-who-refuses-to-use-magic reshaped a huge number of my neural pathways and also crushed my heart. I still love him to this day! 💕 So I put some extra care into the details of his clothes and staff. A CLAMP character is always well-dressed, after all! Fai deserves nice things!
