Studying a Tailor System: Morris Brothers French à La Mode

In the last few years I've been fortunate enough to find and study a few rare antique tailoring systems. Studying and cataloging them before I let them go to new homes has been one of my favorite between-work pleasures. For our study purposes, tailoring systems will include any drafting system that includes special rulers, charts, pantographs, expanding slopers, or skirt rules to draft a sewing pattern from a set of measurements.

Today for your pattern history lesson, I'm happy to share The Morris Brothers French á La Mode Tailor System.

 This is a bodice tailoring system from 1909. It is called the French A La Mode Tailoring System and was invented by the Morris Brothers. Instructions are printed on the pieces for drafting and there may have been pattern supplement booklets but I have never found any to go with it. Tailoring systems like these became very popular in the mid-to-late 19th century and several small companies sprang up to meet the demand of home seamstresses who recognized this brilliant pattern-making method as an economic answer to clothing oneself on a budget.

 The system is complete with a Bodice Front, Bodice Back, Dart Rule, Sleeve (designed to draft a two-piece sleeve), and a Shorthand Square Skirt Guide.

 Since the text printed on the bodice piece says "Perfected in 1909", one may assume that the system was originally created earlier, as these were popular and rather prevalent methods of drafting from the 1870s and later.

 For more information on tailoring systems like this one, I recommend Cutting a Fashionable Fit; Dressmaker's Drafting Systems in the United States by Claudia Kidwell.