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Introduction
A few years ago I bought this great book, used on Amazon.com, by Jane Rhinehart and it’s called, simply, “How To Make Men’s Clothes”. It’s THE book for those wanting to learn to make men’s clothing. It erases everything, and I do not say that lightly. This book is full of secrets from a Seville Row tailor. It promises to have you making a professional tailored pants and jacket like the pros. It appears to be a very small book and very unassuming at first glance. I could have easily dismissed it ,If not for someone in the business recommending the book to me. This book is the missing link for me. I love this quote from the book…”Misguided experience can be nothing but the making of bad habits, while a lack of experience can be overcome by knowledge and determination. Given answers to the above questions, anybody who wants to can achieve professional results. Which, of course, is why the tailors are so secretive.”
The book isn’t perfect, with the construction of the pants the directions are not well thought out and have me scratching my head in the very beginning. In fact, I became so confused with some of her directions in the book I did a search for her on google, just to see if I could get in contact with her. Although she may be dead from old age by now, I don’t know. In searching for her I found a review of the book from 1975, from a local Oregon newspaper. The book reviewer admits that the instructions for the pants construction is hard to follow. I quote, “The illustrations are not as complete either and one has to read and study the instructions thoroughly. The measurement section is good but the part detailing alterations is vague and pocket section is not as complete.” The reviewer was being kind because in some cases the direction are flat out wrong. In my case I’m not that interested in how she constructed the pockets, I already know all about that.
After purchasing the book and drafting the pattern, cutting everything out, my Mom fell ill and I was in the hospital with her for a month. Life (and sometimes Second Life) took over and the project started to gather dust in my my sewing workshop. I am finally picking this book back up and working on my pants again. I am pretty close to finishing my first pair of pants, using the pattern that she explains how to draft out in the book. I can already tell that it’s right, having compared it to some templates I’ve seen from people in the business. I was never given the math until now. I have documented everything and will take you step by step.
For those who don’t know me I worked in the sewn product industry off and on during my late teens and early 20s. I grew up in the business and was helping my mom at age 11 or 12. My strong suits are time and motion study (creative ways to cut sewing time), industrial sewing and industrial sewing machine repair. I am a novice pattern maker, who has been slowly teaching himself over the past, god, has it been 7 years now?
