Charles Hecklinger’s Handbook on Dress and Cloak Cutting is a technical guide to drafting and cutting women’s garments. It sets out systems and measurements for producing well-fitting dresses and cloaks, addressing the professional dressmaker and the serious student of the trade.
The book preserves the cutting practices of the late nineteenth century, when fit and method were central to fashionable dressmaking. Hecklinger’s instruction documents the craft behind period garments. A detailed manual of garment construction, it is offered here as a free EPUB download. For students of costume and historic dressmaking, it offers a window onto the systems of measurement and cutting that produced the fashionable silhouettes of its era.