A CD (scanned PDF) of Dress Design: Draping and Flat Pattern Making by Marion Hillhouse and Evelyn Mansfield.  It contains a complete copy of the first (1948) edition, which is a whopping 326 pages.  Scans of just a few of the pages from this fantastic book are shown below, including the table of contents.  This makes a great companion to our other draping and pattern-drafting CDs (please see our other items for sale), and will take your skills to the next level.  It is a wonderful resource for fashion designers and historians, costumers, or anyone who loves vintage clothing and wants to know how they made those amazing clothes. 

This book is a synthesis of both draping and flat pattern-making.  The opening paragraph states, “The purpose of this book is to explain in detail the principles of draping fabric on the dress form, the principles of flat pattern designing from master pattern blocks, and the dependence of successful flat pattern making on an understanding of draping.  We have devoted the entire book to the presentation of these two systems in order to show that a facility in both frees the designer to carry out any original costume with ease and confidence”.

In addition to developing patterns by draping on a dress form (tailor’s dummy), this very thorough book devotes 53 pages alone to correcting fitting problems. 

The book assumes that you know how to sew proficiently and are ready to move beyond pre-made patterns; no sewing instruction is provided. It’s an American book, therefore all measurements and terminology are consistent with this.  The scan has been whitened to remove age yellowing from the original. All pages contain our discreet logo, which is placed so that it does not interfere with the text or the illustrations. 

Please note:  CDs are not formatted to work with an Apple Mac.

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Any duties, taxes or additional charges are the responsibility of the buyer. Please remember that international post can sometimes take over a month.

We strive to maintain high standards in everything we sell and items are carefully checked before posting. Should your purchase not meet your satisfaction, please let us know within fourteen calendar days of receipt of the item and we will arrange for a replacement (at our discretion) or a refund, as you prefer. If items are faulty, we will refund return postage costs, if applicable. Other returns are at your expense by tracked mail. Items must be returned in the condition in which we sent them out.

Please bear in mind that original vintage items are rarely in perfect condition and even reproductions may show flaws from the original. We will note any substantial flaws in the item description.

If you have any questions, please contact us. We will do our best to get back to you in less than 24 hours.

Please see our ‘About Me’ page for really useful information on vintage knitting.