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A basic dressmaking course: the pattern books

The foundation of learning dressmaking was in the patterns, drafted by students in their pattern books that each made and kept for a lifetime. The notebook-sized scale drawings of patterns were made to be transferred to larger, actual size patterns drawn on kraft paper when the garment was ready to be cut from fabric.

At the outset of the Second World War, Kimiko Nasu (nee Saito) filled three pattern books (and one early draft of her first book that she painstakingly recopied), with the patterns taught in her course with Mrs. Seto on Cordova Street in Vancouver.

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The cover and first page from Kimiko Nasu's first pattern book.

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Cover of 'Scribbler' book of patterns made by Kimiko Saito
1940
Vancouver, BC

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'Standard Size' drawing from Kimiko Saito's 'Scribbler' draft pattern book, 1940.
1940
Vancouver, BC

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Kimiko Nasu's first pattern book includes fourteen pages of drawings, starting with standard sizes. The pattern titles reveal the initial range and increasing complexity of garments her course covered, with patterns for twixteen, tiny tots, and baby, as well as puff, bishop, 3/4 length, and long sleeves, foundation, 3 piece, 4 piece and 8 piece skirts, bias flare, pleated and princess line skirts, flat, medium roll, and full collars, sport, attached, gathered neck, and cowl neck collars, raglan sleeve with yoke, and a 2 piece dress.