DRESS CUTTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 202, 27 August 1931, Page 13

DRESS CUTTING.

Mrs. G. L. McCabe, principal of the McCabe Academy of Dressmaking, of London, Sydney, Wellington, and Auckland, gave a free demonstration of dresscutting in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall yesterday afternoon. The demonstration showed the supreme simplicity of the McCabe Academy system of dress-cutting, designing and making.

The idea of the system, said Mrs. McCabe, was to simplify cutting, whereby any woman could cut any style from any picture without regard to figure or size. Mrs. McCabe's demonstration began at the bodice, showed different kinds of skirts, fitted hip yokes, sleeves of different sorts and collars. The cutting was done by means of a ruler marked off into proportions. The work resolved itself into a simple sum of addition and subtraction, and was effected by simple adjustment. Mrs. McCabe, who is recognised as the leading authority on cutting in Australia, explained the ruler to the audience. By its simplicity all calculations were "done for the user, which enabled women to go right ahead and make their own patterns, for once they had the foundation of cutting they had the foundation of any style. Styles may change, she said, but the foundation of cutting was always the same. She emphasised the economy of such a system, for by it women were able not only to cut ■ their own clothes, but to renovate old ones. A costume was cut on the staffe according to the system described by Mrs. McCabe. It was fitted together by her assistants, and exhibited upon her person toward the end of the demonstration. A special talk was given upon the arm-hole, that nightmare of most ama, teur drassniakers, and under Mrs. McCabe's system its simplicity seemed amazing. Each section of the demonstration was received most enthusiastically by an appreciative audience.