Author: twinsnneedles

These notes are for our YouTube video, which is set to premiere on November 9, 2023.

Reviewing enrollment applications is fascinating, even if you don’t have any connection to the person’s life. We decided to compare the enrollment packets of Julia Ann Bee and Rachel Ward as a mini case study comparing the experiences of two women who grew up on the same land, breathed the same air, and routinely experienced the churning clatter of the mill. They had equal rights to Cherokee citizenship in 1901, yet faced wildly different burdens of proof as the Dawes Commission performed their work. 

Julia Ann was Polly Beck’s daughter with Stephen Hildebrand. By the time of the commission, both of her parents were dead and she was an adult only a little older than we are today. The image we have that’s reportedly of her is an interesting mix of photograph and hand-drawn embellishments. 

To view Julia Ann’s record yourself, you can visit: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/44770213

You can download the files from that site as a .jpg, then use a free software like irfanview (https://www.irfanview.com/) to view and manipulate them if needed. Don’t be discouraged if the scans look fuzzy at first: they become more crisp when you view them as download files. For example, page 2 of Julia Ann’s file is flipped in the scan and needs to be flipped back to be easily read. 

Julia Ann’s record is fairly standard for a Cherokee citizenship application without any complications or unusual questions, despite reflecting a long childbearing career with several husbands and…not-husbands. The Commissioners were able to find her name on previous census lists, and noted the name changes she made over four marriages. They didn’t closely question the paternity of her children, apparently relying on her testimony alone, supported by previous census records, to include her kids as citizens. They didn’t ask exact dates of marriages, or seek any proof from officiants. 

Her children are listed as:

Charles Wofford, 25 years old: his father was Dan Woffard

Mattie Dial, 14 years old: her father was Martin Dial, who Julia Ann never married. 

Willora C. J. Bee, 11 years old. 

Her name is very hard to read in the handwritten form, but family oral history is very clear on how she spelled her name and it’s correct on the typed transcript. Julia Ann reported Willora’s father as just “Bee” and stated they were married. 

Mary Bee, 6 years old. The commissioners appear to assume, as we do, that Mary and Willora have the same father. 

Some further asides about Julia Ann that aren’t in this record:

• Mr. Bee’s full name was Jasper Newton “Tuck” Bee. He died in 1941. He married Julia Ann in 1882. That must have been some year for him, given his Fort Worth court records (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/204443). We have an image of him, also. 
• Julia Ann had at least one more child aside from the ones mentioned here. Her oldest son was John Beck. He enrolled himself at age 29 with this application: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/44770174. His age in 1901 suggests he was born right before his father died. He names his father as Blacksoot Beck, which is the fifth spelling we’ve found for Jesse Surry Eaton Beck (he’s listed as Black S. Beck by the U.S. Marshall Service https://www.usmarshals.gov/who-we-are/history/roll-call-of-honor/roll-call. John is reportedly buried in Kansas (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65631326/john-e-beck), and is the reason I had to google, “Is it legal to marry your first cousin?” No one reports that he ever had any children or married. 

Who was Rachel Ward?

In comparison to Julia, we have a lot more documentation about Rachel Ward because she was interviewed in the WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives and the Dawes Commission interrogated her much more about her life. In the book edited by Lindsay Baker and Julie P. Baker (ISBN: 0-8061-2859-3), she was interviewed at age 91 and her name was given as Rochelle Allred Ward. Living in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, she included recollections about the Hildebrand mill in her narrative, which is how we found her. 

If you want to read the full 1930’s testimonies yourself, they are posted at 

https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/wpa-and-the-slave-narrative-collection/

Her testimony describes her parents’ love story and how they navigated the desires of their enslavers to allow them to marry and build a life together. Further, she describes how her father changed his last name to Beck after her mother, Lottie, convinced Joe Beck to buy him from a woman named Sarah Eaton. From this testimony, we get a sense of her large family: Her parents had at least seven children aside from Rachel: Sabra, Celia, Milton, Louie, Sam, Nelson, and Dennis. 

Her Dawes enrollment packet is relatively slim compared to the other Freedmen’s applications I have reviewed, but it’s a lot longer than Julia Ann’s at 15 pages. I’ve only looked at about 20 Freedmen’s records, but by and large they seem to be more than 8 pages, while many of the non-Freedmen’s records are very brief. I really hope someone spends some time analyzing these files, because they’re very rich. Ironically, the more the Commission gave someone a hard time, the more information we now have about them. 

Children who enrolled with their mother are included on the front of her card with their father noted on the back. The card wasn’t completed in a single snapshot of time like a census: children were added as they were born if they were born during the Commission’s work. The ages given are the age they were when they were enrolled.

Rachel lists herself as Cherokee “by adoption” in some documents, which may be how people were framing Freedman enrollment at that time. 

To view this record yourself, visit: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/44908876

Person first named: Rachel Ward, 38 years old, female

Dawes enrollment number 775.

• Her father was James Beck, died before 1880, enrolled in Tahlequah, Owner: Joe Beck
• Her mother was Lottie Beck, died before 1880, enrolled in Tahlequah, Owner: Joe Beck

Her children: 

776. William Aldrich, 19 years old, male 

• Father: Amos Aldrich, “Non Citizen”
• Birthdate: March 19, 1882

777. Jesse Aldrich, 16 years old, male

• Father: Amos Aldrich, “Non Citizen”

778. Lewis Aldrich, 15 years old, male

• Father: Amos Aldrich, “Non Citizen”

779. Cora Ward, 4 years old, female 

• Father: Nelson Ward, “Non Citizen” (on the card it says he’s “non Citizen” but in her 1901 testimony she says he’s a Cherokee citizen ‘by adoption’, but also a US citizen) 
• Birthdate: April 30, 1897
• Midwife: Dina Walker. 

780. Dan Vann, 10 months old, male
– Father: Jim Vann, Freedman/ adoption

Note: the application for enrollment is specific that Rachel is “not the wife of Jim Vann” and her name is noted as Rachel Ward (it looks like the clerk had to do some scraping to get Ward out of the Vann he originally wrote). 

• Birthdate: September 22, 1901
• Midwife: Florence Narr (Naw?)

In her 1930’s testimony to the WPA, Rachel mentions having thirteen children, but names only Amos, Susie, Jess, Will, Frank, Lottie, and Cora. 

We have more details about her children and their fathers than we get out of Polly’s record because the Commission more aggressively questioned her personal history. 

Who was Joe Beck? 

To be clear: we think the Joe Beck who enslaved Rachel, her family, and several other families was probably the father of Julia Ann’s first husband (Jesse Surry Eaton Beck, Sut Beck, Blacksoot, or “Black Sut”). Based on some of Julia Ann’s claims recorded in 1906, Joe Beck was Polly’s brother. As Rachel reported, “all over this country was Beck families.” 

We are fairly sure that the “mistress” that Rachel mentions was Joe’s wife, Cynthia Downing Beck, who “died before she could get back [to Fort Gibson] the next spring.” 

Final thoughts on Rachel:

We encourage you to read Rachel’s testimonies for yourself for her own words, rather than listen to us quoting her. She paints a relatively rosy picture of life enslaved at the farm surrounding the mill and of Cynthia specifically, possibly out of concern that otherwise her testimony wouldn’t be recorded. On a positive note, her words ring with pride on her family’s skilled labor and relationship-building.

Well. Now you have a bodice sloper that fits. Good for you! Slopers are not very interesting on their own. You want to design your own garments! But how do you get there?

There are a lot of repeat resources in this section, because many of the concepts that help you draft and adjust a sloper also help you design flat patterns. I don’t generally touch on size inclusivity here, because it’s assumed you are working with a sloper or base pattern that’s already fitted to your size and proportions. 

These are not ranked as they all approach designing differently. If you’re just starting out, I recommend you decide what style of clothes you want to make and get the resources that work for those styles. Drafting is a skill and you’ll practice it more if you want to use the patterns you create. 

Author: Kenneth D. King

TItle: Various. There are currently 17 titles available

Available at: http://www.kennethdking.com/book/

If you’ve been reading this series, you know I love Kenneth D. King’s books. They filled in a huge gap in my (sparse) sewing education and have made other drafting books easier to understand by providing a practical, foundational understanding. 

I own all of his books, except for the notes on Patternmaking 1 and 2. They’re my first go-to when I want to draft or design something, even though I often consult other sources. The books are very complete and detailed, taking advantage of the digital format to offer many diagrams and photographs. For example, his book on dress drafts (all dresses without a waistline seam) lavishes 110 pages on 6 styles of dresses. All of his designing books also include some fitting notes and construction tips. Overall, these are great books for beginners and those who might be shaky on how to draft a particular style. 

I especially love how Kenneth’s books include photos of a muslin of the finished garment. Many drafting/ design books have only a flat drawing or a cartoon-style summary of the design. Photos of muslins that are fitted onto a dress form help me understand what a style might look like when sewn up. 

While Kenneth’s books should help you draft most styles you can imagine, I appreciate his detailed drafts of vintage-inspired style lines and details. In theory, I could figure out how to draft a sweet little petal collar that overlaps itself in the back neckline, such as I spied in the first season of The Crown worn by Princess Margaret. I remember noticing that detail on a blouse of hers and thinking…ugh I wish I would bother to draft that, it’s so cute. Guess what? It’s on page 25-28 of his Collars book. 

General Principles of Flat Pattern Design

Author: Sara Alm

Title: Designing Clothes with the Flat Pattern Method

ISBN: 9781589239340

• Ms. Alm introduces flat patterning methods to design from a sloper in deep detail, starting with narrow skirts and moving on to bodices, collars, sleeves and pants.
• This book is a nice introduction into flat patterning principles, and will help you develop your own styles using general rules, rather than achieve specific designs.  
• I especially appreciate the detailed discussion of moving darts, converting darts to ease, and converting darts into a seam.  These are techniques that many books gloss over and this book uses step-by-step photographs to lead the reader. 
• There are a few pages outlining the overall techniques for drafting facings, hems, linings, vents, and buttoned closures.  
• The pictures and diagrams are clear and easy to understand.
• One major drawback to this book is the lack of an index. 

You Want to Go Into the Way Back Machine 

Author: Elizabeth Friendship

Title: Creating Historical Clothes

ISBN: 978-1-84994-048-1

• Most resources on sewing 17th/18th/19th Century-style western clothes focus on documenting extant garments or explaining how to drape and construct garments as they were worn in the time period. This book departs from that, by demonstrating how to draft basic patterns, then apply flat pattern cutting to a selection of antique English and European women’s styles from the 1530’s to about 1900. 
• There are brief but clear instructions on several types of sleeve blocks, trouser blocks, bodices, and skirts (including the necessary underpinnings). 
• You could use this book by itself, as it begins with taking measurements and leads all the way through drafting, with some notes on construction order and antique sewing techniques like the mantua-maker’s stitch and cartridge pleating. 

• There is a good overview of some basics of pattern making in general: adding volume and ease to patterns, calculating the sleeve width when you have depth already and vice versa, and drafting bodices for large busts. 
• The description of moving darts into seams is especially good, and I appreciate the way the author shows how to adjust a bodice block to fit over a later-Victorian corset. 
• Each section includes a page describing the garments of the period very generally, and giving references and a glossary for specialized fashion terms. 

• I would especially recommend this book for people interested in “history bounding” because it departs from historic methods but approximates shapes well and gives visual references for the designs, usually paintings and drawings of people wearing clothes, rather than original garments. 
• The most basic, untailored linens, such as shirts and shifts, are not covered in this book. If you want to build historic styles from the skin out, you’ll want to combine this book with resources relevant to the time period of interest. 

You Want to Party like it’s 1924

Author: The Women’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

Title: Drafting and Pattern Designing

ISBN: 9780916896560

• I introduced this book in Post 1 with the Picken Square. While I love my reproduction square, I think you could use this book with standard rulers especially if you already have your slopers drafted. 
• This book has some designs that have become timeless, but it also has some delightful pieces that are really atmospheric for the 1920’s and earlier such as corset covers, fancy aprons, and knickerbocker trousers. 
• The drafting and flat patterning instructions are scant, but they’re understandable if you have a little experience drafting and flat designing.  

You love the styles of the 1930’s- 1960’s

Author: Miss Haslam

Titles: Haslam System of Dresscutting

Available at secondhand resellers and at https://mrsdepew.com/

• Miss Haslam’s system doesn’t require that you use her slopers: I have used her style lines with my moulage-generated sloper with no problem.
• The main advantage of the Haslam Dresscutting books is that they are readily available, primary sources for the latest fashions of specific years and seasons in the 1930’s-1960’s. You can often find original books on the secondary market or electronically as PDFs. 
• The instructions are scanty, as they assumed relatively experienced seamstresses were using them. There’s never any discussion of facings and interior finishing, or even openings. You have to know how to do that yourself. The draft instructions will give you the shell and the secondary pieces that show such as collars, cuffs, and patch pockets. 
• I wouldn’t use these booklets as stand-alone references, but they will help you nail a specific vintage style. If you want to use Haslam books to make garments, I recommend you pair the books with a how-to-sew resource such as the Vogue Sewing Book and find an online community to join for help.
• The fashion illustrations are adorable and give a sense of colors and prints that would be appropriate for a specific year. 

You Prefer Videos and the ability to ask questions

Charlotta School of Pattern Cutting Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/charlotta/membership

Further resources at https://learn.schoolofpatterncutting.com/dashboard

• Lately, when I see a vintage dress detail in a movie or a book, I search Charlotta’s patreon posts before I check any other resource. Sometimes I have to look at the Vogue Sewing Book or Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing to be sure I have the best description of what I want to understand how to design. 
• As of July, 2021, Charlotta’s Patreon videos include more than 50 drafting tutorials for everything from a basic yoke skirt to recreating Vionnet-inspired designs to fit you.  She adds 2 or 3 new video tutorials per month. 
• Patrons get to vote on the styles she analyses and drafts. 
• Charlotta’s instructions are clear and her warm personality makes the tutorials approachable, even for novice drafters. 
• Check out https://www.youtube.com/user/csmlotta to get a sense of how she works and what style lines she tends to offer. 
• The focus of her work is on pattern cutting, but I appreciate that she also covers construction steps, fabric choices, and drafting details like pockets.

Introduction to Pattern Making for Women’s Garments

Author: Esmod Collective authorship

Title: Women’s Garments Volume 1

Hard Copy or E-Book: https://www.esmod-editions.com/women-s-garments-volume-1-c2x18457446

ISBN: 978-2-909617-22-0

• I introduced this book in post 1, and it provides a whirlwind tour of adding ease to a sloper to develop bodice, blouse, and dress designs. 
• Basic pattern manipulation is covered: shifting darts, manipulating darts into a yoke, or adding gathers. 
• A variety of classic and contemporary designs are presented, each with about a page of text and a page of diagrams.
• If you want a brief overview (not a step-by-step) on women’s clothing design, this book will give you a solid start on cutting skirts, bodices, shirts, and dresses. 

Moving a Dart Does Not Require Legislation

Author: Adele Margolis

Title: Make Your Own Dress Patterns

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-45254-8

• This was one of Adele’s last books, first published in 1985 but back in print as of 2006. Many of the fashion drawings bear the mark of the 1980’s Career Woman look, but the advice and the general principles described are timeless.
• Adele does not explain how to draft a bodice sloper. She assumes you are working with a sloper you bought or adjusted. The book does provide little quarter-sized slopers for you to trace or copy and manipulate for practice. 
• This book really has it all as far as learning flat pattern manipulation: darts, matching your seams, moving and dividing darts, shaping with seams (alone or with darts), fullness, drawing a hip-length sloper from a bodice sloper, adding ease, necklines, openings (including rules for developing a buttoned opening), pockets, collars, the main types of sleeves, sleeve finishes, and a very general overview on making muslins.
• This book discusses drawing facings and linings more than many flat pattern design books. 

Fashions Change, but the Principles of Cutting the Flat Pattern Do Not

Author: Natalie Bray

Title: Dress Pattern Designing: The Basic Principles of Cut and Fit

ISBN-13: 978-0632065011

– Natalie Bray was born in 1897 and worked at the Katinka Court Dressmakers of Knightsbridget, London in the 1920’s. She taught classes in dressmaking and developed her own flat-cutting methods in the mid 1930’s. Her books, first published in the 1950’s, were extensions of her correspondence classes.

– Following the section on drawing blocks, this book provides a brief introduction to: circular patterns, simple pattern designing, yokes, dart manipulation, sleeves, collars and necklines, skirts, and a one-piece dress foundation.

– Drafts for bodice blocks of dartless bodices, loose fitting shirts, jackets, cut-on sleeves, and raglan blocks are included. 

– Many style lines and design elements are presented as line drawings, with clear labels. The styles presented are “classic” and would suit many eras and contemporary designs. 

Final Thoughts on Flat Design:

Remember to do a muslin of your actual design after you flat-pattern from your sloper. Moving seams around and playing with design elements can create distortions and have unintended downstream consequences, especially as you are learning how to do this. 

Fitting is a very big topic with a lot of resources. To narrow the scope of this piece, I wanted to focus on the resources I have found most helpful for fitting bodices, in the order I prefer to use them. 

Beyond “Just Follow the Wrinkles”

Author: Kenneth D King

Title: Kenneth D. King’s Smart Fitting Solutions: Foolproof Techniques to Fit Any Figure

ISBN: 978-1631868566

• If you only want to make sure your sloper fits, Kenneth’s “Moulage” book has extensive notes on fitting your moulage muslin, so that will be the ticket. 
• If you want to get even deeper into fitting techniques for any project, you’ll want to check out Smart Fitting Solutions. This is my go-to for checking and fixing the fit of a muslin. 
• This book promises, “Fit Any Figure, Solve Any Fitting Challenge.” I have to say it delivers. This is a slim volume, but it’s packed with information and useful instructions. 
• Professor King takes on fitting for several different shapes/ bodies with comprehensive, clear photographs. He doesn’t get bogged down on naming specific “figure problems”, but instead teaches how to look for how the clothes hang, hug, and/ or gap on the figure and train the eye to proportions. 
• The book uses 6 different models who “are short or tall, slim or plus-size, busty or not, and have different shaped derrieres and curvy or straight figures.” These models are all shown wearing clothes from their own wardrobes as well as muslins in-progress.  I love the pictures towards the end of the models smiling happily in their fitted and corrected muslins.  
• He shows how to take muslin changes back to flat paper in great detail using several techniques, from the standard “slash and spread” and moving seam allowances techniques to his innovative, “net loss” technique. I like how he uses photographs that are not-too-close and not-too-far, so you can really see what the problems are and what he does to fix them. 
• This book includes very brief but essential appendixes on measuring points in the figure (it’s 11AM, do you know where your bust point is?*) and mapping them back to a flat pattern, how much wearing and design ease you need, how to make a full bust adjustment, rotating a dart, and fitting a sleeve. 

*My beleaguered spouse has been pressed into service as my measurer during the pandemic. We’ve been together for more than 23 years. Despite this, we can’t agree about where my bust point is, which seems like something we would both understand by now. The diagrams in this book have helped me teach him what I want him to measure.

Not “Fit for a Mannequin” 

Author: Pati Palmer and Marta Alto

Title: Fit for Real People

ISBN: 9780935278439

• The Palmer/ Pletsch fitting method has been taught and written about for more than 30 years. It’s a classic for a reason: the methods they teach are accessible and this book has a nice range of figures to help the reader see how different adjustments can be made. 
• The preferred fitting method in this book requires a sturdy but transparent paper pattern to work quickly, although some discussion of using muslin (and especially gingham) is included. If you draft your own patterns or are working with patterns on heavy stock paper, the tissue-fitting method won’t work well for you without the extra step of preparing thin pattern pieces in full scale.
• I love how they use models of all shapes/ sizes and ages. It’s very refreshing to see many figure types represented and to include discussion of sizing up patterns. 

Adele Margolis Recommends a Girdle (but we forgive her)

Author: Adele Margolis

Title: How to Make Clothes That Fit and Flatter: Step-by-Step Instructions for Women Who Like to Sew

ISBN: 978-1112934261

• This book was originally published in 1969, but was reprinted in 2018 with a new cover and the same text/illustrations.  My copy is a little shopworn and tattered, as it was a vintage find that I stumbled across in 2017. It begins with the philosophy, “To be well dressed one needs more than a dazzling design and a lovely fabric; the key to that fashion-plate look is proper fit.”
• Adele was born in 1909 and began her career teaching fashion when she was in her 40’s. She published her first book on fashion design in her 50’s! Her author “voice” is warm, charming, and funny, if somewhat dated at times.  I wrote a little note to my daughter (it says, “outdated advice”) and stuck it in the book where she exhorts the reader to lose weight and wear a girdle for goodness’ sake.  
• This was the first book I ever found that really explained how darts work rather than taking for granted that I understood the underlying theory.
• I refer to her description of grainline so often when teaching that I have a bookmark on page 133 of this book. 
• The fit-standard explanations and illustrations include 11 pages on “rescuing” a garment that is already cut out and how to alter the pattern afterwards to ensure the next garment fits well.  
  • While I always encourage students to cut/ fit a muslin before they get into their “real” fabric, this is a really good discussion to have and I can think of a few friends who could save themselves some tears with this information. 
  • Many home sewists work in woven fabric after wearing knits most of our lives. Fit standards for things like “where a shoulder seam should sit on the body” and “where is your waistline” are really helpful for amateurs. 
• She includes a suggested sequence for fitting and addresses both dress patterns and pants patterns, even showing the reader how to draft culottes from a fitted pant pattern. 

Fitting with a Minnesota Accent, “This Method is Different, Doncha Know” 

Author: Jan Minott

Title: Minott Method Total Pattern Fit

Available at: https://www.sewinganddesignschool.com/shop-online.htm

• This book briefly explains how to draft slopers and basic styles but focuses on adjusting commercial patterns.
• This is only available as a new book digitally through the Sewing and Design School. I bought mine and got it printed and spiral bound locally, because I stare at screens too much as it is.
• There are pages and pages of worksheets and very specific body measurement and shape directions. If you want to learn how to draw a you-specific hip block, this is the reference for you. 
• Jan gives very practical, no-nonsense instructions for making pattern changes, constructing a muslin, testing the fit of the muslin, and taking marked changes back to the pattern. 
• The ‘wrinkle charts’ in this book span 28 pages and are shown with clear illustrations to help the student see where fit changes are worth trying based on how the muslin sits on the figure.  
• There is a lengthy section on applying lessons learned from your basic block to commercial patterns, called a “fit code.”
• A lot of effort is put into building the reader’s understanding of posture and body shape, including putting names to specific variations.

A Comprehensive Classic on Wrinkles To Improve Your Fit

Authors: Elizabeth G. Liechty, Della N. Pottberg, and Judith A. Rasband

Title: Fitting and Pattern Alteration, A Multi-Method Approach

ISBN: 87005-739-1

• This is the only book that Susan Khalje recommends, and honestly that’s why I took the trouble to find it. I found mine second hand because a new copy was out of my price range (given that I already had a favorite fitting book). There’s no shame in buying a book secondhand! 
• To review this book, I actually read the sections on evaluating the figure that I skipped when I first bought it. Honestly, the “ideal weights” in the book are based on a measure of elbow breadth compared to height I have never seen before and suggests that people were fairly slim in 1983. 
• This book assumes you are adjusting paper patterns and includes a nice discussion of fitting standards and making/ fitting a muslin that spans more than 40 pages.
• The 23 pages on alteration methods cover the standard ways most flat patterns are adjusted: slash, seam, and pivot.  
• The real meat of this book is the 200+ pages with clear illustrations showing how fitting issues look on a muslin when worn on the body and how to use the slash or pivot method to correct the flat pattern (I have a bookmark in page 204).

That’s it for my favorite fitting resources. Next up: Now you have a bodice sloper that fits. Good for you! Now you want to design your own garments! But how do you get there? I will discuss 8 resources that I have found handy for designing my own garments from a flat sloper.