Due to the profound influence of traditional ideas, many traditional skills set rules that only men can pass on to women, so many craftsmen, including tailors, were men in the past. It was only in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China that couples were occasionally seen doing the same job or going to work at home. Especially after liberation, the situation of women engaged in sewing increased sharply, and later the number far exceeded that of men.
The tailoring industry seems easy, but it is not easy to learn well. In the past, it usually took three years for a tailor to formally enter the teacher, and some stipulated that he could not leave school until three years later (some did not necessarily know how to cut materials with scissors after three years, but only sewed and composed music, mostly because the master was conservative. It's not easy to be an apprentice tailor. For example, in some places in Hengzhou, it is customary to give gifts and host banquets. During the study of art, every festival will be celebrated and given to the master? "festival" and "ceremony" There are many rules and regulations at ordinary times, for example, when people are doing door-to-door work, they are not allowed to talk nonsense or chat with their owners or other people. During the break, the host is not allowed to eat in front of him. Sit down first. You can't sit on it (the traditional custom is that there is a shrine on the main wall of the door). You can only sit on the left or right or below. When sitting, the stool is only half-seated, and every meal should be in the same place, which cannot change with time. When eating every meal, you should also give the master a big meal. When serving dishes, let the master take chopsticks first. You should eat your food carefully. When serving food, you can only serve it on the edge of the bowl in front of you. You can't carry it to others, let alone turn it over. After work, apprentices should clean the site and put away their tools, which is commonly known as "finishing". Usually, I have to fetch water to wash my face, feet and clothes for my master. Some apprentices have to fetch water and firewood for the master, or do housework or even farm work.
Some tailor industries in Dashi still have a certain place and scale. In addition to fixed shops and workshops, there are ancestral halls and even gangs. In order to expand their business, influence and popularity, some have also formed a large-scale and chartered trade organization-sewing gang in conjunction with several trade associations. For example, the early clothing stores in old Shanghai were all made of Hanfu and were called "local tailors". Since the opening of Shanghai, foreigners have been pouring into Shanghai, and suits have spread to Shanghai. As a result, a group of tailors who make suits for foreigners have emerged, and their business is booming and their income is quite rich. They are called "Red Tailors". Later, the number of female foreigners gradually increased, and a tailor specializing in western-style women's clothing appeared, called "fashion tailor".
Once, in order to make a living, people in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province left their hometown to seek a way out of life everywhere, and some wandered overseas to learn to make suits and come back to open "suit sizes". These suit shops have workshops, tailors, shopping malls, clerks and dealers, which are called "Feng (Hua) tailors".
The most famous "Tong Yichang" sewing workshop in Qing Dynasty (boss Zhang, son, master Zhang Renchang) is a tailor's guild with great scale and influence, and was once known as "the first signboard in Shanghai". "Tong Yichang" recruits apprentices through rigorous examinations, and during the study period, he should practice all kinds of sewing basic skills as hard as learning martial arts. For example, apprentices should quickly grope for needles in a boiling brazier, sew needles on raw cowhide, pull out needles and other practices and tenacity. In addition, we should learn theory and technical know-how, such as three skills (knife, needle and ironing), six methods (pushing, door, back, ironing, swinging and sewing) and twelve secrets. Teach by famous teachers, draw the production specifications, technical points and operation procedures of various costumes into images and hang them on the wall. Many mannequins were also made to help apprentices master sewing knowledge quickly and accurately. Moreover, apprentices must pass a rigorous examination when they leave school, and they must be fully proficient in techniques such as quantity, cutting, sewing and ironing, and the quality and speed meet the qualified requirements before they are allowed to leave school.
During the Revolution of 1911, Wang Caiyun, a leading figure in Shanghai's suit industry, studied suit cutting with his father since childhood. Because my father studied in Japan and was smart and diligent, he became a famous suit tailor in Shanghai when he grew up. He opened a three-story suit shop on Nanjing Road, named "Rongchangxiang Wool Suit Shop". Because of exquisite craftsmanship, he doesn't cut corners, and the materials are designed and produced according to the requirements of customers, and his work is rigorous and meticulous. The clothes he made can still keep their shape after many washes. At the same time, he made suits with various standard fabrics, and after careful actuarial cutting, the production cost was minimized, so the price was lower than others. In addition, customers can try on the spot and pick up the goods immediately, so the business is booming and they have become the leader in Shanghai's suit industry. Because the name of the store is well-known in Shanghai, Dr. Sun Yat-sen once made several suits in the store and participated in the design. This suit is called "Zhongshan suit".
Generally, tailors in rural areas take their apprentices to do odd jobs (commonly known as "laying hands on them"), such as pulling cloth buttons, locking buttonholes (in the past, cloth buttons were mostly used), prying the hem of clothes and burning irons. As for cutting technology, generally speaking, masters are conservative and refuse to teach them easily. Three years have passed, and the disciples are obedient, and the masters can pass on the truth. Some teachers don't teach anything even if they are overdue (even exceeding the standard), but only rely on their apprentices' experience in daily work practice.
In fact, the technology of clothing cutting is not very difficult and complicated, but people are different in figure, unskilled in technology and inaccurate in size. The clothes not only don't fit well and are not beautiful, but also spend cloth and damage the reputation, so it's a bit mysterious and scary.
Generally, the normal sewing procedure should be to measure the customer's body size first, then draw lines and marks on the cloth according to the measured size with chalk, grey line and ruler, and then cut out various parts of the clothes (such as collar, shoulder rest, front page, back page, sleeves, pockets, etc.). ) According to the drawn thread (and make appropriate changes), then sew the parts together with a needle and thread (some need ironing).
The rule of tailoring is to cut straight cloth, so that the clothes made are both strong and beautiful. When cutting, it is planned to cut the front page of the text first, then the back page, sleeves, bags, collars and finally the interlining. When sewing, sew the body first, then the collar, put on the pocket, put on the sleeve (it is inconvenient to take the sleeve too early), then lock the buttonhole and fix (button) the button. Men's wear is usually seven buttons, and women's wear is six buttons. After completion, spray water evenly on it with your mouth to make it moist, and then iron it with an iron (iron is better) to make it smooth and flat, which is the finished product.
For a long time in ancient times, robes were the mainstay. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hanfu appeared, which was divided into men's casual clothes and women's casual clothes. Men's casual clothes are also called "double-breasted clothes" (double-breasted clothes), and women's casual clothes are called "double-breasted clothes" (double-breasted clothes). And all pants are "tie-head pants".
In the past, most ordinary people used homespun (cotton cloth) as the main cloth. Common fabrics in society are summer cloth (also called raw cloth, woven from ramie), silk, silk, satin, brocade, twill and silk. But cotton cloth and the like should be soaked in water first, dried before sewing, commonly known as "shrinkage", and then cut and used. Otherwise, after sewing into clothes and costumes, the stain will be reduced after washing. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, many new fabrics appeared among the people, such as foreign fabrics, Pingjiang fabrics, textiles, mousse yarns, woolen goods and so on.
Tailors who work at home earn the same salary as other craftsmen, but they began to use sewing machines around liberation. The calculation method of salary is that the master allows one job, each apprentice allows half job and the sewing machine allows half job. In addition to the normal salary, if you sew wedding dresses (clothes for girls to get married) and mosquito nets, the master will also give you "red envelopes to benefit the market", but these are all master's. The master is very generous and sometimes gives his disciples some money or pocket money.
Sewing shroud (clothes wrapped by old people after death or clothes for the dead) as a doorman at the employer's house is counted as double entry. On the morning of the girl's wedding, she goes to tie up her clothes (the original tailor's rule is not to button after sewing), and there will be a red envelope reward for buttoning, which is called "button-fixing ceremony".
In the past, tailors mainly had two forms: door-to-door work and shop opening. Some have their own shops, some are rented, and some have limited resources to open stores. Just put two stools in the streets, put up a house number and put up an awning, which is to lay a business table. A tailor's soft ruler (cloth ruler, usually five feet long) is often hung around his neck. He wears an apron and has several pockets with pens, notebooks, markers, pins and so on. There are usually cutting rulers (bamboo or wood, and copper). In Hengzhou, the length of cutting ruler used to be longer than ordinary ruler, about 1.08 square feet, called "old ruler"), soldering iron (or soldering iron), scissors one foot shorter than one foot, grey thread bag, sewing box and so on. Some shopkeepers still hang a bamboo pole at the door. This is a kind of business cover (signboard), which is called "hanging rod business". Once the pole is hung, it means that our store is open at a regular fixed point and can't hire anyone.
Most tailors and craftsmen in rural areas do it at home, and no one invites them, just waiting for customers to send cloth to do it at home.
Before there were no machines, sewing was done by hand, and the sewing was very meticulous, so the processing speed was very slow, and it was often a happy event (there were two kinds of red and white, and red events generally referred to birthday celebrations, marriage, having children, moving to a new house, promotion, etc.). It takes a long time to sew clothes and articles (clothes, bedding, auditorium ceremony, decorations, etc.). When the white wedding ceremony is over. It usually takes a few days, ten days, dozens of days or even months, a year or years. There are also big families and bureaucrats, and sometimes several tailor teams, many tailors and many apprentices are invited at the same time.
The work of the tailor industry is the easiest and cleanest in the folk craftsman industry, and the tools are simple and light. They don't have many tools, usually two feet (a cut ruler, made of bamboo or wood, also called "Xuanyuan ruler"; Cloth ruler, 5 feet in early days and 4.5 feet in modern times, is also called soft ruler or tape measure. This ruler did not exist at first. Probably the ancients measured it with a rope first, and then measured it with a cutting ruler to get the length), a pair of scissors, an iron, a gray thread bag, a few pieces of chalk, a few needles and a few bundles of thread, some of which were provided by the main family.
Among the tools used by tailors, scissors are the most important and have distinctive shapes. Tailor scissors are called "scissors" for short, and their shapes are much larger than ordinary household scissors. The style is one foot contracted and one foot extended, and its total length is between 33-35 cm (that is, one foot to one and a half feet). The long legs of scissors have two main functions: (1) marking the cloth. (2) Inserting several circles into the locked buttonhole can make the buttonhole smooth and yikou.
In the past, tailors were basically men, and this industry was everywhere. In the past, there were several in every street in Hengzhou, which were the envy of people of all ages. The countryside is also full of tailors.
After talking so much about the tailor's cold knowledge, do you know anything else? You can leave a message in the comment area to add.
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