Costuming

I have been attending a costumers weekend filled with classes, lectures and hands on topics.  It is amazing how often I have actually run across math being used in various ways. 

For instance, during World War 2 the amount of material used in creating ready wear, decreased and people were having to do with much less.  Think about the percentage problems you could create for the reduction of yardage, buttons, pockets, lengths of coats, dresses, etc.  It real life math.

Another place I found to use math is in trying to create a pattern that actually fits your body.  You use math to find the actual slope of your shoulder, the distance from the middle of your neck to the top of your shoulder so the shoulder seam is in the correct spot.  How to adjust so the front of piece actually fits your bust properly and isn't too large or small in the back.  It was fantastic.

When the instructor was showing how to calculate the actual slope of your shoulders, it was using the starting point as zero and calculating the y value itself.  Awesome.  Then she showed how to figure out how to add the curve in your back to the back seam so it fits correctly.  Wow. 

So I"m off to more classes tomorrow (It is almost midnight) and more math applications.  Yeah.