Steps (1)

Making a cheongsam involves a series of very elaborate procedures that includes some twenty steps from taking body measurements, making the pattern, cutting, ironing, gluing, sewing and fitting. Before commissioning a cheongsam from a tailor, however, the patron first has to select the fabric. She will then tell the tailor the style of cheongsam that she wants.

The first and foremost step in making a cheongsam is to take the measurements of the patron. In the period before the Second World War when Hong Kong society was still very conservative and cheongsams were generally wide and loose, a tailor could get a good idea of the measurements by using a stiff ruler and his own experience eyes. Measuring tapes began to be used in the 1950s when making a cheongsam with a closer fit. The rulers and measuring tapes used by cheongsam tailors are scaled according to the traditional Chinese decimal system.

After taking the measurements, most tailors will make use of a ‘chalk powder bag’ to ‘cast’ patterns on the fabric, a technique known as ‘casting powder lines’. The different parts of the cheongsam are then cut out from the fabric along the chalk marks. Only a small number of tailors bother to draw up paper patterns. The work takes place on a cutting bed, a multipurpose assembly that serves as a worktable, an ironing board, a storage area and even an actual bed for sleeping. With the exception of the sewing machine, all the tools that are used by a tailor to make a cheongsam are placed on the cutting bed.