Armscye

[atherleisure]

I cast off stitches for the armscye on my waistcoat at row 240. Yes, there's only one row for shaping. Knowing how much I've done so far and how much more I have to do measurement-wise should let me work out about how many rows I have left, but I haven't done it yet.

Comments

[mala_14]

Only one row for the armscye shaping sounds fascinating.

[atherleisure]

There is very little shaping in the body. You decrease at the side seams going from hip to waist. Then you let off a dozen or so stitches in one row for the armscye. That's it. There's no shaping at the neck either; the excess is just folded to the inside. The lining is more shaped, but there's no change between bust and waist so clearly this is not a very fitted garment. I'm making it fairly fitted through the shoulders and bust, and then it will just hang from there.

[mala_14]

Thinking about linen jackets of the era and this sort of makes sense, maybe? They don't tend to have a lot of shaping above the waist either. Although the armscyes are round. But then this knitted one will stretch, so that's not really an issue.

[atherleisure]

They don't have a lot of shaping, but they typically though not universally do have a narrower waist than bust. The portraits show jackets fitted through the waist. This knitted one has absolutely no shaping between bust and waist; it just flares out a bit at the sides for the hip. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any portraits of anyone wearing one of these garments so it's really hard to tell how it should fit. None of the articles I've read has an image of someone wearing one either, which they address in the text - they can't find one. I know that to go over the skirts of my bodiced petticoat, I had to make extra room in the hip and allow the waist to hang well away from my body. The armscyes of the lining are round.

[mala_14]

That's so interesting. And strange that there aren't any portraits. I mean, there do seem to be a number of extants, which usually indicates that they're somewhat common. But maybe they're not considered fancy enough for portraiture. Hm...

[atherleisure]

People don't seem to be sure, but they think these are informal at-home garments so they're not really the thing people had portraits painted in.