Vests.
(SEE DIA. [IV].)
The square consists of 20 numbers. Height of back, 14; height of front, 9; shoulders at an angle of 135 deg.; top of back, 3¾; gore under the arm, ⅜ at line 15, ¾ at line 17½, 1 at line 20. Sink the front bottom of the forepart 15 deg. for a pretty square bottom. On the garment from the neck to the ankle the vest is on a square of 17½. On this square the height of the back remains 14, but on the front plumb line it is 11¼; the gore under the arm is 3¼, and the bottom is square, while the front has an angle of 15 deg. attached. The square of 17½, with the angle of 15 deg. in front, is virtually nothing but an angle of 15 deg., having, at the starting point of the garment, a width of 17½ numbers, according to scale. (See Dia. [XII] and [XIII].)
Top of back is as wide as the angle of 45 deg. at the neck, but may be made 3¼. The back must be that wide, in order to bring the spring of the collar to the side of the neck, and again, in order to enable the vest maker to sew the vest back all around, and turn the whole vest through the neckhole. If that hole is too small, the back is apt to tear, while the vest is turned. The bottom of the collar band is on a straight line from 11¼, on the plumb base line, through 5 on the top square line. This collar band, as it is here cut, requires that the top and side of the back must be stretched, say ¼ inch, on each side, and close to the shoulder seam, and it is for this reason that the top of the back should be 3¼ wide, in order to bring the stretch as far forward and to the side of the neck as possible.
If this is worked right it will make a neat collar, and a neat shoulder, but if the vest maker can not be depended upon, it is better to allow ¼ inch spring, and starting said spring at the middle of the shoulder seam, which is about 2½ in. from point 5, and sew the back even on the neckband, but in no case must the back be held full. If anything is to be the fullest, it must be the neckband, which must in all cases be cut plenty long, and the vest maker must be instructed to fit the two together, as above directed. The junction of the neckband, or the so-called standing collar, is further explained in the article on “[Collars].”
It will be seen that Dia. [IV] has the shoulder on the plain angle of 135 deg., and that there is neither lap nor gore. A trifle spring that is required for a vest must be worked in by stretching the top of the back close to the shoulder seam. Dia. [IV] is so represented for the following reason: