Historic tartan waistcoat... just finished sewing

[IsaacW]

Thanks for all the kind compliments! I think I spent 5 different nights working on it here and there... and one morning due to the weather being too cold to do much else. The pattern is one I drafted. I do most of my own sewing for historic stuff. Here is a little blog posting I did on this waistcoat as well as on another (not tartan) I made awhile back that I just did an addition to... http://frenchinwisconsin.com/2014/01...armer-clothes/

[creagdhubh]

Well done! You look very smart!

[ASinclair]

Awesome! Well done, sir!

[sydnie7]

Very nice work! I'm impressed by the ingenuity of the other vest as well, with "stocking sleeves" -- but those must have been some super stockings to be long enough to convert to sleeves. The kilt hose I knit are about 17" long, hardly enough for a boy's sleeve. And I gather yours had no calf shaping, as it seems you used the finished cuff end for the hem and attached the old foot end to shoulder? Just curious.

[IsaacW]

Ingenious indeed but not my ingenuity as it was done a lot historically.

Those are the common stockings that were worn with knee breeches. They basically go up over the knee and to mid thigh. The part that is fastened to the arm scythe is the top that goes around the thigh and the ankle is where the wrist of the sleeve is. The foot was cut off and to keep the knitting from unravelling, I bound the edge with linen fabric. There was calf shaping (and thigh shaping). The biggest part (thigh) corresponds to the bigger part of the arm (upper arm) with the calf becoming the forearm and the ankle the wrist.

IW

[Downunder Kilt]

You are most talented in the sewing department Issac. Congratulations on the fine waistcoats.

[JohntheBiker]

Very impressive.

[usonian]

Beautiful work.

[Liam]

Well done!

[Andrew Breecher]

Is the waistcoat canvassed at all? It looks soft, and I know that men's clothing at least through the 1800s wasn't always interlined except for at the button stand.