Manton
RINO
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2002
- Messages
- 41,314
- Reaction score
- 2,879
iGent lore holds that high armholes are good. I fully endorse this view, when it comes to coats. I like the armholes to be as high as possible -- I want to just feel the bottoms ever so slightly, but not have them bind.
However, I wonder of this applies to shirts. While the following experience is from a long time ago, the BB side-discussion in the Thom Browme thread prompted this recollection.
When I first went to Geneva and we worked through the first several shirts, I kept asking Mike to raise the armhole, raise the armhole, raise the armhole. And he did, until finally he advised me that to go any further would throw everything off and make the shirt feel tight in the chest and across the blades when I moved my arms. I felt one of the armholes, and noticed that there was still some room, and so confidently said, Do it anyway. And he did.
Well, he was right. The next shirts felt tight when I moved. I sheepishly admitted my mistake. He grinned widely, took out my pattern and pointed to the Scoth tape where a crescent moon piece of pattern paper had been affixed. He got his knife and excised the offending piece. The next shirt fit fine, and felt perfect.
While I have had the problem of a high coat armhole grabbing a low shirt armhole and pulling up the sleeves, this does not happen with the Geneva shirts. So the armholes seem to be high enough, and low enough, at the same time.
However, I wonder of this applies to shirts. While the following experience is from a long time ago, the BB side-discussion in the Thom Browme thread prompted this recollection.
When I first went to Geneva and we worked through the first several shirts, I kept asking Mike to raise the armhole, raise the armhole, raise the armhole. And he did, until finally he advised me that to go any further would throw everything off and make the shirt feel tight in the chest and across the blades when I moved my arms. I felt one of the armholes, and noticed that there was still some room, and so confidently said, Do it anyway. And he did.
Well, he was right. The next shirts felt tight when I moved. I sheepishly admitted my mistake. He grinned widely, took out my pattern and pointed to the Scoth tape where a crescent moon piece of pattern paper had been affixed. He got his knife and excised the offending piece. The next shirt fit fine, and felt perfect.
While I have had the problem of a high coat armhole grabbing a low shirt armhole and pulling up the sleeves, this does not happen with the Geneva shirts. So the armholes seem to be high enough, and low enough, at the same time.