Armhole

“ To shape the armhole pass over two stitches at the commencement of one row, and at the end of the next row until you have worked to the centre of armhole, then increase in the same proportion that you decreased. Work straight across the front without increase or decrease; the other armhole and back are worked in the same way as described for the first side.
For the skirt, work with the same hook:
1st row: One double into each stitch at the edge of waist; join round.
2nd row: One double into each of three stitches; two chain, repeat. ”

“ THE ARMHOLE. Do not bind the armhole. After the sleeve has been sewed in, overcast the armhole seam unless the material is transparent and is to be machine hemstitched. In sheer material which is not hemstitched the armhole seam should be cut to about one-quarter of an inch width before overcasting it.
THE FINISH OF THE WAISTLINE OF THE OUTSIDE WAIST is a matter of style. Follow the information given with the pattern. The waist may be made separately or joined to the skirt. ”

“ To continue divide equally the armhole space as shown on the opposite diagram between 8 and 14 making 30. Extend at the hip line from 31 to 29, 1 inch and draw a line from 30 against 29 down to the bottom to 32. Raise up from 32 to 35, 1 inch and curve from 35 lost to 27 which will finish the side seam and bottom of the back. ”

“ To fit a sloping shoulder, take up the shoulder seams to conform to the slope of the shoulders. This means that the garment will be taken up deepest at the armhole and probably only the seam allowance at the neck.
Of course this makes the armhole smaller. Slash the material under the arm until the garment is comfortable, being careful not to slash too deeply. The armhole is enlarged by the seam taken in sewing in the sleeve.
When a person's shoulders are unusually square, the wrinkles come crosswise below the neck, front and back of a garment cut from a standard size pattern. ”

“ We may cut our armholes as large as we please, but if the coat has not enough cloth over the hips and seat the front of the armhole will be drawn backward, and it will strike the arm and cut it; and behind and below the arm, the back will appear too long and too wide, all of which will correct itself, if more width is given over the hips and seat. ”

“ The armhole itself must be the same for both the square and for the low shoulder, or the long neck. The lap of the shoulder seam requires that seam to be nicked as shown in the diagram. It is better all around if the jour. has a sure point at the middle to connect said seam, when he can baste up and down. He is less apt to throw one side up and the other down than if he makes the connection at the neck or at the armhole. ”

“ Sl sts from st holder; bind off 3 sts at armhole. Continue in stripes as established dec 1 st at armhole edge every other row twice. Work even until armhole measures 3 inches ending at front edge. SHAPE NECK: Bind off 10 sts at beg of next row; then dec 1 st at neck edge every other row twice. Work even until armhole measures same as back armhole. SHAPE SHOULDER: Work same as back shoulder.
RIGHT FRONT: Sl sts from st holder onto needle and complete to correspond to left front reversing shaping. ”

“ One point of caution is worthy of mention: if too much material is taken out of the sleeve at the top of the armhole the arm cannot be lifted easily, and when lifted will drag all the material up the side from the lower hem, which is most unattractive in appearance, and if it is of delicate texture will soon stretch out of shape. ”

“ When one or both arms are thrown into a horizontal position they show themselves as a sidewise growth of the body, like the limb of a tree, and consequently have their base in the center of the back, or in the center of the front. For the purpose of permitting the arms to drop down to the side, a wedge, or gusset, or a lap, is made between the top of the armhole and sleeve, which is taken up when the arm drops down into its natural position at the side. ”

“ In taking measures be sure to take a correct position or it will be impossible to get correct measures and you cannot hope for success if this—the initial step—is taken wrongly. For instance, stand erect with the chest raised and the abdomen held in and you will find in taking the width measures across to where the arms and body join the armhole will be straight and even looking instead of pointing in and out in places. ”

“ The gliding joints which twist upon each other; they are composed of small, square bones, forming arches, the simplest form of which is found in eels and snakes; they are found in the back bone, the arch of the foot and wrist. The next is the hinge, or swing joint, which moves to and fro, but has no side motion, the simplest illustration of which is the hinge of a door which moves only two ways, to and fro, swinging; these are usually the second and third joints of each member, thus, the second and third joints of the leg would be the knee and ankle; the second of the arm is the elbow ”

“ At the psychologic moment the right foot is advanced half a pace, the left leg straightened into a brace, the right arm, with its extended cutlass, stiffened to a bar of steel—and the thing is done. The keen two-foot blade, slipping between the shoulder blade and the first rib, shores its way through heart and lungs, and its point may even penetrate to the abdominal cavity. ”

“ The body inclines inward, ready to take the pull, if it comes, down the thrust of our rigid leg. If the ledge is narrow, we rest against the rock with shoulder or our inside knee, but still keep a free poise of the body to meet any slight alterations in the direction of strain. If the ledge is too narrow to allow us to lean back and so take the strain down through our leg to the rock, or if the stance does not even allow of balancing without handholds, then we must look out for a belay or anchor, any knob or split corner of rock, round which to pass the rope as extra security. ”

“ But on corpulent men, these lines stand too far down, and on slim persons they are too far up; consequently, these lengths must be measured, and as the waist seam runs at right angles with the back, as on a square of 171⁄2, and as a point for line 20, take the outside of the elbow, and for line 171⁄2 take the inside of the elbow. The elbows [113] are a sure guide, for they always fit into the hollow of the waist, and no man can strike both of his hip bones with both of his elbows at the same time. As a general rule, I claim that the angle of 135 deg. ”

“ This so-called blade-bone is jointed by a ball and socket joint to the arm-bone, but is only united to the spine and back part of the head by muscles. Muscles start from the spine to the blade-bone, from the blade-bone to the bones of the arm and fore-arm, and from these last to the bones of the fingers, and by their shortening or contraction, the fingers being stationary, the body is at last brought closer to them. ”

“ On looking at the arm-bone, which, being connected to the shoulder by a joint, has much to do with the act of climbing and striking, it will be noticed that it greatly resembles that of man in shape, but is longer, stouter, and clumsier. The joint is nearly in the shape of a rounded knob, and the corresponding depression or cup on the blade or shoulder-bone into which it fits, is an oval and concave surface, and they are kept close together by a kind of capsule which stretches from one bone to the other and encloses the joint. ”

“ The true worker's arm consists of a strong metal rod fixed to the arm socket in a way that we must now study.
1. The Arm Socket.—We have already said that this must be continued into a shoulder cap of considerable extent, which may be perforated in the region of the point of the shoulder in order to render the appliance lighter. Abduction at the shoulder is thus sacrificed.
The arm socket is made of leather, open down the front and laced. By being laced it fits the stump more securely. ”

“ When the patient raises the leg from the ground, the weight of the appliance makes it slip down the stump, tension is thus produced upon this strap and as a result the knee is extended. By an adroit movement of the shoulder this extension can be carried out actively.
When the limb rests upon the ground the weight of the body presses the stump down into the bucket, the tension on the strap is released and consequently the knee is free to flex. ”

“ For a leg hanging like a flail, or shortened by some inches, is not so good for purposes of locomotion as a wooden leg is, while an arm, even though powerless at the elbow, and perhaps much shortened, can be so strengthened and supported by slings and bandages as to give a most useful hand, the complex movements and uses of the fingers of which no mechanism can at all imitate. ”

“ There are no legs, nor even any indication of legs, the body being little more than a block of wood, with a hole at the top for the insertion of the neck, and a smaller hole at each shoulder for the insertion of the arms. ”

“ When the toes of the right limb seemed firmly planted in a receptacle, the right arm was made to slide along the rock until the fingers had obtained a firm grip in the cavity directly above the one in which the toes were. Then the entire body had to be shifted from left to right, bringing the left foot and hand close to the right extremities and suspending one's weight on the former, so as to render the right foot and arm ready to make the next move forward, and so on, till I reached the other side and alighted upon the narrow track, which was itself only five or six inches wide. ”

“ A series of horizontal metal arms, tipped with celluloid, slide easily through holes in the vertical wooden arm. These metal arms are shaken out to their full length, and their ends pushed rapidly and lightly against the subject's back in the median line, the point of the uppermost horizontal arm being applied to the seventh cervical vertebra. ”

“ It is a characteristic fact, where so [157] many of the male inhabitants are employed at the bench from such early years, that a certain distortion of figure is observable; the right shoulder-blade becomes displaced and projects, and the right leg crooks and bends inwards at the knee, like the letter K,—it is the leg which is hindermost in standing at the vice. The right hand also has frequently a marked distortion. “Almost every thing it holds takes the position of the file. ”