Sack (clothing)

“ We prefer the sack buttoning on the shoulder, with short sleeves, and rather full in the skirt, reaching a little above the knee. It may be made of any material—for spring, cashmere or mousseline de laine, plain colors or small plaids—brown Holland, with an edging of linen bobbin sewed on flat in two or three rows, as the weather grows milder, and finally, for summer heats, cambric in solid colors, as blue, buff, pink, or green, also very prettily finished by rows of bobbin or coronation braid. Needlework scalloping is also a suitable finish. Nothing could be more simple or inexpensive. ”

“ Either a night-gown or sack may be worn with a short train, no flounce or ornament of any sort, and if a sack scanty, and only two broad plaits. Many women of condition who are not young, wear merely a common crape sack, the younger sort wear the dress that denotes their widowhood, and in a country town I should suppose the full form must be observed. I imagine your enquiry is for poor Mrs. ”

“ There is also the cutaway suit for morning wear. This is worn mostly by elderly and heavily built men. It consists of a cutaway body-coat four buttons, waistcoat single-breasted, and trousers. These three pieces are always of the same material and pattern. The same things are worn with this as with the sack body-coat.
Heavy cloths for winter and light weights for summer wear.
The sack body-coat becomes all men, tall or short, thin or stout, old or young.
Fancy serge waistcoats, also fine linen waistcoats, and sashes in summer, may be worn with the sack body-coat. ”

“ We now found ourselves in the corridor devoted to baths, where each man received a bundle of clothing. The object of the label now manifested itself; it was to attach to our clothes—not likely to be wanted for some time. The bundles consisted of a pair of blue worsted socks, a blue striped shirt, a blue pocket-handkerchief the thickness of a tile, a towel as coarse as a nutmeg-grater, and a suit of clothes. The clothes, when new, are really very good, and by no means objectionable. There is nothing of that conspicuous, degrading appearance about them that distinguishes the convict dress. ”

“ One fellow will walk erect with an old soldier’s red coat on him and nothing else, another will have a pair of knee breeches and a flannel shirt hanging over it. A very popular costume is an ordinary sack, inverted, with a big hole for the head, and smaller holes for the arms, and which comes down below the wearer’s knees. ”

“ By using a sack pattern, cut to the measure, a walking-coat can be cut in the most ready manner.
The back is the same as a sack-jacket. We only measure from the top down to the length of open skirt A. From here add the lap for pleats; single pleats require only 11⁄4 inch; box pleats, according to size, 2 to 4 inches.
The side-body is cut off at a length to correspond to 2 on back, plus one-half inch, and curved up some towards side seam.
The front is made as long as the side-body, and the bottom swept from the shoulder-point. When cut it will leave the skirt in pieces as 1, 2, 3 and 4. ”

“ The sacci are interesting, for English nurses frighten children with a threat that the chimney-sweep (here as in the May-game inheriting the tradition on account of his black face) will put them in his sack. The beneficent Christmas wanderers use the sack to bring presents in; cf. the development of the sack in the Mummers’ play (p. 215) . ”

“ Both the outside and lining portions are cut exactly alike, the seams stitched and pressed open. The sack and lining are then basted together, with seams turned toward the inside. The sleeve portions are gathered separately at the top. Sew the outside material of the sleeve in at the armhole. Turn the raw edge of the sleeve lining under, gather it and hem to the armhole. A tiny turnover collar may be added with the same kind of finish. The edges of the sack may be turned in and secured with a row of feather-stitching, or they may be buttonholed together by a scalloped edge. ”

“ If we take a Hubbard and cut it off at the hips, we have only a dressing-sack with a yoke. The dressing-sack, however, cannot be walked on, even when the wearer is stooping, and in this respect it has the advantage of the other ”

“ Single breasted sack overcoats, with fly front, are most desirable from every point of view. The man of taste and refinement always selects dark, quiet colors for his overcoats.
Men of taste who carry canes, select those that are strong, plain, light and small. Large canes are in very bad taste for young men.
A white necktie should never be worn except with a full dress suit, save by clergymen, and a few elderly men who never wear any other color.
A high silk hat should not be worn with a sack suit. A low hat should not be worn with a double breasted frock or Prince Albert. ”

“ Every one of the company is dressed in this rough material; not only so, but the robe of each is made like a sack in shape, so that they look like a crowd of moving sacks, and on their heads are sprinkled earth and dust and ashes. ”

“ In the first place there are easier ways of terminating one’s life; in the second place a man can jump into the river with perfect ease without going to the trouble [Pg 337] of sewing himself in a sack; and in the third place it is exceedingly difficult for a man to sew himself into a sack. It is almost impossible.
To sew himself into a sack a man must have no little skill, and he must have a large, roomy sack. He takes, let us say, a sack-needle, threaded with a good length of twine ”

“ During the period of waiting for the tree to fall, I had made a needle of bone and taking an empty flour sack proceeded to manufacture a pair of legs which, with infinite pains, I stitched to the waistband of my long lost trousers and added wooden pegs to insure stability and strength to the flimsy ravelings. In order to form a fair idea of my appearance, one must imagine a youth with a six weeks' growth of hair and beard, a shirt that had to be taken off once a week to wash, a black band around his waist, to which was stitched and pegged parts of flour sacks. ”

“ If in coming down the dark and slippery lane at night somebody with a heavy sack stepped out from the shadow at the stile, and if the contents of the sack were rapidly transferred to the shoulder-sticks, or the bag itself bodily taken along—why, there was nobody there to see. ”

“ A three-seamed over sack can be very much improved by judicious stretching, as well as by shrinking, for the reason that the forepart is a very large sheet, and if made up flat will never fit the outlines of a man. At least, if all parts are first properly stretched or shrunk a better result can be obtained than if made up flat. For instance, the front edge will never lap over the center of the body 3 or 4 in., and button smoothly, if it be not drawn in at least 1 in. all the way across the chest, unless the [49] surplus length is drawn upward and balanced by a gore under the lapel. ”

“ Coat.—Single-breasted, straight-front sack, with square corners, skeleton made, of bluish-gray flannel, or a light-weight bluish-gray worsted or serge, and terminating two-thirds distance from top of hipbone to knee, with lapels (medium roll) made to button over the breast; three pockets outside, with flaps, one on each side and one on left breast. Coat to be bound with black mohair piping, 1/16 inch projection, and five buttons down front, four buttons to button, and one at top, under lapel of coat. ”

“ Fig. 2 is a textile lining, which we propose usually to make (although there is nothing arbitrary about the form, as other forms may be used) in the form of a cylindrical bag or sack, the diameter of which, when filled, is to be such as will permit of its fitting snugly within the can. A is the metallic can; a, its lid or cover. B is the bag or sack, constructed of cotton, muslin, or any other suitable textile fabric. ”

“ We have no snowshoes, and it would be disastrous to be snowed in for several months in some desolate place with limited provisions.
Yesterday I made a hood out of a canvas flour sack to be put on outside of my wool hood which mother knit, and it will keep out a good deal of wind. I also put a heavy canvas lining over my woolen mittens and darned several pairs of socks. That is the [ 31 ] first time I have done any mending since leaving home. Perhaps there is no time in a fellow's life when affectionate remembrance of his human sisters so comes to him as when his garments need repairing. ”

“ Anything more supremely ridiculous can hardly be imagined than this figure, scantily draped in white, its one foot covered with a big blue sock, a dingy cap set rakingly askew on its shaven head, and placid satisfaction beaming in its broad red face, as it flourished a mug in one hand, an old boot in the other, calling them canteen and knapsack, while it skipped and fluttered in the most unearthly fashion. ”

“ The sábuk or waistband is generally of silk of the chíndi or patólé pattern. When at leisure within-doors, the men usually wear a loose cotton gown descending as low as the knees; but when abroad, or in attendance on public service, they for the most part wear a jacket of broad cloth, silk, or velvet if procurable, frequently edged with lace and ornamented with filagree buttons. ”

“ Suppose now that you fix the V point of a pair of braces somewhere near the top of the sack and bringing the webs over your shoulders, fix them, nicely adjusted, to the lower corners of the sack, it will ride quite comfortably upon your back—that is, you have made it from a plain sack into a rucksack or back-sack. Get or make as many good large strong ones as you have shoulders in the party to carry them. ”

“ Stockings should be bulky and shoes roomy. The layer of knit wool between foot and shoe leather is elastic; it gives the exercising foot free play, cushions the weight of the body, and, by filling all the space, prevents rubbing. The rough bulky stockings known as lumbermen’s socks are excellent. If their coarseness is harsh to the skin, finer socks (of cotton, if preferred) may be worn beneath. If the woolen stockings available are light, wear two pairs together. Never wear [5] a stocking so small or so badly shrunken as to draw or constrain the toes. ”

“ There is still another way in which the laundry devil tortures the sock-owner. He can find ways to shrink any sock that is not made of solid heavy silk; and of course he can rip silk socks all to pieces. He will take silk-and-wool socks of normal length, and in one washing will so reduce them that you can hardly get your foot into them, and that the upper margins of them come only about an inch above your shoe-tops. ”

“ This should not be made of thick, heavy flannel, for thickness and weight contribute little to warmth, but of soft, light, fleecy material, or of that thin flannel which somewhat resembles silk in structure. The feet coverings should be of the same character, and long socks should be preferred to stockings. The upper clothing, like the under, should be of light and, at the same time, warm character, and the final overcoat or cloak should carefully vary with the season. In coldest weather fur is, I think, without doubt, the best external clothing. ”

“ The sack is made by cutting the skin of the animal along the inside of the thighs, and then, without making any other incision, stripping it over the fore part of the body, the head being previously cut off, the skin of the legs is sewn or knotted up to prevent the escape of air. ”

“ Circular bags have been made both with three-leaf and four-leaf twills, but it is found much more convenient and economical to make the cloth for these kinds, and in most cases for all other types, in the piece, and then to make it up into sacks by one or other of the many types of sewing machines. ”

“ Hoboes take most delight in what is called the sack-coat. "Tailed jackets" are inconvenient, especially when one is riding on the trucks of a train; the skirts are liable to catch on something and thus delay matters. It is the inside of a tramp s coat, however, that is most interesting. It is usually furnished with numerous pockets, one of them being called the "poke-out pocket," in which he stows away his lunches. The others are used for brushes, tattooing-tools, combs, white rags, [Pg 159] string, and other little notions that may "come handy" to a traveler. ”

“ All mothers have reason to bless the invention, or rather the revival of sacques—for the prettiest, and at the same time most comfortable and convenient summer dress we can recommend for boys from two years old to five, is a loose sacque, girt, by a belt, over white linen jean drawers or "pataloons," as the young gentlemen will be apt to call them. ”

“ Neither men nor women use stockings; though, during the winter months, the more opulent sometimes wear a short kind of sock, called a jooraub, made of cotton, or of silk, perhaps both intermixed, and of various colored patterns. ”

“ Hats of a character harmonious with the gown are worn throughout the function, as are gloves.
The men wear black frock coats and gray striped trousers, with either a black waistcoat or a fancy one according to choice. While he leaves his coat and hat in the dressing-room at such formal affairs, a man retains his gloves, either keeping the left glove on the hand, and carrying the other, or carrying both. The right hand must be bare.
Each woman guest leaves on a tray [20] provided for that purpose in the hall a card for her hostess and one for each of any other women receiving. ”

“ Buy me a thick under-waistcoat like the one I am now wearing, and a lighter one for the summer. Worsted socks are of no use—they scarcely last a day. Cotton ones are poor things, but they are better than worsted. ”