Two "shawl-scarves" and a pelerine-collar (1861)

"On mete un boutonnière à chaque bout de chale, et un gros bouton à la pointe de derrière, atin de croiser le chàle, et d'en fixer les extrémités sur ce bouton; nous engageons toute nos lectrices à faire ce chàle-écharpe, qui leur évitera des rhumes, et peut-étre des fluxions de poitrine" = We put a buttonhole on each end of the shawl [pictured at left], and a large button on the back point, in order to cross the shawl, and to fix the ends of it on this button; we urge all our readers to make this shawl-scarf, which will save them colds, and perhaps chest inflammations.

 

 

The French fashion magazine "La Mode Illustrée" -- similar in content and intended audience to "Godey's" et al. -- published these three patterns early in its career, in January 1861.  The two "shawl-scarves" are knitted, while the pelerine-collar is crocheted. "The fashion for cloth coats, infinitely less warm than quilted coats, resulted in the adoption of the shawl-scarf, to which we are devoting two designs today" -- admirably practical!

The first shawl appears to be an early instance of a sontag -- a waist-length U-shaped garment that crosses over the chest and wraps around the waist to the back, and is fastened with buttons on the ends, or with ties that come around to the front.

The sontag (1860)

The December 1860 issue of the "American Agriculturalist" magazine gave a pattern by Marian M. Pullan for "a sort of woolen habit-shirt that ... makes a warm and not cumbrous wrapper under a mantle" (in those days when a woman's usual outer garment was a cloak, not a coat).  Note that Mrs. Pullan had to explain what a sontag was!

What is a habit shirt?

Lady's riding habit shirt of linen, England, ca.1800. Courtesy V&A, accession no. T.104-1966.

The habit shirt was so called because it was originally worn by a lady under her riding habit.  Wiktionary defines it as "a thin muslin or lace undergarment worn by women on the neck and shoulders, under the dress." It seems often to have been sleeveless, as in the V&A garment above.  We might today, or yesterday perhaps, call this particular kind a dickey.

The term when it referred to a knitted garment seems generally not to have been something worn under the dress, but over it, for example a sontag -- indeed, Mrs. Pullan refers to her sontag as "a sort of woolen habit-shirt," presumably because it was a similar shape and worn in the same place on the body, not because it particularly resembled a habit shirt.

See other habit shirts in the John Bright Collection.