US2308337A - Garment - Google Patents

Description

Jan; 12, D. L. M DONALD I 2,308,337

l GARMENT Original Filed March 10, 1959 Patented Jan. 12, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT orr ca Dorothy L. McDonald, Evanston .Ill., assig'nor to Standard Knitting Mills, Inc., Knoxville, Tenn, .a corporation of Tennessee Continuation of application Serial No. 260,957, March 10, 1939. This application October 27, 1941, Serial No. 416,716

3 Claims.

This invention relates to garments, and more particularly to undershirts .and athletic shirts of the type commonly worn by men and boys.

Undershirts and athletic shirts for male wear now in general use are manufactured from knitted fabric which is produced on machines in tubular form. The body portion of agarment made from such material has no seams, is of substantially uniform size throughout its length when undonned, .and is not pre-formed or tailored to fit the figure of the wearer. The tubular portion is usually cut and sewed at the .top in order to provide neck and arm holes, while the bottom .portion is left entirely open and unobstructed. If desired, sleeves may be sewed to the tubularbody portion at the arm openings, although the latter are .more often left open to provide a shirt of the shoulder strap type. Knitted garments of this type are commonly worn by men and boys either as undershirts or as athletic shirts with underpants or shorts.

It is desirable in the construction of a shirt of the character described that it be made of such length that, when worn, the lower part of the body portion may extend downwardly considerably below the hip line of the wearer, some persons evenpreferring'that the lower peripheral edge of the shirt lie somewhat below the crotch. The bottom portions of such garments, however, have a tendency to roll up and bunch at thewaist because, being of tubular construction, they are not pro-formed to fit the figure but mustconform thereto by circumferential stretching of the knitted material, and also because the male physique is somewhat broader at .or below the hip line than at the waistline, the combination of which conditions tends to cause an unequal contraction of the material of the garmentnabout the waist and hips which pulls the lower,...more expanded portion upwardly. This rolling or creeping up of shirts of the conventional .type often causes discomfiture to their wearers.

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to provide an undershirt or athletic shirt which will not tend to roll or creep .upitoward and bunch around the waistline of the wearer.

A further object'is to provide an undershirtyor athletic shirt of such construction that the lower portion thereof will stay down over the hips while being worn.

Another object is to provide a shirt of the character described which will fit snugly around both .the waist and hips of the wearer, and-which, even though extending below the hips, will not bind the about .the level of the crotch of the wearer.

movements of the legs or crotch of the wearer.

A .still further object is .toprovide ;a mans undershirt or athletic shirt having a novelly constructed lower portion which will follow the body movements of the wearer without sliding upwardly, and is adapted to provide new comfort and convenience .to the wearers of such .gar-

merits.

These and other objects will appear more fully upon consideration of the following detailed description of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

In accordance with the invention, an under.- shirt or athletic shirt of the desired size maybe formed from a piece of tubular knitted fabric of uniform transverse section which provides the main body portion of the shirt. The piece of tubular fabric may be cut and sewed at one end to provide neck and arm holes for the garment, to'which arm holes may be added sleevesof ,any suitable length, if desired. The tubular main body portion of the shirt may be of any desired length-althoughina preferred style the garment of thepresent invention will normally extend to Because of the novel construction of the bottom portion of the shirt'which overcomes'its tendency to ride or creep upwardly, it is not necessary that theshirt extend any substantial distance below the crotch as is sometimes the case insimilar garments of conventional construction where the extra length is utilized for tucking into the crotch (in an effort to prevent the undesired riding .up action.

The objectives of the invention are attained by splitting the lower end of the tubular knitted body portion of the shirt into a plurality of sections by means of one or more slits orslots which extend upwardly from the lower-peripheral edge of the shirt a suificient distance to permit a certhemselves smoothly over the hips of the wearer.

.,,panying drawing, wherein:

- i1 is a front view of a mans sleeveless undershirt constituting one embodiment of the present invention, the shirt being shown in fiattened condition as it would appear when new or after laundering;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the shirt of Fig. 1 expanded into tubular form; and

Figs. 3, 4 and are perspective views showing how the shirt would appear when worn and the wearer assumes various positions, these three views being especially intended to illustrate the way in which the slit in the front of the shirt opens up to permit free movement of the wearers body without causing such stretching of the material across the hips as would cause it to creep upwardly and bunch around the waist.

In the embodiment illustrated, the garment comprises a main body portion II which is preferably knitted or woven on suitable machines as a seamless tube of uniform diameter or transverse size having its wales l2 extending longitudinally thereof, as indicated in the drawing. The body portion II is cut at the top and sewed in such a manner as to provide shoulder straps [3 which outline the arm holes I4 and neck hole i 5, the exposed cut edges of the tubular material defining these holes being covered by suitable binding strips I6 customarily made of a material which is substantially non-stretchable circumferentially of the openings which it binds. As in the case of undershirts of conventional construction, the main body portion II is of such a length as to extend downwardly to about the level of the crotch of the wearer of average height and weight for the chest size of the shirt, and has a bottom opening which preferably remains entirely unobstructed.

The garment of the present invention differs from those of conventional form in that the lower portion of the shirt is provided with one or more slits I! which extend upwardly from the lower peripheral edge of the garment. Inasmuch as the object of this construction is to avoid stretching the material of the shirt circumferentially to a greater extent across the hips than at the waist, it will be seen that the slits should extend upwardly to about the upper horizontal plane of the hips, slightly below the waist, or, as is indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, for a distance approximating one-sixth of the overall length of center and back center portions of the shirt, re-

spectively. It is to be clearly understood, however, that a single slit may also sufiice for the purposes of the invention, in which event it may be positioned at either the front or the back of the garment, although there is an obvious advantage from the point of view of convenience in locating a single slit at the front. It may also be desirable to provide additional slits at the sides of the garment, in addition to those at the front and back, in order to give even greater flare to the lower portion of the shirt, although it has been found in practice that one or two slits are ordinarily suificient.

As is clear from the drawing, each slit I! may be formed by simply cutting the material of the body portion I l upwardly parallel to the wales I2, and then binding the edges of the slit with a suitable binding strip 18 which may be of the same material as the bindings I6 of the arm and neck holes. With this construction, the vertical edges of the slit are normally substantially parallel and closely adjacent one another, but capable stretching of the material of the main body portion ll adjacent the upper end of the slit, a condition which has been found to be of assistance in attaining the desired objectives of the invention, particularly when the slit opens out in arcuate form when the garment is worn, as illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. If desired, the lower edge of the shirt may also be provided with a suitable binding 19, or it may be finished off in any other suitable manner.

Although, due to the stretchability of the fabric in a circumferential direction, the garment of the present invention is capable of fitting tightly to the body of the wearer when donned, it is not pre-formed or form-fitted. The slit or slits in the lower part of the shirt, however, permit the portions of the tubular knitted material separated thereby to flare outwardly with a sort of lever action and drape themselves smoothly over the hip region of the wearer without binding or producing any greater tension in the material of these portions than exists about the waist, thus avoiding any tendency for the bottom portion of the shirtto roll, creep or bunch upwardly toward the waistline. Because of the slit construction, the portion of the shirt on each side of the front slit, for example, may independently follow the movements of that side of the wearers trunk when walking or assuming a position like that indicated in Fig. 4, and both portions may freely separate and open up when the wearer sits down, as shown in Fig. 5. An undershirt or athletic shirt constructed in this manner provides the wearer with materially greater comfort than is obtainable from the shirts heretofore commonly sold on the market.

While only one specific form of garment has been described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, it will be obvious that various modifications of the disclosed embodiment may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, it is not essential that the garment be made from an integral piece of tubular knitted fabric, since it may be constructed by knitting, weaving or sewing in any suitable manner so long as one or more slits are provided in the lower edge of the garment which function in the manner described. The specific shape, size and location of the slit or slits may also be varied within limits which will clearly appear to those skilled in the art. In this connection, it is recognized that there is, of course, a wide variation in shape and proportions of the bodies of persons who may wear garments embodying the present invention. However, when due consideration is given to the stated objects of the invention, it is believed that the references in the foregoing description and in the appended claims to such portions of the body as the waist, waistline, hips, hip region, hip line and crotch are adequate to describe the essential characteristics of, and to enable those skilled in the art to manufacture, garments embodying the invention. It is therefore intended to encompass within the spirit and scope of the invention all such modifications of the particular embodiment disclosed as may fall within the definitions of the appended claims.

This is a continuation of application Serial No. 260,957, filed March 10, 1939.

What is claimed is:

1. A garment for male wear of the character described comprising a tubular body portion having an unobstructed bottom opening and of sufiicient length to extend downwardly over the hips to approximately the level of the crotch of the wearer, said body portion being of uniform transverse size throughout its length when undonned, b-ut stretchable circumferentially so as to closely fit the body of the wearer, said body portion also being slit upwardly from at least one point on the peripheral edge of said bottom opening to approximately the hip line, the vertical edges of said slit being substantially parallel and closely adjacent one another when the garment is undonned, but capable of separation when the garment is worn so as to substantially eliminate the tendency of said body portion to bunch or roll up around the waist due to the body movements of the wearer.

2. A mans garment of the character described comprising a knitted tubular body portion having an unobstructed bottom opening and of sufficient length to extend downwardly over the hips to approximately the level of the crotch of the wearer, said body portion being of uniform transverse size throughout its length when the garment is undonned, but stretchable circumferentially so as to closely fit the body of the wearer,

said body portion also having a slit-like opening in the front thereof extending upwardly from the peripheral edge of the bottom opening to a point above the plane of maximum width of the hips, and a stretch-resisting binding around the periphery of said slit-like opening, the lower ends of the edges of said slit-like opening lying closely adjacent one another when the garment is undonned, but being capable of separation when the garment is worn so as to render the tension in the portion-of the garment around the hips not greater than that which exists in the portion around the waist.

3. A garment for male wear of the character described comprising a knitted, seamless, tubular body portion having longtiudinally extending wales and an unobstructed bottom opening, said body portion being of uniform transverse dimension throughout its length when undonned and of sufficient length to extend downwardly over the hips of the wearer, the bottom end of said body portion having at least one slit located in the center front of the body portion-and extending upwardly from the peripheral edge of said bottom opening to about the upper plane of the hip region of the wearer to prevent the circumferential tensile stress in the portion of the garment about the hips from exceeding that which exists in the waist portion when the garment is worn, whereby the tendency of the lower end of said body portion to bunch or roll up above the hips is substantially eliminated.

DOROTHY L. MCDONALD.

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