The New Dressmaker/Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
DRESSES FOR LADIES, MISSES, GIRLS AND CHILDREN
Dress Pattern—Material—Making a Dress— Joining a Waist and Skirt to Make a One-Piece Dress—An Unlined Dress—Sailor and Naval Suits—First Short Dresses—Dresses Made With Closing Under a Plait—Dresses Made With Yokes
THE DRESS PATTERN. Always buy the dress pattern for ladies according to the measures given on the pattern envelope. Directions for taking bust, waist and hip measures are given in Chapter 2, pages 10 and 11. Sometimes only the bust measure is given on the pattern, which means that that is the only measure necessary to consider in buying the pattern, and that the style is such that there is sufficient ease or fulness to permit of any reasonable alteration at the waist and hip. If, however, the bust, waist and hip measures are given on the envelope, all three must be considered in buying the pattern. Be careful not to buy one that is too small at any of those places.
For an extreme figure it is best to buy waist and skirt patterns separately instead of buying a complete dress pattern. Buy the waist by the bust measure and the skirt by the hip measure. (See Chapter 2.) In this way it is possible to get a pattern to meet the measures of the figure.
Dress patterns for misses should be bought by the age unless the girl is large or small for her age, in which case the pattern should be bought by the bust measure.
MATERIALS. For directions on the use of material, sponging and cutting read Chapter 6.
MAKING A DRESS. For either a one-piece dress or for a dress with a waist and skirt joined together, the same general rules apply to the making and finishing that are given in Chapters 7 and 8 on Waists, and Chapter 9 on Skirts.
The instructions in these chapters cover the making and finishing of every part of the dress except where a waist, blouse or shirt-waist is joined to the skirt at the waistline.
JOINING A WAIST AND SKIRT TO MAKE A ONE-PIECE DRESS. When a waist and skirt are to be put together, they are made separately and completely finished before they are joined. The inside belt of the waist, if there is one, however, should only be basted to the waist, and the inside belt of the skirt should be basted to the skirt but not sewed fast. When the waist and skirt are finished, put them on with the skirt over the waist and pin them together. Take them off and baste them together at the waistline. Try them on again to be sure that the waistline is in just the right place. If there was a belt-stay in the waist, take it out and fell the skirt belt to the waist or blouse.
AN UNLINED DRESS should be worn over a slip.
DRESSES FOR GIRLS AND CHILDREN
THE PATTERN. Instructions for buying a pattern for girls and children are given in Chapter 2, page 12. The same general rules for making and finishing that are given in the chapters on waists and skirts for ladies (Chapters 7, 8 and 9) apply to making children's garments, though of course girls' and children's dresses represent a very simple type, and the work is kept as simple as possible.
SAILOR AND NAVAL SUITS. The making of these dresses is handled in Chapter 11, page 53.
FIRST SHORT DRESSES. The general rules for making infants' clothes (see Chapter 15, pages 73 and 80) apply to the first short dresses. They are very simple in construction.
Ill. 87. The Closing Under a Plait
DRESSES MADE WITH A CLOSING UNDER A PLAIT. This closing is often used in a plaited dress. The closing, cut under a plait and finished with laps for buttons and button-holes, is shown in Illustration 87. The slash for the opening is made under the plait a seam's width from the sewing. The laps are made double, and when attached should be a little narrower than the plait which covers them. By referring to the illustration, the method of joining the laps to the edges of the opening will be readily understood.
DRESSES MADE WITH YOKES. A yoke can be joined to a dress as shown in Illustration 88.
Cut the yoke and turn the edge under a seam's width, clipping the edge where necessary to make it lie flat. Baste the yoke over the top of the front of the dress. To the wrong side, baste a bias strip of material with its edges turned under. Place two rows of stitching across the yoke, stitching from the outside. They will catch through the bias facing that is basted underneath, and which covers the seam, making a neat finish on the inside. This finish is desirable for a dress made of any material which is not transparent, as it makes it unnecessary to line the yoke. If a lining is used, however, it is cut like the yoke pattern, and the top of the dress portion is enclosed between the turned-under edges of the yoke and its lining.
Ill. 88. Attaching Yoke to front
SMOCKING is a trimming much used on the better class of children's clothes here and abroad. It is used for dresses, rompers, coals and little boys' suits. It is very pretty in colors on dresses of fine white batiste, nainsook, plain lawn, handkerchief linen, cotton voile, very fine cotton crêpe and silk mull. It is also used on the heavier cotton materials in white or plain colors, on chambray, serge, broadcloth, crêpe de Chine, etc. It is very easy to do with the Butterick transfers, which not only give the design of the smocking but instructions for working it.