1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



153 



dark green. Elderly women should, always dress 

 in dark colors and plain or small figured styles. 



Plain goods are always handsome, never go out 

 of fashion, and are becoming to all ages and all 

 figures. Wide sti-ipes and large plaids and checks 

 and figures look hideous when not in fashion, 

 while the reverse of these always look well, and 

 never get antiquated. Purple, lilac, buff, crimson, 

 stone-color and some blues are apt to be spotted 

 by acids and to fade by exposure to the air and 

 sunlight. 



For summer, cambrics, lawns, and muslins are 

 more serviceable than bareges and grenadines and 

 other light tissues, but they all need careful usage. 

 Keep them in good order by looking often along 

 the seams of the waist, and the tops of flounces, 

 tucks and hems ; and see that the threads are not 

 drawn too closely together in some places ; thus 

 leaving gutters and galls which may get dragged 

 into holes if they do not receive prompt attention. 

 The only way to remedy these is to spread the 

 part smoothly on a table, or a large book, and with 

 the point of a fine needle draw every thread back 

 into its proper place by light, gentle strokes. It is 

 slow work, but it pays well for the pains taken. 

 Thin delaines and valencias, sometimes alpacas, 

 poplins and silks need this treatment. Don't leave 

 one spot, no matter how badly drawn up and 

 dragged it may be, till every thread lies straight ; 

 then press it smoothly on the wrong side. Bare- 

 ges, grenadines and thin silks, when torn, if they 

 cannot be neatly darned with their own ravellings, 

 may be made to look nice a long time by fitting the 

 edges of the rent closely together and gumming a 

 strip of lace over them on the wrong side of the 

 fabric. 



Silks are suitable for all seasons ; but as they 

 cost high and all other articles of clothing to wear 

 with them must be of the very nicest quality, no 

 body ought to buy such dresses until they are 

 fully satisfied that they can afford them. The 

 dowdiest looking array is a silk dress with a cheap 

 shawl and a shabby bonnet and gloves. To be 

 sure, cheap silks can be bought, but they are mis- 

 erable things — fraying or creasing and cracking to 

 pieces very soon ; and they have such an air of 

 pretence and shabby gentility in their metallic lus- 

 tre and crackle that a noble-minded woman would 

 prefer a good alpaca or poplin. A French or an 

 English crown alpaca, or an Irish poplin, will last 

 years, and render double the service at half the 

 cost of an ordinary silk. 



Valencias of cotton-and-wool, and delaines of 

 the same material, are useful and pretty fab- 

 rics. But they need care in washing, or the colors 

 will run together while drying — and the cloth is 

 apt to shrink or cockle. These are generally of 

 American manufacture. Scotch winceys, French 

 all-wool delaines, as also thibets, cashmeres, em- 

 press cloths, alepines, tamise and others of a 

 woolen or silk-and-woolen texture are nice for 

 winter wear. In all of these get those that are of 

 the softest wool and of the most regular weaving. 



f For patterns to cut these materials, rip the waist 

 of an old dress that fits well, and copy from that 

 your lining— it should be of stout silesia. Then 

 consult some trustworthy dressmaker as to the 

 style of the waist and sleeves and the cut and dis- 

 position of the skirt. Choose some graceful, 

 unpretending fashion, and if verbal descriptions 

 are not sufficiently plain, buy a pattern to shape 

 these. Sometimes in the ladies' magazines and 

 newspapers— before referred to— you may find just 

 what you need in this respect. Having decided 

 in what fashion to make your dress compare your 

 linings with it, and make all necessary modifica- 

 tions towards securing an accurate union of the 

 two. Baste, and have patience to try it on and 

 alter till it fits exactly. 



In cutting a dress for another person take meas- 

 ures around the throat — across the back at the 

 fall of the shoulders — across the chest at the same 

 point — around the waist just beneath the arms — 

 and around the waist at the belt. Measure also 

 the length from the arm-size to the belt, as also 

 from the throat to the belt, both back and front, — 

 and from the throat to the fall of the shoulder. 

 Then take a pattern that fits your own figure and 

 with these measures calculate what variations to 

 make. For length of sleeve bend the elbow and 

 measure from the shoulder to over the wrist joint. 

 Be sure that your cloth lies straight, and length- 

 wise, when you cut ; and see that you have folded 

 your two biases for each front in such a manner 

 as to give ease, as well as to look easy and grace- 

 ful. 



In cutting the arm-size don't get it too far on 

 the back — too narrow a back gives one the appear- 

 ance of a skewered fowl. Nor yet encroach upon the 

 width of the chest — too narrow a chest causes that 

 castiron or wooden aspect of a dress, which is so 

 disagreeable to see and so distressing to endure. 

 If it binds arm, back or bust, don't rest till the 

 evil is removed ; — it often depends upon a very 

 slight thing — an irregularity in its curve, or mis- 

 placement of the pattern so that the cloth is cut 

 out of line. 



Some persons pin the silesia to the fonn in order 

 to cut a limng. This is generally a quicker way, 

 but there is more waste of stock and great danger 

 of spoiling the whole. It is so difficult to keep 

 quiet as a statue during the disagreeable manipu- 

 lations of nervous fingers and the insertion of 

 innumerable pin-points — not to mention the gash- 

 ing and snipping of sharp scissors' blades — that 

 high and uneven shoulders, low and uncomfort- 

 able arm-sizes and crooked and clumsy biases are 

 frequently the result of this method. 



Gored skirts require less material and are more 

 comfortable than those that are of equal width 

 throughout ; but, fearing that the fashion may not 

 last long, many prudent women are unwilling to 

 cut their breadths in that way, and so fold the 

 fabric to the desired shape. This is, however, a 

 questionable economy, for a skirt made thus does 



