854 
THE RERA.E NEW-YORKER 
June 2G, 1915. 
Suggestions in Summer Clothes 
Children’s Dresses. — Little girls’ 
dresses were never prettier than this sea¬ 
son. and yet they are usually quite plain. 
The two models figured are merely varia¬ 
tions of one pattern, the plain little 
dress given on page 810. No. 8674. The 
figure at the left has a loose belt slipped 
through slashes, which makes it much 
more dressy, and there is a round neck 
with a linen collar. When the dress is of 
colored material, linen, chambray or ging¬ 
ham. the collar should be white; it is 
composed of two crescent-shaped pieces 
(about the shape of a dress shield) edged 
with tatting. If desired the hem may be 
turned up on the outside with a nij lng 
of white. Trimming bands may be let in 
through slashes to border the sleeves, 
matching the belt; both belt and trim¬ 
ming being of white linen. As another 
variation the sleeves may have the hem 
turned up on the outside and piped to 
match the skirt, the belt being of patent 
leather. The slashes through which the 
trimming runs may be bound or button¬ 
holed. A dress made in this style of 
white linen with old-rose linen trimming 
is extra pretty, although plain enough to 
stand frequent laundering. When such 
dresses are made in navy blue it is much 
more becoming to a sunburnt child if any 
trimming used is of white, or blue and 
white stripes, rather than the turkey red 
so often used. Somehow, the combination 
of very dark blue with red trimmings 
always makes a very sunburnt child look 
still darker and perhaps that is why it is 
rarely seen among readymade garments 
now, except bathing suits. 
A Smocked Dress. —The little dress 
with the fullness made into smocking is 
very fashionable though there is really 
“nothing to-it.” The same pattern is 
used as for the other, only an extra pleat 
was laid at the shoulder in cutting, so as 
to allow sufficient fullness. Smocking re¬ 
quires three times the plain width: three 
inches of material must be allowed for 
one inch of finished smocking. The little 
bit of smocking may be plain, in honey¬ 
comb pattern, or worked with fancy 
stitches in colored embroidery cotton. One 
little dress seen was of old blue, linen, the 
smocking worked in old rose and black. 
There is a plain collar and turn-back 
cuffs of white linen; a little tie of black 
satin or velvet ribbon may be put under 
the collar as shown. Either of these 
dresses is very pretty in natural linen. 
The Useful Separate Skirt. —Wash 
skirts have attained greater popularity 
than ever this Summer—as “sports” 
skirts they are offered ready made in all 
sorts of styles and many materials— 
linen, crash, piqu£, cordeliue. ratine, 
gabardine, eponge—there is no end to the 
variety. There is one point upon which 
they all agree—unless it is a pleated 
skirt, which is troublesome in launder¬ 
ing. it must have pockets—patch pockets 
of infinite variety, or set-in pockets of 
very masculine style. A skirt that but¬ 
tons all the way down the front will hate 
two pockets, one on each side; one lap¬ 
ping over to button a little to the left 
will have one pocket on the right side. It 
is convenient to have a fine linen skirt 
buttoning all the way down, as linen 
crumples easily, and is more readily 
ironed. However, ironing is not so diffi¬ 
cult with skirts of this season’s width. 
These buttons should fasten the seam with 
real buttonholes; a closed seam with but¬ 
tons set on for ornament does not give 
the right look if large buttons are used, 
though smaller buttons set in twos, side 
by side, may be used for ornament with¬ 
out buttonholes. Fancy buttons of con¬ 
trasting color are not good style this sea¬ 
son. so white skirts must have buttons cf 
pearl or vegetable ivory, while the va¬ 
rious shades of sand or khaki, very popu¬ 
lar for skirts, have buttons to match. 
Nice buttons are one of the distinguish¬ 
ing marks between good quality and 
cheap grade in skirts. 
Varying A Model. —In these mail 
order days, women’s clothes seem built on 
the same model all over the country. So 
much alike are city women’s clothes, and 
so quickly is some new fashion adopted, 
that in the mass there is quite as much 
similarity as in a small community where 
one dressmaker plans for all. It is quite 
possible, however, to vary a familiar 
model so that it suits the wearer’s indi¬ 
viduality while following prevailing 
styles. Slight changes make a very great 
difference in the wearer’s appearance, 
lengthening the lines of the figure in the 
case of a short plump woman, or cutting 
off length in the case of one who is tall 
and thin. 
Three Styles in One. —The drawings 
here given show a very simple four-piece 
skirt made in three different ways. The 
original pattern had no pocket on the 
skirt, but two little military pockets on 
the belt, plain suspenders being added if 
desired. By putting the pockets on the 
skirt, and bringing the suspender straps 
down to them, much more becoming lines 
are given, especially to a short person. 
The straps on the skirt are attached, but 
not stitched flat. The suspenders are at¬ 
tached by snap fasteners, so they may be 
omitted if desired. Such a skirt of tan or 
sand-colored cotton gabardine, the waist 
either white or tan and white stripes, is 
pretty and useful. 
Varying A Blouse. —The figure at the 
left shows the same skirt as the suspen¬ 
der dress, varied by apron pockets set 
into the seams, the upper slope of these 
pockets coming up to the waist. The 
blouse is a plain yoke model with box 
pleats, varied by the insertion of a gath¬ 
ered vest. In a narrow material this is 
quite an economy, as the box pleats take 
up the width, and the vest is set under 
the pleats, fastening at the side with snap 
fasteners. The yoke comes right across 
above the vest, which only comes to tlie 
waist. In the shirt waist the peplum is, 
of course, belted under the skirt, but in 
this dress it is allowed to come outside, 
like the skirt of a jacket, a narrow black 
leather belt being worn. The vest, col¬ 
lar and cuffs are of white washing organ¬ 
die. collar and cuffs being made double, to 
give more body while retaining the sheer 
appearance. As pictured, French knots 
are worked along the edge in color. When 
this dress is made in one of the heavier 
fabrics, as linen or gabardine, the waist 
and skirt are separate, and the skirt may 
then be worn separately with a shirt 
waist if desired, with or without suspen¬ 
ders. It may also be made in madras 
or gingham all in one piece, the coatee 
being stitched to the skirt at the waist 
line. This is a becoming model for a tall, 
slight rather long-waisted person, as the 
little peplum cuts off the length, and the 
belt, with the little skirt below, gives a 
somewhat nipped-in appearance more be¬ 
coming to such a figure. 
A Third Development. —Still another 
development of the same pattern is shown 
in the remaining figure. Here the skirt 
has plain patch pockets cut on a slant, 
made with or without a turnover flap. 
The same yoke waist is used, but in front 
it is cut without pleats, the pleated part 
being folded over plain while cutting. It 
is cut like an Eton coat, the front corners 
coming below the waist line, and sloping 
up a trifle towards the back, while the 
pleats are retained at the back, and the 
center back is continued to form a square 
tail. This is very becoming to one who 
is plump, giving a longer line to the fig¬ 
ure, an effect increased by the loose front. 
The fronts are separated to show a white 
organdie vestee with attached collar. 
There is a small turn-over collar of the 
material to finish the neck. The sleeves 
have a small gathering at the back, leav¬ 
ing a bell flare at the bottom. Straps are 
used over this sleeve gathering, at the 
waist line in the back, and to hold the 
fronts together; these straps may be 
made of some colored embroidered band¬ 
ing, or of the material worked in cross- 
stitch or peasant embroidery. A colored 
crush girdle is worn to match this em¬ 
broidery. This dress is becoming to slim 
and girlish figures, as well as to plump 
ones, and for the former the jacket may 
be made into an Eton, without pleats in 
the back. The style is very comfortable, 
however, for a plump person who feels 
the heat in Summer, for the loose coatee, 
with the thin organdie vest in front, is 
very cool, and yet as trim in appearance 
as a linen jacket suit with a shirt waist 
under it. 
Summer Materials. —Some very pret¬ 
ty jacket suits are of cotton eponge in 
black and white check, made in plain tail¬ 
ored style with white pearl buttons. This 
eponge has been offered at sales for 25 
cent a yard. Another excellent fabric is 
a very firm white linen suiting 104 inches 
wide, usually about .$1.35 a yard, though 
it has been offered in sales for $1 a yard. 
For a thin white dress embroidered cot¬ 
ton crepe, very sheer and soft, appeared in 
the June sales from 15 to 28 cents a yard. 
For children’s white dresses, to stand fre¬ 
quent laundering, nainsook is about the 
best; it comes in sheer qualities from 
about $2 up per piece of 12 yards. 
Flaxon, dimity and batiste, from 18 to 30 
cents a yard, are all good for fine white 
dresses. Voile is still a favorite in white 
and colors, plain, striped, or figured. The 
awning stripes, so popular in waists, are 
attractive in one-piece dresses with pleat¬ 
ed skirt, the pleating being so arranged 
that at the top the solid color is shown, 
the pleats opening into stripes below. For 
dressy suits, taffeta, messaline. pongee 
and other soft silks are the favorites. 
Soft-finished chiffon taffeta is cool an.l 
light, wears well, and may be made up 
handsomely. 
A First Lesson in Embroidery. 
The cut. next page shows plain stitches; 
in embroidery. Fig. 6 gives a good idea of 
buttonholing scallops. The uneven, sep¬ 
arated stitches shown to right of design 
are simply darning stitches made with 
darning cotton, and their purpose is to 
pad the scallops before embroidering, 
which raises the embroidery above the 
surface of the material. Note the posi¬ 
tion of the needle, and that the thread 
at the point is underneath the needle. 
Hold it there with the thumb and pull 
the needle through and a loop is made 
that prevents fraying when the scallop 
is cut out after embroidery is finished. 
When cutting out scallop, cut close with 
sharp scissors but be careful not to cut 
the stitches. 
The outline stitch is very simple in¬ 
deed. It is used to embroider around 
the outer edges of a design, exactly on 
the stamped line and is also used for 
making stems. Notice that the needle is 
pointed toward you when making the 
stitch. To start the stitch we will as¬ 
sume that you want to make a stitch 
about one-quarter inch long. Bring the 
needle up at the point you wish to start 
from, hold the thread to one side, ad¬ 
vance the stated distance and bring nee¬ 
dle through as shown in illustration and 
repeat until design is completely out¬ 
lined. The size of the stitch is regu¬ 
lated according to design to be embroid¬ 
ered. 
The long and short stitch is used in 
conjunction with outline when it is de¬ 
sired partially to fill in space over tint¬ 
ing. It is simply an alternating long 
and short stitch as shown in the illus¬ 
tration. Notice that needle has been 
brought up on stamped line and goes 
down as close to preceding stitch as 
possible. 
The satin stitch, Fig. 3, is used to 
embroider small petals, narrow leaves, 
bars and letters, and almost always over 
padding. The illustration will show you 
very plainly the position of needle in 
making the stitch. It will show you the 
needle brought through from under side, 
and when needle is brought back to right 
side of design for re-insertion, the 
thread is laid flat across the design up 
close to the preceding stitch. 
The French knot stitch is one of the 
simplest to make in embroidery, it sim¬ 
ply being a couple of twists of cotton 
around the needle, drawn tight. Run nee¬ 
dle down through material and up again 
as close as possible then make a slack 
of a couple of inches of thread, hold down 
at end of slack with thumb and wind the 
slack once or twice around the needle and 
run needle down again close to where it 
was brought up (see illustration) and 
the knot is formed. The size of knot is 
regulated by how tnany times the cotton 
is twisted round the needle and of course 
the size of thread used. 
Any woman who is at all adept with 
Three Variations of One Pattern. 
Two Models from the Same Dress. 
