968 
THE RUKA.L, NEW-YORKEK 
July 31, 11*15. 
The Home Dressmaker 
Transforming A Dress. —Last year 
the narrow underskirt and full tunic was 
so prevalent that a majority of the .Sum¬ 
mer dresses were made that way. and 
many a girl feels dissatisfied because 
some pretty gown is so clearly marked as 
an old one by this style. Yet it is quite 
easy to bring it up to date. The accom¬ 
panying pictures show a voile or thin 
silk dress as it was made last year, and 
as it may be modified to present style. 
The underskirt and tunic are taken apart 
and group of tucks in front of tunic care¬ 
fully unpicked and pressed out. The 
tunic is to form the new skirt; unless 
extra full it should have one breadth 
added to it from the underskirt. The re¬ 
mainder of this underskirt is used for 
the shirred yoke, and for lentliening the 
sleeves. The yoke is shirred on cable 
cord, as shown, the bottom cord forming 
a piping where the shirred skirt is gath¬ 
ered on. This disguises the join, making 
the skirt look as though one piece. The 
yoke must be shirred evenly, and drawn 
up to fit the wearer; the placket, fast¬ 
ened with snap fasteners, is at the side. 
The bottom may be finished with a reg¬ 
ular hem, if there is length enough, or 
with a stout cord run in a narrow hem, 
like a piping. A good many skirts of 
thin material are thus finished with a 
cord, which tends to make them stand 
out. In thin material, especially sheer 
white goods, the skirt with shirred yoke 
may be trimmed with two l^-ineh ruf¬ 
fles at the foot put on in scallops or 
Vandykes. The sleeves are shirred with 
a frill at the elbow, then shirred again 
at the wrist, which makes a great altera¬ 
tion in their style. Instead of the stand¬ 
ing collar a slight alteration in the vest, 
filling in with a slope at the sides, per¬ 
mits the use of the crossed pleating of 
net. or if preferred a deep Puritan col¬ 
lar of organdie will effect a complete 
transformation. 
Utilizing Two Materials. —It may 
be asked bow this transformation in style 
may be made where there is a silk under¬ 
skirt with tunic and waist of woolen ma¬ 
terial. In this case there may be a plain 
smooth-fitting yoke of the silk of a be¬ 
coming depth, and if the tunic is not 
quite long enough—though skirts are 
short nowadays—it may be lengthened 
with a cuff hem of the silk turned up on 
the right side with a piping. This band 
at the bottom makes the skirt look wider, 
as the different material could not be 
used for an added breadth. A Priscilla 
collar over the dark dress is very prettty. 
It may be said that one’s dress should 
not be made so that it has to be altered 
within a year; in reality, however, the 
narrow underskirt, longer than now 
worn, very soon became scuffed out at the 
bottom, and remodeling is necessary for 
neatness as well as for style. 
Three Waists In One.—T he three 
blouses figured show the development of 
one plain yoke model in three different 
styles. At the left the material used is 
embroidered cotton crape, fine and soft; 
the fullness is gathered into groups of 
smocking, worked in white embroidery 
cotton. The sleeves, instead of having 
an applied cuff are long enough to fall 
over the hand, and have the fullness gath¬ 
ered in smocking at the back. There is 
a plain embroidered collar, or it may be 
hemstitched organdie. Little square pearl 
buttons, with shanks, put on in groups of 
three, form the fastenings. The maker 
should avoid using common lace, such as 
machine-made Valenciennes or Torchon, 
on such a waist, for this is always a 
mark of the cheaper factory-made gar 
meats. 
The waist at the center is fine ba¬ 
tiste or washing organdie. Its only trim¬ 
ming is battlements of the material, bast- 
ad carefully on the underside, the edge 
smoothly turned, the battlements being 
outlined on the outside by fine feather- 
stitching in embroidery cotton, worked 
just at the edge, so as to stitch this under 
trimming in place. Cuffs and collar, the 
latter high and closely buttoned, are 
trimmed with turnovers having the same 
battlements and feather-stitching. This 
simple and inexpensive method of trim¬ 
ming is surprisingly attractive, laying the 
battlements underneath in this way being 
much prettier than wh m applied on the 
outside. Such trimmings are often hem 
stitched along the edge by machine; the 
home dressmaker can have this done, 
usually for eight or 10 cents a yard, 
sometimes even less, by fancy stores where 
they take in side plaiting and similar 
work. Not only trimmings, collars and 
cuffs are thus hemstitched, but also 
shoulder and armscye seams. When pre¬ 
paring a garment for this hemstitching, 
it is basted together and a bast¬ 
ing thread run as a guide where- 
ever the stitching is to be done. Col¬ 
lars and cuffs usually have two rows 
about one-fourth inch apart; the outer 
basting thread should be about one-fourth 
inch from the edge, and when the work 
is done, tin* material beyond this is cut 
away, so as to leave a picot edge. In 
the waist under discussion, the fastenings 
are small ball buttons of vegetable ivory, 
which are pretty, durable and inexpen¬ 
sive, closing with worked loops on the 
edge instead of buttonholes. The waist 
with the smocking, or the battlement 
trimming is very pretty and stylish in 
flesh-pink batiste. 
The waist at the right is awning- 
striped voile with a white pique vest, 
collar and cuff's. There is a little ideat¬ 
ing of the voile at each side of the vest. 
The vest and collar are in one, and may 
be made removable, fastening at each side 
with snap fasteners, which do away with 
the bother of basting after removing the 
vest for laundering. Of course the vest 
may be stitched in if desired; it closes 
at the center with pearl buttons. This 
waist is pretty in the pink, blue or lav¬ 
ender awning stripes so popular, but the 
older woman will also find it becoming 
in black and white or gray and white 
stripes. In the case of a short plump 
person the piqud vest may be lengthened 
and sloped at edge, so as to come a lit¬ 
tle below the waist line. For a person in 
mourning, such a waist may be made of 
black China silk, with vest, collar and 
cuffs of white organdie. Even the deep¬ 
est mourning garb now permits plain 
white organdie at neck and wrists. 
Smocking. —This form of trimming has 
become very fashionable this year; it is 
so simple, effective and permanent that 
ft is especially suited to children’s gar¬ 
ments. blouses and underwear, wherever 
there is any fullness to take up. Briefly, 
it is gauged gathering held permanently 
in place by fancy stitches worked over its 
surface. It originated centuries ago, in 
the primitive days of hand-weaving, being 
used to take up the surplus cloth in peas¬ 
ant garments by taking up the fullness in 
a series of parallel lines, which could be 
taken up or let out as needed to accom¬ 
modate the garments to different wearers. 
This work is seen at its best in the Hun¬ 
garian national costume, and in the 
smocks formerly worn by English farm 
laborers, which are now reproduced in 
the fashionable blouses of this season. 
Briefly, the foundation of all smocking 
is to mark the material with dots in 
parallel rows one-fourth inch apart, 
these being the guide for the stitches. A 
gathering stitch is taken at each dot, 
and the material drawn up. After the 
draw-thread is fastened, the embroidery 
is worked over the gathering, following 
the line of the draw-thread, which is 
pulled out carefully when the work is 
finished. A simple outline stitch is often 
used as a start, herringbone, feather¬ 
stitch. cable-stitch, etc-., being developed 
in a variety of ways. Single and double 
herringboning is especially pretty when 
used to give a diamond effect. When the 
smocking is finished it may be pinned 
face downward on the ironing board, 
lines perfectly straight, a damp cloth 
laid over it, and the cloth just touched 
with a hot iron until it is dry, without 
any pressure upon the smocking. This 
makes the embroidery stand out, and 
holds the pleats. After washing a 
smocked article, always pull the lines 
straight, and iron in this way. In ad¬ 
dition to the plain gauged smocking it 
is often honeycombed by fastening two 
dots together on alternate rows, so that 
it pulls into diamond-shaped depressions, 
fastened at each corner with an em¬ 
broidery stitch. By leaving off successive 
stitches at each side the smocking may 
be brought down to a point, and this is 
especially effective in the honeycomb pat¬ 
tern. Useful little illustrated handbooks 
may be procured, picturing different 
styles of smocking, and transfer patterns 
for the guiding dots. 
Colors and Farrics. —Stripes, and 
more stripes; not only in voiles and 
other cotton goods, but also in the heavy 
Cossack linens, these being used for sepa¬ 
rate skirts. A heavy canvas-like cotton 
called tennis stripe at 18 cents a yard 
has inch stripes of gray, blue or pink on 
creamy white ground, desirable for sepa¬ 
rate skirts, one-piece dresses or chil¬ 
dren’s clothes. Cotton gabardine. b< t!i 
plain and herringbone weave, is popular 
for separate white skirts; it is 24 and 
39 cents a yard. Among thin white goods 
washing organdie 45 inches wide is from 
29 to 95 cents a yard; organdie lawn has 
a little more body, but is very sheer. 
Embroidered voile at 33 cents a yard 
is 40 inches wide, very soft and sheer; 
seed voile, all white, has a little fleck 
in it at intervals; clip-tape voile at 39 
cents has a broken stripe, looking as 
though a tape running through the weave 
had been clipped through at irregular 
intervals. The 40-inch cotton crapes sold 
during July at 33 cents a yard include 
snowflake, crossbar, satin stripe, tussah 
and St. Quentin lace stripe. All these 
goods were reduced in July, some as 
much as 50 per eeut. The voiles often 
shrink a little in washing, which must 
be taken in account in making up. 
Linen, gingham and voile still lead in 
colored wash fabrics, but there are some 
fine French percales with a mercerized 
surface that are very attractive. Linen 
dresses are very often piped with a 
sharply contrasting color; for example, 
bluish green piped with deep orange, or 
begonia pink piped with dull blue. A 
black and white check Scotch gingham 
had a scalloped yoke bound with cerise 
linen, and black velvet buttons. A dress 
of green check gingham had broad tucks 
of plain green trimming the skirt, and 
a surplice bodice trimmed with the plain 
green, worn over a white gtiimpe. It is 
not elaboration of design, but graceful out¬ 
line and effective coloring that give style 
(o a cotton dress. 
Removing Stains. 
Clara M. Eckhardt of the Wisconsin 
Agricultural College gives the following 
rules: 
“It is very much easier to remove 
stains from washable than from non- 
washable materials. With the latter it 
is always well to keep the spot con¬ 
fined to as small a space as possible, to 
rub as gently as possible, and with the 
threads of the material, not in a circle. 
To prevent a ring on silk or wool, first 
make a ring of cornstarch or talcum or 
flour just outside the stain, then apply 
what is needed to take out the stain. 
The ring of talcum or cornstarch will ab¬ 
sorb the cleaning agent so that the ring 
will be very indistinct as compared to 
what it would have been if this precau¬ 
tion had not been taken 
“To remove blood and fruit stains 
moisten carefully with warm water, then 
absorb the stain with cornstarch or corn- 
meal or talcum. If a ring appears, the 
whole garment may need sponging and 
pressing. 
“Milk or cream.—Gasoline or chloro¬ 
form dabbed on carefully with cotton, 
then warm water if not entirely removed. 
“Grass, paint, and varnish.—Use al¬ 
cohol for the first, and turpentine or 
alcohol for the last two. 
“Perspiration.—Ammonia applied gent¬ 
ly with a bit of cotton is effective.” 
We have a friend, an assistant princi¬ 
pal in one of the large city schools. She 
tells us that a short time ago a woman 
came to the school with her little girl. 
The woman bad a black eye. and her 
fact was in a terrible condition. Miss 
Long, the teacher, asked her how it hap¬ 
pened and the woman explained that her 
drunken husband did it. The teacher 
said, “Oh well, it might have been 
worse.” The woman said. “Y'es. I might 
have been like you and have no husband 
at all." 
This will suggest half a dozen lines of 
thought. Was such a husband really 
worth the price? Is it likely such a 
woman would make an intelligent use 
of the ballot? Would other women be 
justified in saying that they should have 
the ballot in order to “protect” this de¬ 
voted wife? Here are three good subjects 
for a “Votes for Women” debate. 
Different Models From One Pattern. 
Transforming Last Year’s Dress to Present Style. 
