The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1455 
The  Home  Dressmaker 
Winter  Luxuries. — Our  mild  Au¬ 
tumn  weather  has  been  so  prolonged 
that  there  is  a  very  short  season  before 
the  large  shops  will  begin  to  display 
warm  weather  outfits  for  the  South. 
Prices  for  Winter  wraps  have  impressed 
us  as  extremely  high,  taken  as  a  whole. 
A  few  years  ago  only  a  woman  of  large 
means  would  have  considered  a  cloth 
coat  at  over  .$100,  but  this  season  such 
wraps  are  commonly  displayed,  and  many 
are  purchased  by  business  women.  There 
is  a  great  choice  of  luxurious  wraps 
from  about  $75  up.  The  season’s  styles 
are  developed  in  deep-piled  fabrics  of 
great  beauty,  and  in  fur  cloth.  Luxur¬ 
ious  collars  of  fur,  and  large  cuffs,  or 
several  bands  of  fur  on  the  sleeves,  with 
frequently  a  heavy  band  of  fur  at  the 
bottom,  add  to  the  beauty  of  these  wraps, 
and  make  them  more  expensive.  Dyed 
furs  are  especially  beautiful  this  season, 
and  among  novelties  we  have  seen,  dyed 
civet,  in  which  the  black  and  white  of 
this  noticeable  fur  is  changed  to  a  rich 
lustrous  brown  with  black  markings.  It 
is  used  for  coats  in  sports  models,  and 
for  trimming.  Natural  civet  is  again  in 
favor,  and  is  very  often  used  as  trim¬ 
ming  for  wraps. 
Ideas  in  Trimming. — In  the  first  pic¬ 
ture  the  figure  at  the  left  shows  a  very 
simple  dress  of  dark  blue  cloth,  one  of 
the  knitted  worsteds.  The  plain  skirt 
had  an  inverted  pleat  in  the  center  of  the 
front,  and  the  center  of  the  back  but  no 
trimming.  The  plain  waist  had  a  pretty 
and  unusual  trimming  down  the  front 
in  the  form  of  military  frogs  of  braid 
and  fur.  These  ornaments  were  made 
of  black  and  gold  braid  and  black  fur. 
The  braid  was  laid  in  two  parallel  rows, 
close  together,  and  turned  to  form  a  point 
at  each  end.  A  narrow  strip  of  the  fur 
was  laid  underneath  at  the  lower  edge, 
so  as  to  form  a  perfectly  flat  fringe. 
This  made  a  very  pretty  and  smart-look¬ 
ing  trimming,  and  the  idea  is  worth  copy¬ 
ing.  It  would  be  pretty  on  a  child’s  coat. 
Monkey  fur  is  very  often  used  like  a 
fringe  to  edge  draperies,  panels,  collars, 
etc.,  but  this  was  a  shorter  and  softer 
fur  that  made  a  close  fringe.  The  jaunty 
little  felt  hat  worn  by  this  figure  was 
smooth  dark  blue  felt  with  a  little  brush¬ 
like  black  feather. 
Colored  Bands. — The  suit  at  the  right 
showed  another  novelty  in  trimming.  This 
suit  was  light  brown,  the  trimming  being 
two  shades  of  fawn  and  brick  red.  The 
bands  were  of  graduated  width,  alternat¬ 
ing  the  fawn  and  brick ;  both  colors  were 
in  two  shades,  light  and  darker,  the  paler 
shade  in  the  brick  being  almost  pink. 
These  bands  were  picot  edged  and 
stitched  flat  on  the  upper  edge,  the  lower 
being  left  loose.  The  coat  wTas  quite  long, 
having  a  deep  peplum  trimmed  with  two 
arrangements  of  these  bands,  which  were 
also  used  on  sleeves  and  at  foot  of  the 
skirt.  These  closely  arranged  bands  of 
shaded  and  contrasted  material  rather 
gave  the  appearance  of  bayadere  or  Ro¬ 
man  striped  material.  This  is  a  pretty 
idea  for  trimming  a  one-piece  dress,  such 
as  jersey  cloth,  with  bands  of  contrasting 
broadcloth.  As  one  gets  a  picot  edge  by 
cutting  through  the  center  of  machine 
hemstitching,  it  is  an  economy  to  get  as 
many  of  these  bands  as  possible  out  of  a 
width  of  goods,  having  the  hemstitching 
the  proper  distance  apart,  so  that  one 
gets  the  bands  by  cutting  down  through 
the  hemstitching.  There  is  no  waste  in 
this  way,  and  where  they  come  together 
one  gets  the  edges  of  two  bands  done  at 
the  price  of  one.  The  hat  figured  was  a 
small  cloche  of  light  brown  felt  trimmed 
with  a  narrow  band  and  loops  of  brick, 
red  grosgrain  ribbon. 
Inverted  Tucks. — In  the  second  pic¬ 
ture,  the  little  girl  at  the  left  wore  a  very 
plain  dress  of  fawn-colored  cloth.  It  had 
a  yoke  of  small  tucks,  which  at  the  lower 
point  of  the  shoulder  were  carried  all  the 
way  down  to  the  hem.  These  tucks  were 
something  different,  however,  for  the 
tucks  were  on  the  wrong  side,  and  the 
dress  merely  showed  the  seams  on  the 
right  side,  rather  an  odd  idea.  This  dress 
had  sleeve  bands,  collar  and  belt  of  bot¬ 
tle  green  cloth,  while  the  opening,  a  little 
at  the  left  side,  was  bound  with  bottle 
green,  and  had  bound  buttonholes  and 
buttons  of  the  green  also.  The  plain  lit¬ 
tle  collar  and  belt  were  both  buttoned. 
The  hat  was  fawn-colored  felt  embroid¬ 
ered  in  bottle  green  and  brick  red  wool. 
Beige  Velvet. — The  dress  in  the  cen¬ 
ter  wras  quaint  and  old-fashioned  in  ap¬ 
pearance,  the  material  being  beige  chif¬ 
fon  velvet.  The  plain  straight  waist,  but¬ 
toned  all  down  the  front,  was  joined  to 
the  skirt  with  a  cording.  The  skirt  was 
straight  and  gathered.  The  collar  and 
cuffs  were  the  only  trimming ;  they  were 
fine  white  organdie  cut  in  points  and  bor¬ 
dered  with  picot-edged  ribbon,  brick  red 
and  bright  fawn.  The  collar  stood  up 
above  the  neck  line.  This  quaint-looking 
dress  is  a  style  often  favored  by  slim 
young  girls,  to  whom  the  straight  outline 
is  becoming. 
A  Sports  Suit. — The  figure  at  the 
right  shows  a  smart  little  sports  suit,  of 
a  style  now  very  popular.  The  model 
shown  consisted  of  a  short  jacquette  of 
fur  cloth,  beige  in  color.  It  was  not  an 
imitation  fur,  being  quite  frankly  cloth 
with  a  surface  of  little  tight  curls.  This 
coat  was  bound  all  around  with  bottle 
green  cloth,  the  buttonholes  being  bound 
with  this  cloth,  while  the  buttons  were 
of  horn.  The  skirt  was  a  large  block 
plaid  of  biege,  bottle  green  and  black, 
while  an  overblouse  of  georgette  and  silk 
carried  out  the  same  colors,  and  made  the 
costume  what  is  called  a  three-piece  suit. 
We  saw  the  same  idea  carried  out  in 
black,  brown  and  gray  fur  cloth,  with 
plaid  skirts  in  harmonizing  colors.  These 
are  very  smart  and  pretty  suits,  especial¬ 
ly  designed  for  sports  and  country  wear. 
Fur  cloth  is  shown  in  great  beauty  and 
variety  this  season,  and  is  very  popular. 
Fur  coats  are  so  plentiful  now  that  they 
confer  no  special  distinction  on  the  weai’- 
er,  and  the  handsome  fur  cloth  makes  a 
change,  and  can  be  made  up  very  expen¬ 
sively  if  the  wearer  desires.  These  fur 
cloths  are  especially  favored  for  the  short 
sports  coats,  and  the  light  gray  and  biege 
shades  are  extremely  popular.  Among 
the  fur  coats  and  wraps  are  many  of 
white  lapin  ("which  means  rabbit,  but  is, 
we  infer,  Arctic  hare),  and  these  are  de¬ 
veloped  in  short  sports  coats  and  also 
evening  wraps.  Ermine,  which  has  been 
made  up  without  tails  the  last  season  or 
two,  is  now  dyed,  which  seems  desecra¬ 
tion.  We  saw  some  dyed  ermine  evening 
wraps  lately,  one  of  which  would  pay  for 
half  of  a  good-sized  farm. 
Notes  and  Novelties. — Not  every 
woman  who  wears  gauzy  silk  stockings 
these  brisk  early  Winter  days  is  as  un¬ 
wisely  clad  as  she  appears.  The  shops 
now  offer  fine  wool  underhose  for  wear 
under  sheer  silk  stockings,  so  that  the 
wearer  may  change  from  wool  to  silk 
without  fear  of  cold.  In  cashmere,  flesh 
color,  these  underhose  cost  from  $1.95  to 
$4.50  a  pair ;  in  silk  and  wool,  natural, 
flesh  and  white,  they  are  $2.25,  and  in 
the  softest  rabbit’s  hair  they  are  $6.50. 
Suggestions  for  the  Winter  Outfit 
Invisible  spats  of  soft  fine  wool,  woven 
without  toe  or  heel,  with  a  narrow  strap 
to  go  under  the  foot,  are  $1. 
New  lingerie  ribbons  are  of  crepe  de 
chine.  Another  novelty  is  the  duvetyn 
ribbon,  with  a  soft  dull  surface  and  lus¬ 
trous  silk  back. 
Beaded  dresses  still  stay  with  us,  and 
there  is  also  a  great  deal  of  embroidery 
used,  applied  directly  on  the  material. 
Long  silk  tassels  are  often  used  to  fin¬ 
ish  the  end  of  narrow  belts,  and  also 
sashes  and  scarfs.  Sometimes  one  long 
tassel,  pendent  from  an  ormament,  fin¬ 
ishes  a  dress. 
Close  little  tcftjues  of  satin,  embroid¬ 
ered  with  steel  or  gold  beads,  are  dressy 
and  becoming. 
The  handsome  Winter  suits  are  fur 
trimmed  and  one  can  now  buy  fur  col¬ 
lars  made  all  ready  to  attach  to  any  suit, 
varying  in  price  from  about  $15  up,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  kind  of  fur.  A  plain  suit 
of  good  cloth  may  be  made  very  hand¬ 
some  by  adding  one  of  these  collars,  and 
cuffs  made  of  banding  of  the  same  fur. 
The  crowd  always  goes  to 
the  Thompsons 
“It  came  upon  the  midnight  clear, 
That  glorious  song  of  old, 
From  angels  bending  near  the  earth 
T o  touch  their  harps  of  gold. . . .” 
HRISTMAS  EVE.  All  the  crowd  is  gathered  at  the 
Thompsons,  singing  Christmas  carols.  Everybody 
joins  in  the  lovely  old  songs,  so  full  of  the  Christmas  spirit. 
The  crowd  always  goes  to  the  Thompsons.  They  always 
have  a  jolly  time — singing  together,  or  listening  to  inspired 
renditions  of  classic  masterpieces  and  of  favorite  new  and 
old  popular  selections.  For  the  Thompsons  are  blessed 
with  a  Weaver  Player  Piano — truly  a  “harp  of  gold.” 
Imagine  the  boundless  joy  you  can  give  your  family  with 
a  Christmas  present  of  a  Weaver  Player  Piano.  It  is  the 
gift  supreme — a  gift  of  years  of  enjoyment  of  beautiful 
music,  of  opportunity  to  learn  to  play,  of  countless  happy 
crowds  gathered  in  your  home  for  songs,  and  hours  filled 
with  pleasure,  playing  whatever  the  mood  calls  for. 
As  the  years  slip  by,  and  your  children  grow  up  and 
follow  diverging  paths,  the  family  gathering  at  Christmas 
will  become  increasingly  important  to  you.  Like  old  times, 
the  family,  reunited,  will  gather  ’round  the  Weaver,  its 
mellow  tones  unaffected  by  time  and  use,  and  sing  again 
the  Christmas  songs. 
Greet  your  family  Christmas  morn  with  a  Weaver  Player 
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and  a  liberal  allowance  will  be  made  on  your  former  piano. 
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