Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-05-06
Hints About Dresses,

There is a great fancy both in basques
and polonaises for inserting a narrow
piece of silk down the middle of the
front, and cutting the garment proper
into straps that pass across it and sup
port square bows, or buttons, or loops.
This under piece is not vest, though
it gives that effect now so much in favor
with the revival of old Continental fash
ions. Sometimes the inserted piece is
of the color of the garment and some
times in contrast, but the material is
always different. Thus gray cancels
hair polonaise has silk of thes same shade
inserted, a pearl gray silk basque has
blue brocade underneath, London
smoke gray silk has satin in dice checks
of black and white, a marion brown silk
has cream color, while black grenadine
has cardinal or violet inserted.
The square bows are feature that
proclaims che costume to be new. They
are of inch-wide gros grain ribbon, with
two loops, two ends of the same length
as the loops, and tight strap. The
loops are diagonally opposite each other
and in the 9th, r two corners are the
ends, also diagonal to each other.
Sleeves are finished to match the silk
that is inserted in front. For instance,
the coat sleeve like the dress is turned
backward an inch, faced, and square
bow is placed on the outer seam. Fall
ing below this is cuff of the silk, of
plainest shape, and showing only about
an inch. -..
Thenew soft Louisine silks come in
stripes of two and three shades of some
quiet color, with here and there threads
of pink, rose, scarlet or blue.
Bias folds edged with narrow Tom
Thumb fringe are again seen on skirts
of rich silk dresses. Narrow fringes
and many flat, square loops are set
thickly together to form the border
around very handsome demi-trained
skirts. AS overdresses are so long, only
very little trimming is used on lower
skirts, single founce alike all around
being the favorite design.
A very pretty founce is made of bias
silk ten inches deep, edged with a knife
plating two inches wide. The founce
is then held in single box-plaits directly
through the middle, where it is sewed
to the skirt. The top is then sewed an
inch from the edge, and put on the
skirt loosely to form puff from the
middle up. This is improved by turn
ing each edge of the plat inward when
sewing on the upper row, and making
little petal-like puff at the top OF each
plait.
Large, square pockets with deep flaps
and buttons are again in vogue.
Position plaits reappear at the back
of basques. Two box-plaits, one COM
ing from each OF the middle forms, is
the popular style. Another simple and
stylish way is to widen these back forms
double their width at the waist line, face
all that part below the waist, leave the
middle seam open, pipe it all around,
and turning the added part over on
the form, hold it there by a button
at the top; the rest should be pressed
fatty.
Still more dressy basques have the
back irregularly caught up in this way
Extend one of the back forms-say the
right-four inches beyond the waist
line. Face and pipe it. Then gather
the side of the added part, fold the tor
in loop, and sew the gathered part ur
on the left form near the waist. Nearly
all new backs have six forms, making
two narrow side forms, and giving the
appearance of long, slender waist.
New long overskirts have from foul
to six straight breadths of silk, with the
lower part of each seam left open, ant
the square corners trimmed to form
square aprons and square backs.