Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-19
Hand in Hand with the Col
umn'S" Friends in Halls
and Homes.
Womanly Wishes for Heart Prizes.
Tasteful Attiring-Puzzling Bod
ices, English Skirts.
Rare June Breakfast to Tempt Appetite and
Satisfy Csprices-Recipes New and
SImple-NOtes Of Modes

That smart woman who said she dldn I
see any sense in dress reform, and would
rather be mistress of a good man e heart
than mayor of a municipality, echoed
the sentiment of the majority of women.
The ever present problem is first catch
ing the hare before you cook it-that is,
finding a good mans heart waiting an
owner, then follows a careful selection of
the ways of approach in order to perma-
nently capture it.
The immediate rejection of dress re-
form shows this woman to be learned in
love tactics. No man would crave to lay
his aching head upon a three-ply shield
shaped triple starched shirt bosom, nor
would he see feminine grace in divided
skirts or zoneless waists. Much as doc
tors may lecture and health cranks
preach, 1t is an easier task
TO convert the Zulus than 10
bring an admirer of female beauty
TO see anything half so lovely in a wo-
man s form as to see it, in sailor phrase,
trim and taut. This trimness and
tauhtness is the delusion of amateur
dressmaking. All fashion writers this
season concur in saying that simplicity is
the fad, but when they go farther and
say the straight English skirt is easily
made, they are certainly blind
to the many RbortiVe attempts
that are to be seen daily on
public thoroughfares. The English skirt,
a straight skirt, a sheath-like skirt, may
be simplicity itself, but the simpleness Of
the amateur dressmaker is too often ap-
parent in its construction. One wrong
crook or slant in the seams shows to dis
advantage. The woman who has been
successfully making her own gowns for
some time is likely to find the present
dress skirt a stumbling block, unless
armed and equipped with q paper model
and the directions of connoisseur in the
business. For foundation for a round
skirt a Ia MODE an authority on the sub
ject offered the following suggestions:
Skirts will continue soanty throughout
the summer. Straight folds are adopted
when the hips Will allow; when they do
not, panler draperies are used, and on
some of the French models very short
draperies are seen. The front width at
the hem is twenty-five inches, taper
ing to eleven inches at the waist. There
are no plaits, but three darts or seams
some four inches deep are made at the
waist. The back is a straight piece
twenty-six inches wide, gathered into
So at the waist. There is only one
breadth on each side, which is only just
a half yard wide at the hem. These are
not gored, but there is one dart in each
at the waist. Four inches back from the
front seam they are straight, and then
hn e hn
back. The fullness at the back is held
by two strings run in, one six inches
from the waist, one thirteen. The whole
object is to give the effect of plainness.
Their hens are stifiy lined, horse hair
cloth being used for the purpose, so that
though so narrow they do not cling.
The distinguishing feature then of all
dresses, whether tailor made or other
wise, is TO have the necessary plaits and |
fullness arranged to lie as cl sely and !
simply as possible. In accordance with |
this main idea dress skirts are made,
though varying slightly IN detail and |
method of plating. Walking dresses |
Ire seen with one large box plat forming |
he entire front, with smaller ones on |
sither side, the back being mounted in |
gathers of fiat box plaits. The |
beauty of these plated skirts all de-
Ponds on the way they are fastened. If |
fastened by tapes so the fastenings |.
how the skirt is a failure and can only |
be made presentable by entire remodel
ng. PLANTS should be sewed firmly to
he cambria foundation the whole length
rom waist to hem on the under edge.
4 tapes are used they should be stitched
irmly all round, so that no wind or eX-
'rcise will put them out of place. Near
V every one prefers, however, to have
he plaits sewed down. In this way the
traight, sharp folds last for months.
To the home dressmsker the skirt of
implicitly may be a snare, but what
hall be said of the modern bodice.
The fifteen puzzle, pigs in clover, and
'uzzling devices in general seem easy of
when one of the uninitiated
would solve the mystery how the woman
rot inside the dress. Confessed, the en-
gowns are very pretty when the
yearer has a good form, and the sir
4 mystery as to how they are made to-
1t and where they open is by no means
east upon the list of charms. The way
f dressmakers to secure a plastic fit in
'odices that are without back pieces,
arts or side-seams may appear plain
NTH the inexperienced attempt to fol-
DIV it.
The dressmakers take soft goods and
loths and stretch them over the lining
nd have them fastened with hooks on
ne shoulder and over one side under the
rm. These corsages are joined to the
kris with bias Lelts of velvet or of the
ame goods, pointed in front and ending
18th a rosette in the back. Various WAYS
re used TO dispense with darts; the stuff
ray be gathered into the belt. This
caves the shoulders and chest perfectly
nooth. Then the stuff may be gath
red at the middle of the chest and all
be rest of the bodice left smooth. An
Their way is TO allow the stuff TO drape
lightly from the shoulders over the chest
own to the small OF the waist All these
ovel ways of making bodioes apply only
, good but slight figures. In fact, {
ressmakers say that women for present {
ashions should not be too full chested; ]
ley say that as if to be or not to be was
D effect of the will. OF course woman !
an have high or sloping shoulders, full
r narrow chest, broad hips or no hips
lst as the exigenCies OF fashion demand
nd the caprice of the modiste dictates.
After passing through the various
istoric periods Interspersed with ,
assic "reminiscences, fashion has
titled upon hundred years
20 as the date for furnishing the !
resent dress models. Hence, that coat