San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-06-16
THE COST OF Innings.
Valuable Interiors of the New Spreading
Skirts.

NbhuhDlc luteTIOEb OF the new cHrcaoAHik
Skirts.
Expense in the modern gowns lies
not in the exterior. 1t is the stiff
things that cause the skirt 10 stand
out and the silken things that produce
the musical rustic dear to woman's ear
that make sad purses.
The spring godet skirts are seven
yards around for the street, and eight
and nine yards for house and evening
wear. This means fifteen widths of
silk, or six widths of wide cloth. The
outside of the skirt may cost from ten
to fifty dollars, according TO the wear
er's purse, but the Innings cost the same
for any woman who desires to be with
in speaking distance of the mode.
All the new skirts are lined with hair
cloth. This is narrow stuff, only
twenty inches wide, and is the same
slippery material that our grandfath-
ers and grandmothers made love in
spite Of
1t is so stiff that it can not be creased,
and it holds the skirt out with the
fashionable fare. 1t used to be drug
in the market. You could buy any
amount for twenty-five cents a yard
and many are the women who wish
they had purchased a bolt in those
good old days-a year ago. Now there
is such demand for it that local houses
have difficulty in keeping it in stock at
all and they sell it at eighty-fve cents
yard.
When the godet skirt first came in
three godets, fourteen inches wide,
were considered chic. Now seven GO
diets, thirty-six inches wide are indis-
pensable. When there were three GO
diets only the back of the skirt was
lined with haircloth. The front and
sides were lined, as of old, with stiffen-
ing around the bottom. But with the
advent of seven godets the front and
sides had to be lined with haircloth,
also, to hold the folds of material away
from the feet and allow the wearer a
little space toSwalk. AS a consequence,
it takes sixteen yards of haircloth to
line skirt asv,it should be lined, and
at eighty-ive cents yard it is rather
expensive.
Fortunately, cotton batting is cheap,
being but five cents a sheet and wide
at that. Inside the haircloth there
must be the regular skirt lining. Miss
Cresus has changeable taffeta at
eighty-fve cents yard. Miss Careful
has a cotton lining at twenty cents.
But, whoever she is, she must have
haircloth, ten yards at the very least,
and if the outside material be fairly
made, and not more than dollar and
a half yard, the Innings easily cost
twice as much as the outside.
The Innings of the immense sleeves
are not quite as costly. Some eastern
genius adapted a sort of japanese pa
per made out of ramie fiber, and called
it fiber chamois." 1t is really only a
stiff paper, but It is thirty-five cents a
yard and wide. 1t stands out beauti-
fully, and is said not to crush. There
is not yard of it to be bought in San
Francisco, so great was the demand,
and fashionable women are having to
use grass cloth as an extremely poor
substitute instead.
But the cost of Innings and their abb
solute necessity will cause many girl
to make one gown do duty Tor two
this season. If your dress is not prop
erly lined it is fiimsy failure. So
the choice for those in moderate cir
cumstances is limited to two properly
made skirts or four limp ones No
woman hesitates for a moment.
There is another disadvantage be-
sides the cut. This is the weight.
Hair cloth is very heavy. No one
knows exactly how many horses tails
it takes to make yard, but it is
weighty stuff. And to obtain the nee
essary width and the graceful godets
there must be yards of the outside ma
terial. Gowns are generous now, and
some of the new skirts, as big as a
Dutch cheese around, and fashioned of
the new crepe cloths, heavy with silk,
weigh more than ten pounds.-Boston
Globe