Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-05-31
SPRING WASH DRESSES.
BY MARY ANSABLE FASToS.

4 ustsQ AIf iii klIuc Va Af0NNA NNNs-
And from being associated entirely with
domestic service, cotton winter and spring
froeks have suddenly become exceedingly
| smart. The woman who does her own
work will have nothing but wash frocks
for her kitchen use nowadays, and they
| are both prettier and more wholesome.
school girls have discarded silk and wool
waists entirely for class room work, and
even for outdoor sports the cotton shirt
waist is worn under the sweater.
Many women who are housekeepers, yet
who do not have to give all their time to
kitchen work nevertheless, prefer cotton
indoor irocks the year around, the sweet
freshness of them appealing to the aesthetic
sense just as their lightness and inexpen-
siveness does to the common sense. And
what q charming pretty fashion it is.
Contrast Delft blue bingham, or galatea
which does not need starching, made plain,
becoming and comfortable, worn with a
white or Delft blue and white linen,
bibbed spron,i with the half worn old
fashioned, partly soiled wool gowns that
are usually reserved for kitchen wear.
Naturally with this fad for cotton in
cool spring weather many now and heavy
varieties have been manufactured, vari-
ties that do not require starching, and
hence do not crush under winter coats,
and.. vsrities that are loosely woven with
coarse threads which make fabric that is
flexible, soft, thick and almost as warm ss
wool. All sorts of woIlen and silk goods
are simitated in these heavy eottons.
cheviots, s'waistings'' with the luster OF
silk, English and Scotch "vestings",
homespun and voile. And of course there
are coarse weave piques and canvass and
heavy Madras.
gFor shirt waists, swhite is most used,
snow white, cream white, tea white, and
white striped with all the light and dark
shades, and polka-dotted and figured.
The dark! colors are usually mixed in
checks or indecisiye plaids, green with
blue, green with blue and black, blue and
scarlet; brown, orange and yellow; and
sometimes the .dark plaids are polka
dotted in cream white.
In doing up these new cottons an impor-
tant item in their favor is that they do not
need to be-in fact should not be-starched.
After drying they are thoroughly dam
pened and ironed on the wrong side,
which gives them their original lustre. II
they are simply made they call for very
little work in the flaundry. Because of
the looseness of the weaves in these heavy
eottons, too much rubbing ON the wash
board is injurious, so that the easier the
washing is made the longer the dress will
wear and the better its post-laundered
effect.
How wise women are becoming these
days! they not only wear short skirts on
the street for dry as well as rainy weather,
but all the newest homework frocks are
made full two inches from the ground.
And they do look so trim and neat. AS a
skirt is more likely to sag at the back, il
is a good plan to cut it half an inch
shorter in the back at the start. Nothing
so robs skirt OF its style as to drop at the
back.
The method Of washing the new coarse
weave cotton is as follows: In boiler of
water softened with a tesspoonful OF
borax and half cup of shaved soap she
puts her white things to boil for an hour;
then she rinses them in luke-wsrm water
and the second time in cold water with
little blueing. Her colored stutfs she
soaks first in cold borax water, then puts
them in boiling borax water but does not
let them boil; as soon as the water cools
sufficiently she dips them up and down a
few times and rinses them in cold torax
water as she would white goods. This
takes but little time and strength and the
gowns come out not only exquisitely clean
but hygienically wholesome, for borax
has been found to be a valuable antiseptic.
Although these heavy cottons do not
shrink very much in the wash it is wise,
especially with the new short frocks, to
put a couple of tucss in the skirt and TO
cut the waist distinctly wide over the
shoulders and full over the bust.
One advantage in wearing these wash
frocks and shirt waists during the spring
is that one find ones self with a stock of
summer clothes on hand when spring
comes instead of lot of half worn wool
things to renovste and pack, and TO be all
in rush to ssyetime to make thin clothes.