Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1906-04-06

was simply awful. And the jacket
was almost as bad. In the first place,
the turned-back cuff is supposed to
stand away from the arm, and go out
in rather long point. This point flop
ped down like limp rag.
We stiffened it and the points Of the
jacket with buckram and that made the
cuff so heavy that it wouldn't stay up,
and the jacket, instead Of clinging to
the lines Of the figure, struck straight
out
The other dress we attempted for
Ada, and we cut them all out the first
thing, before we began the fitting and
sewing, was an evening gown. 1t is Of
the fllmiest silk, made over a taffeta
slip, and the great advantage Of this
model is that the fitting from the bust
line to the Curve of the hips Is all put
in by means Of tucks. You can see for
yourself how simplo and charming it
looks
The COrsage is very low and there is
q tucked, graduated f1ounce to finish
the skirt. The short sleeves are in two
puffs, tucked between them, and the
lower puff is brought into a tucked
founce just below the elbow. This also
looks simple and pretty.
Those were fine, dainty little bodice
tucks in the picture, but when we got
the material tucked to look about as
the designer thought it ought to look, it
didn't come within a mile Of Ada's
waist We took the tucks out and ran
them deeper, so as to take up the ex-
ira material, and then they puckered
and pulled so that they didn't look as
if they had anything to do with gradu-
ated tucks.
l have tried to show how the dress
looked at the top and bottom Of that
tucked part. In the illustration It will
be seen that the ends or the tucks just
seem to melt into the plain part Of the
cloth, without either a wrinkle or a
break. AS a matter Of fact, there is a
miserable bunchy place both above
and below that nothing on earth will
smooth out.
We learned our lesson when we
were wrestling with the body Of the
dress, so we hadn't so very much trou-
BILE with the sleeves but that neck !
See how beautifully it fits over the
shoulders, just SIS If the figure had
been nodded into it. When Ada got
the dress on it wouldn't stay up on her
shoulders at all.
had almost as much trouble with
Mabel's things as with Ada's, although
she ought not to be hard to fit. She
is d healthy, bouncing girl, quite ath-
letic, and has never worn stays She
was never hard to suit in the matter
of clothes until she got hold of those
fashion books Then she began to real
ize how different she looked, and she
began to grow dissatisfied. 1 prom
ised to let her have the most elaborate
dress she could find, and here is what
she selected.
1t is q creation" in pale blue ba-
tiste, trimmed with applique and Va
lenciennes lace, and is created along
the line Of the shirred f1ounce. Here
again we came in contact with the
awful circular design. The advantage
of the circular skirt or founce, | am
informed, is that it forms such a grace
full ripple. The disadvantage, as [
have learned to my sorrow, is that it
hangs like sin!
The bertha and sleeve f1ounces stand
out SO crisply il the Illustration that I
thought there would not be the slight
est difficulty about making them look
right, for the description Of the dress
! declares the whole thing is made Of
batiste, and batiste as all the world
knows, is soft and clinging. Well, the
bertha and sleeves hung about as limp
and sloppy as the founces Of the skirt.
| am quite sure that the only way
could make the dress look like the de-
sign in the fashion magazine would be
TO put it on a wire frame The worst
part Of that dress IS the way it fits, or
rather refuses to fit, at the waist
The most tragic part of my story is