Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-06-08
MAKING SHIRTWAIST
AND SKIRT AT HOME

ANY woman will attempt the making
of a shirtwaist, but by no means any
woman can produce WearaDie gar
ment The fault Is not so much that
of tailoring as of fitting; and yet II
can hardly be called lifting, elther,
when so many home seamstresses VIII
conscientiously follow the pattern of
their bust measure, and let it go at
that And even where some sort OF
adjustment is tried, there are plenty
of places where q word of advice would
come handy. 1t is well worth knowing
where to make alterations so as not
to disturb the style of the pattern. The
lines of the neck and arm size should
never be cut close to the pattern, Tor
there are places where frequently al
terations must be made.
Collars are often hard to fit because
the neck has been cut out too much.
To adjust the collar properly to the
neck, the waist should be tried on ana
the neck, which has been cut too high,
clipped little by little, and gently
stretched until it settles into place
without a wrinkle. Then the collar
may be pinned about the neck, fitted
comfortably and smoothly, and its
lower edge carefully tackled to the
waist neck The very best collars are
straight stripes of material, curved
gradually at the top to measure one
quarter to one-half of an inch higher
in the back than in the front. 1t is
/ possible to fit these straight collars
smoothly, provided the waist is cut
high enough in the neck. A collar with
a wide curve at it's lower edge, which
sets down below the throat line, gives
the neck an ungraceful, thick look. A
common fault is to cut out the arm
size too much under the arm. This
| done, and the sleeves sewed in, the arm
is pinned to the side and loses all free
dom of motion; whereas, If the waist is
cut high under the arm, the sleeve
may be tight, yet the arm may be
raised over the head with no disaster
| to the waist When the shoulder
seams must be altered, care must be
taken to keep the line true and the
position right-neither too far to the
| front nor the back. At the base OF
| the collar the neck line should be di-
vided into three equal parts; the line
from shoulder seam to shoulder seam
across the front should measure eX-
actly twice as much as the line from
shoulder seam to shoulder seam across
! the back. The shoulder seam must not
be too long, else the sleeve cannot be
| fitted with the necessary trim, Square
look To adjust the waist at the belt
| line narrow belt should be pinned
about the waist, and to this the full
ness should be tackled, keeping the
seams and the line of fullness as per-
pendicular as possible.
The underarm seam should fall per-
fectly straight Gather the fullness
into about a seven-inch space at the
belt line in front, three and half
inches each side of the center front,
| if the shirtwaist closes in front A five
! inch space will hold the fullness of the
back at the waist line.
When making a skirt, remember a
skirt, even when properly made, will
sag in the wearing. This is caused by
| the many bias lines. To avoid this,
choose, if possible, a skirt pattern with
many cores, especially if the skirt is
to be worn continuously for street or
Office wear! The gored skirts are more
fashionable this season, anyway. The
many seams give added strength to the
skirt, and the bias edge on the bottom
is not wide enough to cause any serious
damage from sagging, and as rule
will not fall in ugly lines. In cutting
out a skirt pattern there is always one
gore which follows the line of the
sewage and the opposite side of the
gore is bias. In joining the cores to-
gether one bias edge must always be
sewed against one straight edge to
prevent the skirt from sagging. With
the skirts that have center seam in
front and that are cut TO hang straight
| from a line three or four inches above
teh top of the waist, there is a pad at
tachment just in front. 1t is made of
cotton and inclosed in. the lining ma
terial, so that the inside of the skirt
will look neat. 1t is about four inches
long and two inches wide, and runs
down the center seam directly over the
waist line. 1t keeps the skirt from
sinking in which is always inartistic.
| A IL oil In fG
trick, and they wonder why it is they
cannot always keep the center front
of the skirt hanging in a perfectly
straight line.