A Complete Course In Dressmaking

Front matter

AuxTOC|title=Lessons|

Lesson 1

COPYRIGHT, BY EDWARD J. CLODE

Entered at Stationers’ Hall

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

What does style mean to you?

LESSON I

WHAT DOES STYLE MEAN TO YOU?

Of course you want to be stylish. Every sensible woman does. But do you know how to acquire the well-dressed look? Is it something you are able to accomplish one time and not another? Or perhaps, you can select smart clothes for yourself and can’t help Cousin Louise overcome a dowdy appearance. Or do you admire Mrs. Jones’ new blue dress just because it has that quality "chic" and accept as inevitable your own unbecoming brown dress?

Has it occurred to you that you and Cousin Louise and in fact every other woman can be stylishly dressed? People may be born beautiful, but certainly they are not born stylish. It’s a clothes sense that they acquire. They learn to wear clothes that are suitable. And there is the whole secret summed up in one word.

If I were asked to give a synonym for the word stylish, I think I’d say suitable. You know that it doesn’t make any difference how beautiful a dress may be, just as a dress, if it is inappropriate for the place or unbecoming to the wearer, you never think of it as stylish. Now do you? There are three great big important things to remember when you are selecting a dress, whether it is for yourself or for someone else.

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If your dress will pass these tests, you may rest assured that it is stylish. After all, style in the true sense of the word is more than a mere Paris label, a pretty picture or a fine texture. It isn’t enough for a piece of material to be charming on the counter or a style pretty in the picture. Ask yourself how the dress is going to look when you make it up and put it on or when Sally Jones wears it. Put it through the little suitability test.

Probably more errors are committed in selecting extreme styles than in any other way. To be sure, there are people who can carry off the bizarre in dress but they are the dashing type. We might as well recognize the fact in the beginning that we can’t all dash.

Make the most of the looks and personality which you have. If you are demure or dignified or just pleasantly in between, watch out or the ultra styles will eclipse you.

You don’t want to be remembered as a dressmaker’s dummy carrying around a pretty frock or the woman who wore the tight skirt, the big collar or the queer sleeves.

I think one of the finest compliments which can be paid a person’s appearance is the exclamation, "I can’t remember exactly what she wore but she was dressed in such good taste and her clothes suited her splendidly".

Remember that your clothes ought to make you look your very best. Clothes can do kindly things—bring out the pretty lights in your hair, make you look an inch taller or hide the awkward curve of your hips—or they can be very, very unkind. It is not always the out-of-date dress either that is the hard task master.

A ruffle may be a charming accessory in the shop window but when rolly polly Louise wears it, it just attracts attention to the fact that her hips are unusually large. Just the fact that a dress is the latest mode—that last word in fashion—is no guarantee that it is the stylish selection for every woman.

It is well to keep in mind that every season brings a few extremes along with many charming wearable clothes.

There is the matter of dollars and cents, too. It is another place where it is easy to lose the true value of style. Expensive is not a synonym for stylish. It’s line and cut and becomingness that counts everytime. There is no truer saying in the world that clothes are more often overdone than underdone.

Costly materials may be very beautiful in themselves but they must be cleverly handled to equal the simple charm of an inexpensive goods well cut and well made. As a matter of fact, where the dress is becoming as a whole, in admiring it one forgets to analyse the texture. If you will just stop and think of the pretty dresses which you have seen lately, I am sure that you will agree with me. One must remember too, that an elaborate material is just as much out of place in an everyday environment as calico is in a ballroom. Perhaps, I ought not to have specified calico for it has come up in the world so lately that one would hardly be surprised to find it rubbing elbows with silks and satins. But this brings us back to the question of suitability again and the first rule on page 2.

In order to be stylish, your clothes must suit the purpose and the occasion for which they are intended.

You may not have thought of it in just this way, but there is etiquette in clothes just the same as in table manners. Here are a few of the general rules.

Clothes etiquette: clothes that suit the place and the season

CLOTHES ETIQUETTE:

CLOTHES THAT SUIT THE PLACE AND THE SEASON

Sport’s Clothes. Do you know off hand just what you should wear when you golf or play tennis or ride or tramp cross country? It is pleasant to have the assurance that your clothes are just right in every particular.

After all, we are judged by our clothes. Whether or not they speak truthfully, to the world at large, they tell what kind of a person you are. A little attention to the small details will make them tell a pleasant story.

Suppose we consider first the correct clothes for tennis—that game which is becoming universally popular. Of course, no one bothers to dress specially just for a little informal game on their own side lawn. However, there is a certain type of costume that one has grown to expect in the tournaments at the country clubs.

The accepted costume is all that could be desired for comfort—a short, two-piece or plaited silk or woolen skirt and a plain tailored blouse of batiste, handkerchief linen or crepe de chine with comfortable V neck. I might add that the popular woolen sports skirt is striped.

Tennis is a hatless game. The hair ought to be dressed in a close simple manner. A narrow ribbon tied around the head, low over the forehead in the front and tied in the back is a becoming accessory which will serve to keep the hair in place.

White canvas or buckskin oxfords or shoes with flat rubber soles are the only footwear permissible for tennis.

Of course, a sweater is a necessity for after the game. Both silk and woolen sweaters are worn. One may have a subdued tone, black or any gay color that fancy dictates in the sweater.

Golf clothes seem to be in a state of evolution. At some of the smart links, women are wearing tweed suits with knickers. It must be remembered that this is the extreme, not the generally accepted custom. And it’s a fact that a woman in knickerbockers is very conspicuous.

A costume that is very smart at the present time for golf consists of a tailored blouse, a sleeveless wool jersey dress and a box-coat to match. The regulation wool jersey, tweed or homespun suit which has an amply wide skirt and a belted box coat is also worn with tailored waists. Although blouses with V necks and flat collars are worn, the preferred waist is in shirt style with high soft collar. It is usually made of pongee, crepe de chine or linen and worn with a man’s knitted silk tie.

In warm weather, separate woolen or silk skirts are worn with tailored waists of batiste or wash silk. To complete the costume, invariably there is a sweater.

The collapsible small felt, ribbon or straw hats are the accepted hats for golf. Shoes or oxfords of durable calfskin are to be preferred to fancy sports shoes.

There are special golf gloves with holes over the knuckles to give greater freedom to the hands.

The riding habit depends on two things: a person’s age and the environment. The young girl in her ’teens wears a tweed suit consisting of a box coat and riding breeches for riding across country, in town or even for an exhibition.

This costume is usually completed with a blocked tricone or a soft felt hat and riding boots.

Very often out in the country a woman also wears a tweed suit, box coat and breeches instead of a skirt. However, if she is riding in town, her suit is a little more formal. The coat is oxford cloth or twill and fitted. Her riding breeches are of twill or checked material or she has a divided skirt to match her coat. Her hat is either the regulation sailor or tricone.

For indoors exhibition riding, women usually choose the side saddle which calls for the regulation side-saddle habit and high silk hat.

The ideal suit for knockabout country wear is a three-piece one of tweed, homespun or khaki. There is a coat cut in box style and belted, a pair of knickerbockers and a skirt. The skirt buttons up the front and if occasion warrants can be worn as a cape. The outfit is completed with a shirt blouse, a soft felt hat and high lace calf skin shoes.

Perhaps, when you first read the heading Sport’s Clothes, you thought of the type of costume that has become generally popular and is called sport’s clothes. I have in mind the silk skirts, dainty handmade blouses and rather elaborate sweaters which are called sport’s clothes but have no place in real sports. They are the clothes which are worn in the mountains, country, seashore resorts and suburban towns for before noon and even in the afternoon for out of doors. The skirts are of fibre silk in white or a pastel shade and the blouses of batiste, lawn, voile or organdie trimmed with drawn work, handrun tucks and delicate Valenciennes filet or lace.

Clothes for Afternoon: If afternoon means calling and tea, then you need the type of a frock which is often termed "dressy." Usually an afternoon frock is of silk, but its material depends somewhat on the season.

You may indulge your inclinations in mid-summer to the extent of an organdie, batiste or mull dress for calling or afternoon. Mid-winter varies the rule also, and one might include velvet, duvetyn or broadcloth along with silks such as chiffon, crepe de chine, Canton crepe, and charmeuse as possibilities for the afternoon type of dress.

As to style, an afternoon dress has a slightly low neck, and elbow, three-quarter, or full length sleeves. The skirt usually shows some elaboration such as a tunic or slight drapery.

Clothes for Evening: It is difficult to put evening clothes under just one heading for here is where a woman’s age and general appearance makes a difference.

The young girl and the petite woman may choose for dances or other formal evening functions the type of costume which is generally termed a dance frock. This has a tight fitting bodice with straps on the shoulders. It may or may not have tulle sleeve caps. The skirt is short and bouffant.

The dress in vogue for the more dignified type of woman is made of rich brocade, satin or velvet and draped to the figure. Often it has a V decollete in the back and a mere wisp of the material forms a short train.

Of course, in the summertime a simple lowneck organdie dance frock is quite correct for evening.

A type of dress which is popular for restaurant dinner wear and the theatre has only a slightly low neck and no sleeves. It is made of silk, lace or velvet. It is not necessary to wear an evening dress or a restaurant dinner dress to the theatre unless one is to be seated in a box or is joining a party who are formally dressed for evening. If one’s escort is wearing street clothes, it is permissible to wear street clothes such as a suit or tailored frock.

For little informal evening socials, an afternoon frock is in good taste.

If one attends evening functions, some sort of a wrap of taffeta, satin, brocade or velvet is a necessity.

With a formal evening gown one should go hatless. However, a hat is worn with a restaurant dinner dress.

Street Clothes: Whether you live in the city or the country, your wardrobe must have one or two costumes in it suitable for what is termed street wear. It’s the semi-tailored type of costume one puts on for a shopping excursion or a trip to town.

Of course, your street costume may be a suit, completed with a georgette or dainty hand-made batiste blouse. However, many women prefer a one-piece dress.

For cool weather a serge, tricotine, velour or wool jersey is a good choice for a dress. With this a wrap is necessary for mid-winter. In early fall or late spring, the dress is often worn with a fur neck piece. Linen and gingham and dark colored organdies make attractive summer street dresses. Navy, brown and black silk are also made in plain styles for the street.

The hat worn with the street dress or suit ought to be neither severely tailored nor elaborate. It’s the medium size or small hat with a touch of trimming—one might almost say in-between hat—that looks the best with this type of costume.

While women do not follow the rules concerning footwear as closely as they used to, strictly speaking, the correct shoe or oxford for the street has a straight heel.

When You Travel: Either a suit or a dark one-piece dress is correct to wear on the train. A small semi-tailored hat is to be preferred to a large one. A pullman robe of dark cotton, silk or corduroy, which is worn from the berth to the dressing room, is in better taste than a light or bright colored kimono.

It is a matter of taste, whether or not a woman wears her hat in the dining car.

In some hotels it is really necessary to dress for dinner. The style of dinner dresses varies, but usually the neck is low and the sleeves very short or the dress is sleeveless. Satin, brocades, velvet and crepe silks and lace are used for dinner dresses.

However, in the majority of hotels it is permissible to wear a street costume or an afternoon frock for dinner. On the other hand, on shipboard one is expected to dress for dinner. As a matter of fact, it is well to take two evening dresses, one on the order of a dinner dress with only a slightly low neck, and the other a more elaborate evening gown as there is usually some special occasion for which one needs it.

Besides a suit, one needs a warm top coat if taking an ocean voyage. While it is not a necessity, a sports costume consisting of a silk or wool skirt and sweater or jersey jacket adds a nice change.

The Business Woman: Just because a woman is a business woman is no reason why she must lose her feminine attractiveness or dress so very differently from other women. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to look out of place. The one-piece dress has been a boon to her. It is her special standby.

For cool weather, a dress of serge, twill or velour freshened up with several changes of dainty collars and cuffs of batiste or organdie will keep her looking spic and span and attractive, too, six days in the week.

Navy blue or brown linen, gingham, swiss or organdie make an inconspicuous and serviceable office dress for summer. It’s a good idea, too, having a dark silk office dress made in some plain becoming style.

There are certain types of sports costumes which are suited to the business woman’s purpose. Wool jersey and homespun suits are business among these. A silk skirt, a woman dainty blouse, and a sweater is also quite in keeping with an office. -

Correct mourning

CORRECT MOURNING

Ideas about mourning have changed in the past few years. Now a person wears mourning or not according to their own inclination. The tendency of the times is to wear lighter mourning, and lessen the periods of mourning. However, a few general suggestions may prove helpful.

The Periods of Mourning: A widow wears mourning from one to two years. You will remember that it was only a little while ago when a widow hesitated to take off mourning in the third year, and our grandmothers can remember when it was a life-time proposition. Another thing which has changed about mourning is what was called third mourning. This has been entirely dispensed with.

The period of mourning is divided in two. That is, if a person is going to wear mourning for a year, the first six months deep mourning is worn and the second six months, second mourning. First mourning is mostly black; second mourning black and white. The old-time third mourning, lavender and gray, isn’t necessary now. When a person leaves off black and white, which is second mourning, they may wear any inconspicuous shade they fancy.

Mourning for parents or a child is usually worn one year. And the same is true for a brother or sister. Nowadays, mourning is not worn for any one outside of the immediate family. Of course, one is expected to wear black, or a very dull, inconspicuous costume to a funeral.

First Mourning: Not all black materials are considered appropriate for deep mourning. The choice should be a dull woolen or silk. Woolens considered correct are serge, poplin, gabardine, tricotine, jersey and velour. Silks that may be worn for deep mourning are crepe de chine, Canton crepe, faille, pongee, chiffon and georgette. In cottons, one may choose oxford gingham, black linen, mull, organdie or swiss. Fancy trimmings are to be avoided.

As a person in deep mourning does not attend formal social gatherings, only simple clothes suitable for home and street wear are needed. One may have a woolen suit and several crepe de chine, taffeta and georgette blouses or a dress fairly plain, but made in an approved and becoming style, and a top coat to wear with it.

Even in deep mourning, narrow turn-back collars and cuffs of white are worn. These may be white crepe, but nowadays crepe is not worn as much as heretofore. Batiste, voile or organdie for the collar and cuffs are in equally good taste. These are usually held in place with dull black bar pins. Gold and platinum jewelry is not worn except the wedding and engagement ring. A jet chain is sometimes worn.

The correct mourning hat is small or medium in size. One ought to remember that there is no reason for it being unbecoming. Fancy trimmings are out of place on such a hat. Feathers are never used for mourning. Just a fold of the hat material or crepe is the most appropriate trimming for a first mourning hat. Even in this case, the hat may have the underbrim faced with white. Either white crepe or white georgette is used for this purpose.

If a widow chooses, she may wear a long veil. However, many women now feel they would rather dispense with it. When I say long veil, I do not mean extremely long. None of the veils are longer than two yards now. Such a veil is draped across the top of the crown of the hat. It is not worn over the face, except at the funeral. The veils are made of grenadine, crepe, georgette crepe, or net bordered with crepe. The borders are about three inches wide. It is a matter of taste whether or not a face veil is worn with the long veil. No one but a widow wears a a iong veil. The face veil for deep mourning is plain mesh and bor dered with crepe, one and one-half inches wide. One may have the border of the face veil grosgrain ribbon if preferred. In fact, the crepe is not used on the veil unless the hat is trimmed with crepe.

Mourning handkerchiefs no longer have a deep border of black. Just a very narrow black rolled edge is the approved style.

If one is mourning a parent, a child or a sister or brother, more white is worn with the black. For instance, instead of just the white collar and cuffs, a dress may have a white vest.

All white is considered just as deep mourning as black.

Second Mourning: No crepe is worn in second mourning, and more white is introduced.

It is permissible to wear a white blouse with a black skirt or a black and white dress, as a figured foulard or a black dotted white swiss. White net often is used as trimming in second mourning.

After second mourning, it is wise to choose subdued colors, such as taupe, dark blue and brown before wearing bright colors.

How to use your fashion magazines

HOW TO USE YOUR FASHION MAGAZINES

Do you get full value out of your fashion magazines? Do they bring the style centers into your sewing room? Do they talk to you and tell you that sleeves are long, or three

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quarter, or short, this season; that necks are oval, or boat shape, or perhaps square; that skirts are so long and so wide? Do they give you a list of the dresses that you can wear, and those that are suited to Mrs. Somebody Else?

Now don’t blame your fashion magazines if they are not doing all these things for you. The information is there. It’s just a case that you haven’t digested it.

Study your magazines.

It’s really a pleasant pastime for an odd fifteen minutes or so. First, take the question of sleeves. It isn’t necessary to read endless printed pages to find out what they are like, and what they are not like. Run through the pages and look at just sleeves. Make a mental note of what they are like. You can’t take in everything about all the styles at one time, you know.

After you have mastered sleeves, study the neck line. Perhaps, you will find there are two outlines that are equally stylish.

Then there is the question of the placing of the waistline. It needs watching. What it does one season it hardly ever repeats the next. Look through all your fashion magazines and make a study of just waistlines.

The width and length of the skirt is another question that ought to be looked up. It’s helpful also to classify trimmings just by themselves.

Once you have dissected the dresses, coats and suits, part for part, you will have a good mental picture of the general lines of the style for the season.

Knowing the styles is really a most important step toward having “style sense.” Go back to our second rule in selecting a really stylish garment on Page 2. The dress must suit the season.

Now try something which may prove a little more difficult. Classify the styles. Turn to the first page of the magazine and decide for what purpose and occasion each costume is intended. You may be surprised to find out that you haven’t been observing in times past. If you are in doubt regarding any of the pictures, refer to the rules of Clothes Etiquette.

If you want to select a style for yourself, it’s a good plan to mark the designs that suit your purpose and that also will be becoming to your type. When you compare them, eliminating those that are not suitable for your purpose or your appearance, it will be an easy matter to make a choice.

Here is where making your dress yourself is going to help out. You can adapt the style to your purpose or to suit your individuality. In fact, the placing of a waistline one inch lower, the shortening of a collar, or the lengthening of a tunic may be the difference between a becoming and an unbecoming frock. If you make your own clothes, you will have stylish clothes, prettier clothes—clothes that suit your individuality.

What is your type?

WHAT IS YOUR TYPE?

Perhaps it’s an impertinent question but we are talking just friend to friend and I am going to ask, “How old are you?”

Or maybe I had better say, “How young are you?” In selecting clothes, you know, age is just as important to the slip of a girl as it is to the woman who is growing older. Sixty’s dress can be downright cruel to sweet sixteen. On the other hand, the too-young dress is the very thing that will add ten years to a woman’s looks.

Decide your type and see which styles are best suited to you.

Are you a slim young girl?

Are you a stout young girl?

Are you a young woman of medium build?

Are you a stout younger woman?

Are you short?

Are you tall?

Are you thin?

Are you an older woman?

If You Are a Slim Young Girl—Then simplicity is your biggest asset. If you are sixteen or in your early twenties, you are sure to look your prettiest in simply tailored suits and crisp dimity or batiste Buster Brown blouses.

Suitability in your tricotine or serge dress is just the matter of a youthful style and enough but not too much trimming.

A braid binding or a contrasting piping is far more effective than a showy beaded or embroidered trimming.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t indulge your basque dress with a bouffant fancy for frivolous things. It’s every girl’s privilege to have endless pretty organdie, net and lace collar and cuffs sets. Now that you are going to sew, you know, you can make them for a very small cost.

When it comes to your silk frock I am tempted to say taffeta—it is so becoming to the young girl. However, if satin or a crepe weave appeals to you more, have them by all means but be doubly careful that the style you select is youthful. Crepes and satins are both tricky. You dont want your dress to look as if you borrowed it from mother or Aunt Mabel.

Of course, for evening, there is nothing like taffeta, taffeta and lace or taffeta and tulle. Here you may have the frock bouffant to your heart’s content and trimmed too.

I wonder if you will mind my adding just a few don’ts.

Don’t wear a quantity of imitation jewelry and spoil your pretty costume. Try just your wrist watch with your serge or tricotine and see if it doesn’t took better. Remember too, that there’s nothing like a simple string of pearls to set off an evening frock.

Don’t overdo the styles. After all, clothes are just a frame for one’s personality. You want people to remember you; not that your skirt was short or long or tight or full.

Don’t copy some one else’s clothes, unless they happen to be your age and your type. Miss a-hundred-and-sixty and Miss not-quite-a-hundred-and-five were never intended to be twins.

Perhaps You Are One of the Stout Young Girls.—Of course you can’t have some of the things that slim young girls have—ruffles, puffings and frills for instance. However there’s danger in swinging too far the other way.

Just because you are plump is no reason why you must wear “stout styles for older women” You can have youthful simplicity in straight lines and long lines.

Dresses of one material and all one color are to be preferred to separate waists and skirts which cut you in two. Russian blouse styles and straight hanging dresses are usually becoming. Pay particular attention to the belt. A narrow belt, placed at a slightly low waistline is better than a broad one placed high.

If you wear a suit you will find a blouse that matches the skirt in color is more becoming than a decided contrast. There are many pretty blouses now that lap over the skirt, and give long lines. Those of wool jersey and crepe de chine, finished with a V neck the stout young and detachable linen collar and cuffs are especially youthful.

Perhaps you haven’t thought of it, but you can wear almost any pleated skirt except an accordion plaited one. The accordion plaits are bunchy, but the side or box-pleats really give graceful long lines. In a soft material or a summer dress, you might even chance a frill, if it isn’t too wide and runs up and down the side seams of the skirt. You see, placed lengthwise it, too, gives a long line.

It almost goes without saying that crosswise trimmings are taboo. Trimming can be put on to give length.

Plain materials are less likely to make you look large than figured ones. Narrow stripes are permissible but never broad stripes or plaids.

Soft materials are best but avoid a material that “cups” to the figure like wool jersey or tricolette.

Probably, this sounds like a great many don’ts to you, but there are any number of pretty materials that you can safely choose. French serge, tricotine, tweed, crepe de chine, georgette, soft taffeta, cotton crepe, voile and batiste are examples.

There are stout girls who wear capes well, but they are the tall stout girls. If you are just medium or short and plump, a coat that is belted trimly with a narrow belt will give you better lines. In any event, avoid a cape. It is almost the worst enemy the stout young girl has.