Dressmaking

“ On the other hand, you will look much better in a simpler type of dress, one perhaps that has just a panel or a single line of trimming down each side of the front. For you, the dress of many pieces is in the same class as a figured dress.
It’s a mistake to think that your clothes must be tight. It’s not the stylish conception any more. In soft materials, a little fullness in a skirt is becoming. A short stout woman can wear a straight hanging dress, too, if the belt is narrow and slants down in the front. ”

“ 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 It is not always the out-of-date dress either that is the hard task master. ”

“ The next lesson that you take up is skirts. Here you will have more practice in working with a block pattern and copying different styles. You will find, too, that you can apply some of the blouse information to skirt, or in in fact, any garment. The adding of tucks and pleats is the same whether it is blouses, skirts or dresses on which you are working.
The principle of adding fullness, too, applies to all patterns.
If you have studied BLOUSES carefully and understand each step in the lesson you will find the lessons to come easy to understand and apply. ”

“ There are rules for trimming that even the perfectly developed woman is wise to follow. A great many lines that run around the figure are seldom pleasing. If you have seen a skirt that was braided at regular intervals from the lower edge to the waistline, you will know what I mean. It is tiresome.
Never combine two colors in a dress in exactly equal proportions. The dress will be much prettier if one shade predominates or at least forms two-thirds of the dress. ”

“ The one-peice dress is a boon to the business woman.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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Make your clothes interchangeable. Be sure you can slip your coat over any of your frocks and it will look as if it belonged and was not borrowed for the occasion. If you have only one or two hats, you will find it a great convenience to have them fit in with the scheme of any of your dresses. ”

“ Happily the people at large—the masses, if you will—are not equally constrained. They too rapidly seize on what is new, and often retain what is really pretty. Some of the best of modern changes in dress are already adopted as national costume. What, for instance, can be more becoming than the prevailing dress of our female servants: the well-fitting dress, cotton, or dark material; the snowy apron; the round cap of lace, below which appears the knot of glossy, well kept hair; the close, short sleeve ”

“ Your dress should be handsome, but not showy. A silk or cashmere wrapper, richly trimmed, over an embroidered skirt, with a pretty cap, or the hair neatly arranged without head-dress, is a becoming and appropriate dress. Still better is a rich but plain silk, made high in the neck, with long sleeves. Wear a handsomely embroidered, or lace collar, and sleeves, and a rather dressy cap, or, still better, the hair alone, prettily arranged.
As each visitor arrives, rise, and advance part of the way to meet her. If gentlemen, rise, but do not advance. ”

“ AMY ROBSART. An Elizabethan dress of the richest materials, velvet, satin, or brocade, in any colours; the skirt or train worn over a hoop is full, touching the ground and bordered with a jewelled band; the front breadth of contrasting colour or fabric may be quilted or embroidered, and sewn with gems; low plain bodice, bordered at waist with frill of material; large upstanding wired lace ruff from shoulders; sleeves, one puff at top, tight to wrist, close ruffles; head-dress a slightly pointed cap of velvet, pearls, and feathers. ”

“ The flickering candles in tin sconces against the walls, or depending in rude chandeliers of barrel-hoops from the ceiling, lit up the most astounding diversity of female costume the master had ever seen. Gowns of bygone fashions, creased and stained with packing and disuse, toilets of forgotten festivity revised with modern additions; garments in and out of season—a fur-trimmed jacket and a tulle skirt, a velvet robe under a pique sacque; fresh young faces beneath faded head-dresses, and mature and buxom charms in virgin' white. ”

“ We have frequently, in our observations, found occasion to lament, in the present style of female dress, a want of that proper distinction which should ever be attended to in the several degrees of costume. For instance, the short gown, so appropriate and convenient for walking, and pursuing morning avocations or exercises, intrudes beyond its sphere when seen in the evening or full dress. It is in the splendid drawing-room that the train robe appears with all that superiority which gives pre-eminence to grace, and dignity to beauty. ”

“ The dress of high-born ladies was very similar to that of the men, for it, too, consisted of rucked trousers, of brilliantly-coloured silk, decorated with embroidery and confined at the feet with plain gold bangles or jewelled anklets. ”

“ Women’s dress in the 15th century often follows the man’s fashion of the furred gown, the skirts being lengthened for all difference. But the close-bodied and close-sleeved gown, with skirts broadening into many folds below the hips, is often seen with the long and plain cloak drawn with a cord at the breast, widows wearing this dress with the barbe, a crimped cloth of linen drawn up under the chin and ears and covering the collar-bone. With the barbe went the kerchief, draping head and shoulders. ”

“ There is one distinction between ours and all other books on dress that have come under our observation, and that is, that we are dealing with the necessary and not the ornamental part of clothing. Most authors who have written upon this subject have confined their attention to the history of costume, or the absurdity or elegance of some particular fashion, or of the harmony of the colours and relation of the dress to the figure of the individual, and hence have dealt only with the exterior. ”

“ All these people wore garments of exceedingly fine material, mostly white, richly trimmed with elaborate embroidery in colours or gold, the women’s dress being a long, sleeveless garment reaching from the throat to the feet and confined at the waist by an ornamental belt, handsome sandals, much jewellery, and the head bare, the heavy masses of dark hair being wound upon the head very becomingly, and intertwined with ribbon or strings of coloured beads. ”

“ The dress of the women had now become something more than mere protection for the body. The skins of animals might still suffice for the clothing of the poor, but the rich man's attire consisted of well-bleached linens, and, doubtless, woollen fabrics as well. The garments made of these materials were probably dyed in rich colors, as the principles of dyeing were well understood. We can picture, then, a woman of the higher grade, dressed in a tunic, with a mantle of contrasting color, her hair done up in an elaborate coiffure and set off by a cap of goat or sheep skin. ”

“ Fashion prescribes the size and shape of bonnets, the make of gowns, their length and their size—the number of breadths and gores—the trimmings, the petticoats, which have become like a second gown, and all the other paraphernalia of a lady's toilette. There is no part of a lady's dress too minute for her inspection and care and legislation. The colour of gloves, the dye of hair, the application of false hair, the make of boots and shoes, the choice of ornaments, are all ordered and arranged. ”

“ We find that a distinct separation between ancient and modern dress took place as early as the sixteenth century; in fact, our present fashions may be said to have taken their origin from about that time. It was during this century that men adopted clothes closely fitting to the body; overcoats with tight sleeves, felt hats with more or less wide brims, and closed shoes and boots. The women also wore their dresses closely fitting to the figure, with tight sleeves, low-crowned hats, and richly-trimmed petticoats. ”

“ During those days the length of the gown denoted the rank of the wearer, countesses and baronesses and ladies of lower degree stamping their estate upon the dimensions of their train. Embroidery decorated the gowns and petticoats alike, many of the dresses being cut open in front to display a satin kirtle and an apron embroidered in gold and many colours. The bodice of the dress sometimes differed in colour from the skirt, and the sleeves would match the skirt; and there was much variety in head-dress, the velvet cap tasselled and set with jewels above a floating veil being a popular style. ”

“ The dress of the women is like their habits of life, plain and simple. It consists invariably of a gown of blue printed cotton, the bodice of which ends just below the bosom, an apron of the same material, and a white collar with a flat hem ”

“ IN LADIES’ dress more allowance must be made for the caprices of fashion; it always has been their prescriptive right to exercise their ingenuity, and fancy, in adorning their persons; and, save that the head-dress is somewhat caricatured, the next illustration gives a very good idea of the style of dress adopted by ladies at the commencement of 1800, some phases of which we are familiar with, owing to their recent reproduction—such as the décolletée dress, and clinging, and diaphonous skirt, as well as the long gloves.
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PARIS FASHIONS FOR WINTER DRESS—1800. ”

“ Now, only suppose that the dressmaker had the painter's knowledge of form and harmony of lines and colors, what a revolution would take place in dress? We should no longer see the tall and the short, the slender and the stout, the brown and the fair, the old and the young, dressed alike, but the dress would be adapted to the individual; and we believe that, were the plan of study we recommend generally adopted, this purpose might always be effected without the sacrifice of what is now the grand desideratum in dress—novelty. ”

“ For the feminine element the dress is uniform. It consists of a riding- habit of black or dark blue, with bodice and skirt smoothly molded to the form by one of the two celebrated habit-makers, Youss or Creed. ”

“ Dear Sir,—The questions you send me regarding my opinion of the present style of ladies' dress cover too large and varied a field to be disposed of in a moment—that is, if one could dispose of them even after many and many a month, let alone moments. The one virtue of the women's dress of to-day is its variety and individuality. Those who are really dressed and not merely clothed, have their dresses "created" for them, and they belong to each other. ”

“ Striking attractiveness, rather than simple good taste, seems to be the spirit of modern dress. To see a beautiful young woman in gaudy clothes is as disappointing as seeing a romantic old Spanish tale bound in a cheap paper cover.
How much more delightful is a simple frock, developed of rich materials, and boasting only deep soft folds of the material as decoration, than an elaborate gown with rows and rows of imitation gold lace! ”

“ Under the new impulse—the new inspiration of the mid-century from the purer and simpler lines, forms, and colours of early mediaeval art, the dress of women in our own time may be said to have been quite transformed for a while, and though the pendulum of fashion swings to and fro, it does not much affect, except in some small details, a distinct type of dress which has become associated with artistic people—those who seriously study and consider of the highest value and importance beautiful and harmonious surroundings in daily life. ”

“ If these are observed, there is still a wide margin left for fancy and fashion. These may find scope in trimmings and embroidery; the application of which, however, must also be regulated by good taste and knowledge. The physical variety in the human race is infinite; so are the gradations and combinations of color; yet we expect a few forms of dress to suit every age and complexion! Instead of the beautiful, the graceful, and the becoming, what are the attractions offered by the dress makers? What are the terms used to invite the notice of customers? Novelty and distinction. ”

“ The great difference in modern female costume consists in the fact of the girdle being part of the dress, thus giving a long or short waist, according to the requirements of fashion. In the same manner, a complete revolution took place in men's dress according as loose or tight, long or short sleeves were introduced. ”

“ A fact worthy of remark is, that whilst male attire, through a depravity of taste, had extended to the utmost limit of extravagance, women's dress, on the contrary, owing to a strenuous effort towards a dignified and elegant simplicity, became of such a character that it combined all the most approved fashions of female costume which had been in use in former periods. ”