TEA JACKETS.

Nearly all women recognise the blouse as being one of the most comfortable garments ever devised, but in this summer weather a loose tea jacket provides the acme of comfort and elegance ; besides, if prettily made, it looks smart and dainty even when worn with quite an ordinary skirt. Most of the new tea jackets are slightly full in front, and the very tightly-fitted shape seems less in favour than in former years. Fancy shot or Chine silks, printed Pongee, and also Japanese silks, are all useful for summer tea jackets, and can be made extremely smart if the colours are well contrasted. Any of the paler pink shades are delightful, with loops and rosettes of green velvet and black blonde lace, or peach, cyclamen, and similar tints can be relieved with petunia, purple, or green, and made up with either cream or black lace. Pale blue is a very favourite tint this summer, and looks particularly well trimmed with deep cream or ficelle tinted lace. Fine French cashmere or llama cloth are pretty and inexpensive fabrics for jackets. For home wear on summer evenings, or to slip on for afternoon tea, the semi-fitting tea jacket is a delightful garment. Lining may be dispensed with, excepting just for the sleeves, where the pouff becomes loose and shapeless, unless mounted on alining. There is only one side piece, and the fronts have no darts, but theiulnessis.eoUeetedan4»leatg, which are the waistline, and the velvet band passes over these. The centre plastron is simply thefullfront of the jacket, on which the narrow insertion is fixed, and the revers separate this from the remainder. The revers must be made quite stiff and firm with a double fold of muslin, and the full frills of lace are sewn on the inside. At the back there is a deep square tab or collar, starting from the revers, and also finished with lace. The basque is cut quite short at the back, and runs off to a point in front, and is also edged with lace. The very deeply-tinted lace known as antique Valengiennes is most effective with pale-coloured silks, ahd exceedingly inexpensive, a lace of four or five inches deep. This lace is so soft that it hang 3 prettily and has aJftood appearance, but the deeper tints are the best. Allow of double width fabric three yards, or of twenty-two inch silk six yards for this jacket.