HINTS TO GIRLS WITH SMALL DRESS ALLOWANCES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6582, 23 May 1882, Page 4

HINTS TO GIRLS WITH SMALL DRESS ALLOWANCES.

■ In.culling from:our own experience these hints to girls with small dress allowances, we may almost be said to ;be addressing the majority 'of girls. For a dress allowance is considered small when much has to be done with it; and, as most girls try to make their allowances do a groat deal, they will all consider that they are in a position to be benefited by our advice. To commence with dresses and mantles, nothing is more economical in these days of fleeting fashions than aiiy process which enables you to make the.- mantles and dress of a past year approximate to, those of a present one. We saw a’very good instance of this the other day, when some,. long tight-fitting brown cloth jackets wore made quite dashing. Then ;the jacket was cut up the back,- from the hem tb within nine inches of 1 the waist, and a kilted breadth of watered silk let in. A handsome brown moire bow, long, narrow, and drooping,, fell oyer the inserted kilting, almost entirely-hiding the upper part of it; a corresponding, bow, on a much smaller scale, .finished off the neck. ’So stylish did the renovated jacket, appear, that no one would ever have guessed that it was not an entirely new one, ' It need hardly be stated, however, thatthisjaoket, in the first instance, was an exceedingly, good, example of its kind, being, well out, and composed of good cloth. ’ ■ ' ■ . Another economy girls cari practise with advantage consists of using alpaca for the foundations of their v dresses. ' Excellent alpaca can be purchased, at sal? times for as low. a price as sixpence a yard. , Now, as the foundation;'skirt' uses up between four and five yards of-material, it is clear that there is a manifest-gain in Substituting the cheap alpaca for the more, costly stuffs of which the rest of the dress is composed. White alpaca will answer for all light-colored evening dresses, and black for everyday dark ones. In hats, too, there is great scope for the exercise of economy. Not only can you often make the- same head linings and elastics last out two hats, but you can also often turn a summer hat into a winter one,'by covering the straw crown with velvet, plush, or drawn cashmere. If, too, the feathers with which you trim, your hat be poor, you can give them a rich effect by arranging puffed tulle round the hat and bringing the feathers over it. - This is a trick frequently resorted to by second-rate millners, and, provided the purchaser knows how the effect is produced; there is, of course, no harm in the expedient; but often the'unwary imagine they are securing a wonderful bargain, when they really are-getting rather leas than their money’s worth. .( j i7. Those who wear white lisse quilling round their neck and in thsir sleeves will be surprised at the extra wear they will get out of this quilling if, instead of sewing it into their dresses, they stitch it on to pieces of black ribbon and pin it in ; with ; ribbon about three inches wide you make small cuffs, to the top of which you sew your lisse. Then, when you wash your hands,- or put on a thick jacket or long gloves, you are able to slip these cuffs 1 off just as you would ordinary linen ones, and so you avoid crumpling and soiling the lisse. Orie very obvious means of effecting a saving consists in sewing the tops of old tenbuttoned gloves on to new thvee-buttoned ones. ■ Everyone knows that the hands of gloves wear out long before the wrists arid arm pieces do. If the original pair of gloves be of the best kid, the tops will last in good condition while two other pairs of gloves are worn out. : ■’ The join is scarcely perceptible, and, for the matter of-that, can always be concealed by bracelets or bangles. - How considerable Is . the economy can be seen from the fact that a pair of the best twelvebuttoned gloves'riever costs less than ten or eleven skillings. T Now, three pairs at this price wbuld 1 xrioiirit’np to thirty shillings ; but if you use thp old tbps with two pairs of threc-buttbned gloves, price 4s. 6d.) the total cost of your three pairs will he nineteen shillings, and you have saved eleven shillings. , The grand maxims of all who go in for economy ought to be, “To buy everything of the-very best quality,” and “ Never to throw anything away.” ,