BASQUES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 24, 14 June 1890, Page 15

BASQUES.

iOWLEDG E comes from one of two MHirves —instruction or observation- Applied knowledge i'talent. Dexterity is the result of imitation ami a sleight-of-hand obtained by practice. Familiar, practical knowledge united with dexterity produces skill, without which the dressmaker is handicapped. Unfortunately this important branch of industry is left to chance. Housewives- amt small girls learn to knit stockings, crochet lace and embroider table scarfs, bat no study is given to the cutting or titting of a dress waist. The doth is cut by a flimsy tissue pattern or a ravelled, jagged lining and the lit is a venture, a risk, a harardous undertaking, whereas it should be at the outset a conclusive certaintv.

It is a common observation that there are no young seamstresses and no amiable home dressmakers. Trie premature age is not due so much to the occupation itself as to the worry caused by inefficiency. Ignorance is the bane of the sewing-room. The outcome is waste of material, loss of time and temper, and a violence to health more insidious than years of toil. There is nothing in the line of domestic science requiring more careful training than dressmaking, and nothing about which there is so much hack work unless it is the raising of children. Considering the fact that women must have dresses all the time, the persistent ignorance regarding the theorv and system by which they are designei is most remarkabfe. The’ fit or plan of a waist never changes. The placing of darts, the setting of a collar or a sleeve, the handling of side-gores and fronts is exactly the same whether intended for the house, the street or the saddle. Women do not as a rule attach the same importance to fit that men do. Defects that are not readily corrected are passed over and an attempt is made to use trimming for the salvation of the costume. The result is shoddy’s patch work. A change has eome over the world of dress, however, and every day women are realizing the superiority of fit over fashion. Every fashionable dress does not fit, but everv dress that tits the figure accurately is fashionable. Although it is never too late to learn, it is difficult for the mother of a family to eave her home for the purpose of study. Help must come to her through her daughters, and any young girl of ordinary intellijrence can readily master the rudiments of a system which will enable her later to become 'kiifuL In a citv like this ambition has every advantage. If some of the time women spend looking over styles and asking questions which make the life of the dressmaker hideous was devoted to purloining his methods, they might in a -bort time steal enough of his talent to serve a valuable purpose, and the same hint the struggling seamstress might appropriate with advantage. Reduced to the task by necessity or preferring by choice to do her own sewing, the first requisite is a model. ’ Let the n«>vire go to a tirst-chvss dressmaker, be measured ami fitted with a ta.-que. As it is to serve a special purp»>se it will be well to let the artist find evervthing. Let him also understand that you will not accept the work unless it i- superior m character and fit. Select a perfectly plain style, a- simpltcity ** enduring. Have your wits alnut you ami have a hand-glass, but hold your tongue. Your suggestions cannot be valuable and are sure to be impertinent. The operation finished, whether that of a first, second or third tit, it will be your privilege to criticise or comment. Have

what you want. !mt know what you want fir-t. The w*fot done to y-ur satisfaction will -ene a- a model to whieh you can refer foe measurements. ete.. in future work. The dressmaker hating drafted vour garment fnmi careful measurement. and remembering. too. the correction- that »ere necessary, is eminently aide to cut you a pattern that will reduce the cost and trouble of making v**ur next waist to a minimum, have him use thick paper. sueh atailors employ: have it cut at once, and you proceed at once also to make use of it while your ideas are clear. Make a trial of the partem in cheese-cloth or mnslin. and ensure success before cutting good lining. Again, there are plentv of specialists who will cut a lining to measure, indicate the -earns, give it to the -tudent customer to take home. cut the cloth brand Iciste up. then, by appointment he wifi tit the waist and sleeve anti fit the collar on. With an understanding of sewing. the results are excellent. Incidentally this plan is successfully practiced by many seamtresses uncertain of their talent, and the well-to-do patrons whom employ them. A considerable business of this sort is done by teachers and instructors of various systems of dressmaking. Mindful. however, that many sewer- cannot afford to pursue this course, there remains the tissue paper and lining patterns to which the millions resort, but. unfortunately. with not the best results. When a woman buys a pattern the bust measure only is taken. Supposing it to he thirty-six inches. ‘W»e buyer may be 6 feet tall, with a waist measure of 24 inches, and another 4£ feet tall, measuring l~j about the waist, both require thirty-six inches across the bust and the question is. who will' the pattern fit t Certainly not both. Probably neither.

There, you see, is the difficulty of hand, ling l«dly-ent patterns. They are cut proportionally. Few women are so designed. It will be seen. then, that although the same pattern is used by these women the alterations must l-e entirely different. It is also well to impress upon the mind of the’ novice that unless she knows something about striking a mean average her chances of mining the dress are very large. While mathematically accurate the embryonic Worth is advised to let tissue pater patterns alone until greater practice has been secured. They are ugly things to handle, even when brand new. for they will curl up and creep away and nothing short of nailing or glueing will keep them down, and they must be kept down for that nice accuracy neeessarv to the art. Better success will redound to the inexperienced waist hand who uses the cheap waist lining first. Although ent and drafted exactly like the tissue pattern, there is a saving of time and ai invaluable eeonomv of nerve and amiability. The lining is sold by the yard piece, on which is traced the entire waist. When cut out and the seam basted the skeleton of the basque is ready to try on. Whereas. with the tiiinsy paper an entire afternoon will be consumed by a painstaking seamstress in tracing and cutting the cambric. However, quite as many alterations may be needed on the lining to approximate the more careful fit that will follow when the cloth is cut. Ordinarily a basque has two side bodies. If the figure is large with a waist measure of twentv-six inches or more, three side gores are used. These with the two backs and two fronts comprise the body of the garment. Find the way the grain of the cloth runs by brushing it and rememlier that unless cut with that grain your waist will never fit right. All the gores must be cut with the cloth and all are straight but the round side body, as indicated in the cut. Given the cloth, a oood silicia for the lining, a pair of sharp scissors and a table, the novice is ready to cut. Thar done, baste, using No. 60 cotton. Baste close and thick, baste on the table —never in your lap. Let the first basting run through the centre of the gore. Have the threads wound round the edge regular to be a guide in sewing and stitching the seams. Many women and among the number those who profess an understanding of the business. baste over their fingers. The result is a complete botch, for the top piece being 'hotter than the bottom, the garment becomes lop-sided. To rejeat former advice, don’t sew anything round the finger. To join the different parts, begin with the backs. Every pattern is notched at the waist line, which must guide the seamstress. Begin at this line and taste up- the backs. Commence again at the waist and baste down to the edge, keeping both ends and edges even. The round side body goes on next. Join it to the back at the waist line ami baste up. holding the edges together until within three inches of the top, when by measuring vou w ill find that the 'ide is half an in'h shorter than the lack. Hold the back a little easy, to provide the necessary freedom for the shoulder blade, arid stretch the side to make ends meet. Finish the seam below the wai't line. Join the straight side or under arm gore to the round side above and below the waist line, keeping one side perfectly even with the other. N’ow for the fronts which require the dart.-. Put a pin <>r tack at the wai.-t line and baste down, gradually widening from the waist line down ; the seam must Ire even. The right hem of the front is la-ted over, allowing a quarter of an inch for books and eyes or button-holes. The left edge is left flat or open to form a fly or facing under the button-holes.

To j»»in the front and *ide body commence at the wai*t line and *ew up. *t retching the aide **am a little if necessary to make ends meet and keeping the seam* perfectly even below the waist. Join the’ other three gores to the tack and then cluse the shoulder span:. The front or top of the *h*mkier is always shorter than at the hark. This i* neee* *ary. as tlte hack measurement is always greater than the chest or fr»*nt. In sewing don’t cut. but stretch the front and make it reach or take in the l*ack. which will provide the needed fulness* and make the waist tit smooth over the flat or hollow part of the >ht»ulder. Try on the waist and *ee if there are any glaring faults There is one sacred seam — that up the middle of the hack —w hich must never be touche*!. If the waist is cut right it remains in vi< date. Take in any other seam. If more room is wanted let oat the seam under the arm. hut never widen on the round-side body. If the tack wrinkles between the shoulder*, it is too long. Take it up on th®shoulders. If it wrinkles at the waist, the lining is too short. Loosen it at the hem or bottom and allowit to run up. Wrinkles also come from the insufficiency of notches. Have plentv along the side seam* at the belt line and cut them as near the stitching as possible without cutting the thread. Few dresses are properly boned. Before using have the bones *oaked in water a couple of Whether you u*e galloon or hemmed muslin tor the casing, stitch it on full enough to lie in gathers : the casings full and the b»«nes tight will straighten the seam* of any dress and defv waist wrinkles. Here is a scale for the correct placing «>t bones : The one up the tack seam is not necessary. In the side seams let the bone run up four and a half inches above the wai*t line and two inches below ; the bones under the ana must n«»t come nearer than two inches of the *leeve.

In the darts have the t>>ne end one inch below the casing. Run the bone to the bottom of the basque and tack it by sewing through at tive different place- alsvve the waist line and two places below. <if these seven sewings have one half an inch on either side of the belt. At the top of the casings tack the bone in place, half an inch or -o below, -o as to prevent it breaking or pushing through. If properly soaked there will be no difficulty in sewing through the bone, and it is this sewing that will supjwrt the figure and sustain the shape of the bodice. If hooks and eves are u-ed l»>ne both front -earns. Run a stitching along the • inlay ’ the width of the l»>ne and insert the l»>ne between the linings, having it as high as the darts and extending down to the bottom of the facing. A- before stated, if properly cut. any waist will fit if abundantly and tightly boned. But the whalebone mu-t be w hole, to afford the pliability required. and securely held by -trong sewing Every waist should lie provided with an inside belt, secured to each seam. This will bold the bodice in pl.n-e.and take the strain off the front piece. Verv often rhe sliape and style is ruined in the alteration-. In taking in a -earn a -ixteenth of an inch i- frequently sufficient, whereas one-thin; i- made and new troubles produced. it i- imperative that care and [salience be n-ed to strike that nicety of correction that lies between perfection and ruin.