Rudiments of Dress-Making

The Home Needle, 1882

Dress-making, when one understands it, and has an eye for color, and some taste and ingenuity in trimming, is one of the most fascinating phases of needle-work. The results are more showy than in making under-garments; there is a greater amount of creative skill implied; and a dress ranks so much higher in the world of clothing than a garment that is hidden from sight, that the triumph of such an achievement is great in proportion.

If there is economy in making under-garments at home, the saving is incomparably greater in the making of dresses. Unless the materiel is costly, the dress-maker's bill frequently exceeds the price of the dress pattern,

and it swells in proportion to the value of the stuff, "trimmings" and "findings" being most convenient cloaks for inordinate charges. Careless work, too, often emanates from the hands of the over-driven sewing girls, who really execute, what Madame directs, and only half superintends; while the loss of time, and wear and tear of temper, under the disappointments and mistakes that seem inevitable in putting work out, are worthy of more consideration than they receive. Many a dress has finally been altered at home, after paying largely for a misfit and waste of material.

Having a dress-maker in the house, the plan usually pursued by the economical, is a species of bondage, a tying down to days, like some matrimonial endeavors, engagements, or "understandings," binds one side while the other is free. The dress-maker who goes out by the day, especially if she is greatly in demand-is not apparently bound in the least. You make all your arrangements for her in advance, decline pleasant invitations for the appointed day, or days, of her expected visitation, put yourself in other ways to great inconvenience because of the mysterious perversity of inanimate things; rise at some unwonted hour, that has, at least, the bloom of the dawn upon it, to transact before breakfast various matters that are indispensable to the proper beginning of the day, but which are generally postponed until after that meal, dispense with anything like "a social time" at table, and hurriedly regain your room, that has the look of decks cleared for action, to be for the next hour a Marianna in a moated grange, saying to yourself, with more and more of certainty, " She cometh not."

And she doesn't come. In the course of the day, perhaps, a postal card brings the information that she has a cold, or a felon, or has remembered a previous engagement; or, as likely as not, nothing is heard from her. When sought out and remonstrated with, you find that she had quite forgotten you, or "thrown you over" for the delights of ball or wedding finery. For dress-makers are not unlike children in their fondness for places where "things are going on; and such engagements are of far more importance in their eyes than those which concern economical walking-dresses or humdrum black silks.

There are, of course, fortunate people, whose dress-makers always come when they are expected, and who seem exempt from the usual troubles encountered with Madame; but the experience recorded is that of many, and few would not be free from the dress-maker's tyranny if they could, while many, in fact, night be if they would but think so.

Some women have no other way of making money than by saving it; and in making one's own dresses the dollars saved count up very rapidly. From eight to ten dollars is the common price for making an ordinary dress, and twenty dollars is thought reasonable for a handsome silk, these charges not including even a spool of cotton; while a dress-maker who goes out to work is paid from two to three dollars a day, sometimes rather more and occasionally a little less, car fares being paid besides. In the latter case, the employer's time is almost entirely taken up in helping her and attending to her wants; and, considering that, besides this, there is usually so much left to finish afterward, the question arises whether the lady could not, with the same outlay of time and trouble, make her dress without the inconvenience of the dress-maker's presence, and at a saving of whatever sum she would pay her.

Another item of economy in making one's own dresses is the amount of material used. An unnecessary quantity is always consumed at a fashionable establishment, where no account has to be rendered; but, when the cutting out is done at home, there is some chance of saving the material. One's own property is usually more precious than that of another, and one who is in the constant habit of cutting up goods is apt to become a little reckless. Therefore, the person who is portioning out her own material with a realizing sense of the difficulty of replacing it is far more likely to cut it economically.

Fathers of families, who have a peculiar dread of dressmakers' bills, and are by no means partial to the visits of the dress-maker at home, always advocate the theory of making one's own dresses ; and one gentleman offered as an incentive to his oldest daughter a new dress for every one that she made for her little sisters. The younger girls may not have enjoyed this arrangement, but the grown-up sister did; and in a comparatively short time she became an accomplished dress-maker.

The practice acquired in making dolls' dresses nicely, and it should be insisted upon that they be made nicely, is an invaluable preparation to a girl for making her own dresses; while a few lessons taken from an experienced dress-maker will make many things easy that seem so difficult to the uninitiated. There is a peculiar knack in making French folds, false tucks, bindings, etc., which can be more thoroughly acquired by a little direct instruction than from weeks of hopeless puzzling over apparent mysteries that, in the clear light of knowledge, prove to be no mysteries at all.

The best way for a beginner to make a dress is to take a cheap material, the spoiling of which will not be a serious less, and a pattern that is as exact as a pattern can be made. Excellent patterns on general principles can be obtained, at a trifling cost, by taking a few measurements, and giving the numbers thereof to the dealers; but these patterns are made upon the plan that all female figures are perfectly symmetrical, and this, unfortunately, is not the case.

It sounds very nice and easy to say that the proper proportions for the entire figure may be ascertained by such simple rules as that the proper size of the wrist is just half the measurement of the neck ; that the length of the front of the waist equals that of the neck, and is half the circumference of the waist ; while the waist is a duplicate of the inside length of the arm-the outside length of the arm equals the breadth of the chest-the length as well as the breadth of the back equals two thirds of the waist-measure, one third of the size of the waist equals the length under the arm. A statue may be formed by these directions, but scarcely a satisfactory dress.

Amateur dress-makers frequently complain that they are obliged to alter patterns before they can use them; and the best way of doing this is to rip apart an old dress-waist that fits well, and lay it smoothly on the pattern. As the latter is generally too large, it will easily allow of alteration.

It is a very difficult matter to fit one's self, but some ladies who are highly successful in home dress-making have frames made exactly the size of their own figures, and similar to those used in the shops for displaying dresses and cloaks. This is an excellent plan, but one that can not be followed by all. A simpler and more economical one is to arrange a dress that fits well over a small pillow, using stockings and handkerchiefs for the necessary filling out, until a perfect fac-simile is obtained of the owner's own figure. This pliable dummy can be handled with ease, and have pins stuck in it without crying out; so that a good paper pattern may be cut on it with very little trouble.