Excerpts from "The Complete Book of Sewing"

As promised in a previous post, below are some excepts that I thought you might enjoy from The Complete Book of Sewing by Contance Talbot, copyright 1943, revised 1949.

Enjoy.............

Points to Remember About Afternoon Dresses and Formals

The street-length dress in black or a becoming color can be made in simple or deceptively subtle styles. The two look very much alike to the untrained eye, and many home sewers confuse them. When you choose a pattern for an afternoon dress, keep in mind that there are three different kinds: (1) the simple soft dress, easy to make; (2) the soft trimmed dress, easy to make; and (3) the subtle sophisticated dress which requires knowledge and painstaking detail. Beginners should not attempt the subtle dress, but they can make a simple dress very successfully. As you look over patterns. Watch for the placing of the lines. In easy-to-make models, softness is introduced on the shoulders, below the yokes in skirt and waist---in either gathers or tucks.

Dresses which depend upon subtle line and details must be finished so that no finishing line shows---no outside stitching. The handwork makes these dresses very expensive to buy ready-made. You can duplicate $40 to $65 dresses at about a third of the price if you learn to do this kind of handwork yourself.


Repairing Girdles

At the first sign of a rip or tear, mend your girdle promptly. Catch the end of each rubber thread and tie it with cotton thread so it will hold. Then darn these threads down into the seam or whatever part of the girdle ripped. Be careful not to put a needle through the rubber threads. If the tear is on a seam, rebind it with tape or a satin ribbon after mending. If the garter rips on a seam, use an overcasting stitch; it holds better and has some give.