Important Considerations.

Remember always in sewing that it is the lines of the garment that give it style. Regardless of the number of times it is necessary to piece in making a garment, if all the piecing is done on the correct lines, the clothing will still present a smart appearance. In some cases it is best to piece and forget about it; in others, the piecing may be made a decorative feature by accenting it with a line of fagoting, hemstitching, lace, braid, a touch of embroidery, a bit of piping, or by one or more rows of fine, uniform stitching. Choose carefully, however, the places to be so decorated, for too much effort to hide a piecing often makes it most obvious.

In selecting patterns for use in remodeling a garment, the most important consideration, next to getting one most becoming to the wearer's type, is to suit that pattern to the lines of the material on hand. Long strips lend themselves best to panel effects; short pieces to simulated jackets and quaint frocks with the waistline that is to-day rapidly climbing up to the natural. It is as interesting as a crossword puzzle to make the pieces come out right, and most absorbing of all, to experiment and work out all sorts of original ideas that are still in line with the prevailing mode.

Children's clothes should be so pretty that the little owners feel at their best in every garment. Remodeled garments should never announce the fact to playmates. If parents would always buy materials that would dye well, and mothers would try to perfect themselves in the art of making lovely things that would never be recognised as “hand-me-downs,” many a child who is not getting along well in school because of self-consciousness would be radiantly happy and bright in his studies, and the clothing bill for the whole family would be astonishingly low.

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