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Children's Clothing

Very few grown people understand the hardship it is to little folks to wear outgrown or clumsy or ill-fitting garments. Boys are not supposed to have their feelings greatly harrowed at the sight of handsomer clothes than their own, but even they are quite alive to the mortification of wearing shabby or ill-cut and ill-made coats and trowsers. The trial falls most severely upon little girls, and to them it is a bitter one, and just as hard to be borne as the afflictions of grown people are. With a keen eye for beauty, and often a natural or cultivated taste, a poor child is sometimes condemned to wear garments of such a hideous character that she loathes the very thought of them, and actually suffers the most acute mortification. There are mothers who devote too much thought and time to dressing their children, and who, by words and acts, lead them to feel that to be fashionably and elegantly dressed is the great good of life. This is a lamentable mistake to make, but it is also a mistake for a mother to attempt to imbue her child with an indifference to dress or check the love of it by depriving her of tasteful clothes. An ugly dress draws the thoughts of the wearer to itself far more than a pretty, becoming one will, and a forlorn, ill-dressed little girl will grow up with a longing fo for finery that neat and pretty dressing will not often develop.

There is a good deal of work about making a dress, even if it is a small one, but it is very little more trouble to make it tasteful and stylish, and it is a pleasanter task to create a pretty thing than an ugly one. Like all other arts of the home dressmaker, it takes experience to make a success of children's dresses. Amateurs are apt to take fright at the dressy, elaborate styles now in vogue, but really there is nothing appalling about them with a plate or pattern to follow, and the most complicated are frequently the most easy to copy in old material, because the elaboration helps to disguise many makeshifts in the way of piecing and eking out scanty trimmings. A dainty little miss we know of wears a dress for her "Sunday best" that looks as if it might have been selected from one of the shop windows. No one would suspect its being home-made, much less made mostly of a fabric no longer new. The foundation was a plain princesse form, cut from a thin lining, which, by the by, was originally a light calico morning dress of one of the older sisters. Among the cast-off clothes of the family were small portions of two very old silk dresses, one a fine black-and-white check, the other a plain dark brown. There was not in either enough in quantity to do much with alone, but combined there was sufficient to make a very good result. The silk was poor and thin, but it was carefully cleaned and stiffened, and wherever used furnished with a thin, coarse Swiss muslin lining. Long folds of the two silks alternating were put upon the front breadth perpendicularly, reaching from the throat to the bottom of the dress in the center. Across the back were narrow gathered ruffles of check silk bound with the plain brown. The upper part of the dress was of white Angora gauze flannel skirting, which was but twenty cents a yard, and resembled a summer camel's hair. The fronts were made in sack form, meeting over the long center plaits at one point only, about equidistant between the throat and waist, and cut away abruptly above and below. The back was long and looped over the ruffles with very graceful effect. The cuffs were of check silk, with brown bias binding upon the edge, and the deep round collar (almost a cape) was in the same order. The upper part of the dress was covered with brown silk that was too old and poor to be fit for any other use; but, under the polonaise, the worn places did not appear, and the flannel was so thin that it required a continuous color beneath to prevent the ugly variegated appearance that some silk and bunting toilettes present. The polonaise was edged with three rows of machine chain-stitching, done with coarse brown silk, and was not a separate garment, being sewed in with the shoulder and side seams, and buttoned in the back with brown buttons.

The Another dress of the same little lady's was made from a pair of old Turkey red curtains, of the dark color and heavy quality of former manufacture. The dress was made with a full skirt gathered round the waist, with five rows of shirring. The blouse-waist was gathered in the same way. deep collar, cuffs, wide belt, and the binding to two ruffies on the bottom of the skirt, were of Madras gingham in indigo-blue shades. The combination made a very quaint and stylish dress, and was modeled from a recently imported one of much more expensive material. Another lady who prides herself on her ingenuity made a very neat cloak for her girl from an old pair of pants. The fronts and backs were cut of narrow pieces (it could not have been otherwise), with seams extending to the shoulder. The pockets and cuffs were in very good style, but not of the same material, which was a brown basket pattern. The upper parts of the sleeves were very presentable, but the under halves were curious mosaics of difficulty with which they succeeded in being sleeves at all; but n'importe , nobody-not even a child-voluntarily offers the under part of a sleeve for inspection, so its secrets need never be revealed.

In making over children's clothes, or elders' clothes for children, there is a double advantage in combining more than one material. Fresher parts double advantage in combining more than one material. Fresher parts of both can be used, and harmonious arrangement of colors diverts the eye from the want of newness that might be apparent in a plainer dress. In making use of diverse fabrics, there is, however, one all-important thing to be kept in mind-there must be a certain harmony in color and method in arrangement observed, or the effect will be disastrous. There are people with artistic artistic tastes to whom the knowledge of what is fitting and appropriate seems to come instinctively, and they need no advice; but there are many busy mothers living so far from our great cities and so off from the line of travel that they have but little opportunity for cultivating their tastes or of seeing what is fashionable, and often but little time to give the subject much thought.

In reading over the ordinary articles upon children's fashions, one is constantly struck with the similarity of the materials advised for their clothing, to those used for grown people.

There seem to be no especial fabrics reserved for their use. This fact should be particularly comforting to those whose circumstances compel them to prepare their children's clothing from their stock on hand, which stock is generally understood to be the worn-out dresses of mother and sisters. When there was a marked difference between the styles of child and adult, the wearing cast-off dresses of their elders was a real and bitter trial to little girls; but there is no trouble about it now.

Nearly every thing that is wearable can be stylishly used under the present laws which govern fashion. Plaids and large figures, which might be grotesque in whole dresses, make very nice vests and trimmings to light up dulllooking costumes. Old brown or black woolen dresses that have grown rusty and faded, but have capabilities of usefulness, can be refreshed by steeping in a weak decoction of logwood. Other colors in all-wool can be re-dyed at home with the ordinary family dyes. It should be remembered that it is much easier to re-color goods the same shade than it is to make an entire change of hue.

It is best to match the color that the material was originally, and saturate it in the preparation, following the usually accompanying printed directions about drying, pressing, etc. It is a pity to spend time and trouble in making up dresses which will look forlorn in spite of the pains lavished upon them, when a previous redyeing would have made such a wonderful change in their appearance.

The present very universal fashion of shirring dresses and trimmings is admirably adapted to make over old materials into children's clothes.

Worn-out ruffles can be closely gathered, or gauged, as the term is, and all the holes and thin places made invisible by the process. If, for instance, a prudent mother has laid aside the flounces from some old skirt she has long ago taken for a petticoat or other use, she will now reap the benefit of her carefulness, and find herself able to make her child a dress at little cost. Let her cut a cambric skirt of a proper size, and cover it with the with two gatherings, and a similar row through the middle. The shirrings may run around the skirt, and the lapping of the ruffles may be concealed by a row of galloon or velvet, or the flounces may all be pieced together before the shirrs are made. The gathers should be distributed evenly, and sewed firmly down upon the cambric.

Another mode of using the ruffles is to set them on the skirt perpendicularly; in this case, the middle shirr may be omitted in each ruffle, unless they are over five inches wide. If that style does not meet with approval, a puff (made of the flounces) may alternate with a close strip of shirring of equal width with the shirring all the way around. Again, if it is desirable to piece out 'a scanty pattern, it will do to make the lower part of the skirt of the ruffles closely shirred, and cover the rest of it with the dress material. Both waists and sleeves, or either one alone, or deep yokes and cuffs, may be entirely made of fine shirring, which, it will readily be seen, affords a fine opportunity for using up irregular-shaped pieces of old material, as it is of very little consequence how many piecings are put into any thing that is SO closely gathered up, always supposing that the industrious toiler has time and patience to do the piecing. Unlimited patience seems to be the attribute of nearly all mothers, but time, the economical ones seem, alas, to have in but a limited supply.

It is cruel to condemn little girls, with their naturally dainty tastes and love for pretty things, to wearing ugly, ill-fashioned clothes; but even made out of such materials as this article treats of, they can be as pretty, if not not SO durable, as if new material were used.

The subject of boys' wear needs consideration, for there is no direction in which the amateur's failures are SO distressingly palpable as in boys' are so distressingly palpable as in boys' clothes. The unfortunate little sons of poor, industrious mothers too often are condemned to wear garments that give them a hopelessly awkward apthat give give them a hopelessly awkward appearance. ce. Growing boys, at their best , are not miracles of grace, but wellmade clothes do wonders for them; and it is worth while for those who have the work to do to study to acquire the tailors' style of finishing garments, without which they are certain to have an uncouth, homemade air that condems them at once. It is quite possible to learn this art by a little practice and close imitation of the finish that is found on coats and other articles of tailors' workmanship. The secret of style in men's clothes is in pressing-not such pressing as people ordinarily do with the gentle gliding of a warm smoothing-iron over the cloth-but a vigorous bearing on with a heavy iron that takes all the patience and strength of the worker. The iron should be, as the phrase goes, 'red-hot," and the danger of scorching the goods averted by keeping an old wet linen cloth between the garment and the iron. Later, a finishing smooth may be given with a cooler iron, through a thin dry cloth, to take out the wrinkles sometimes caused by the wetting.

It is a great mistake to suppose that when a boy's garment is made from the cast-off one of a man it is not worth while to take much trouble with it, for the cloth is generally of a better quality than that commonly purchased for boys, and the worn portions can all be cut away by care in disposing the pattern.

Before appropriating cast-off coats or pantaloons of the father's to replenish the boys' wardrobes, the garments should be brushed well and ripped up; then washed through two suds made with warm water and very strong soap. For reliable colors, a little lye can be added to the first water. Do not twist, but stretch and pull the cloth, and fold up each piece tightly, and squeeze out the water by pressure, or put it carefully through a wringing-machine. Rinse again through two waters, with a little soap in the first, and press out the water as before. After all has been squeezed out that can be, hang the cloth in the air over a line, and when perfectly dry roll very tightly in a damp towel, and leave for several hours, or till the next day then iron on the right side, through thin muslin, running the iron over till the cloth is entirely dry. If there are any prominent grease spots on the garment it is best, before washing, to remove them with turpentine, potter's clay, or benzine. Stains can be treated (though not always with success) with a mixture of ammonia, camphor, and water. For example-say that a jacket is to be cut from a sack coat; having washed the former as directed, select the simplest jacket pattern and lay each piece upon the cloth in a position to make the fronts out of the freshest parts. If the wrong side of the cloth is best worthy to be uppermost, that should have been pressed instead of the outside when it was washed. Sometimes the sleeves of gentlemen's coats are made in one piece, with but one seam, and that upon the outside. Such sleeves can often be used for the back of a jacket, while the original backs and parts of the skirt can be used for side pieces and sleeves of the jacket. In tailoring work it is necessary to maintain a rigid adherence to the pattern. Where two pieces are to be joined, and one is longer than the other, it will never do to snip off the extra length, as some careless people do, but the longest side must be held in in sewing till the extra fullness is taken up.

In putting the collar on the jacket, care must be observed not to stretch or pull it out of shape; it should also be held full enough to turn over easily, and the seam should be pressed in the manner mentioned above. If possible, a jacket that has been made by a tailor should be made the model for imitation in making one at home, and, till experience has made the details familiar, it should be referred to in putting in pockets, setting in sleeves, and at every step of the way.

Small pantaloons are readily cut from larger ones, and even where the latter are seriously impaired, it is still possible to make good new ones out of them. If the back is in holes, the thin part can be replaced by long gore-shaped pieces, such as are seen in army pantaloons, and a pattern for boys, called sometimes called the "cadet pants," can be procured, if such a device is needful. In cutting the fronts, try not to have the exact spot come at the knee that came there before, but have it above or below, as it will not only wear out faster, but bulge out in an unsightly fashion. If the cloth is thin and loosely woven, or has had already a great deal of wear, it will be well to line the little pantaloons throughout. The fly should be lined with strong drilling interlined with canvas to give suficient support for the button-holes. Short knee-breeches are much easier to make than long ones, and take such a small quantity of material that two pairs can be cut from one pair of ordinary-sized men's pants; but of course, after a certain age, all the king's horses and all the king's men would be a force insufficient to compel a little boy to give up his inalienable right to have his trousers as long as his father's; and happy the mother whose young son does not insist on spring bottoms, for that is a touch very difficult of attainment to any but an expert. In ordering a pantaloon pattern, it is less important to give the age of the boy than the length of his leg (measured upon the outside seam), as height varies much in similar ages.

The Ulster is a form to be recommended for the overcoat, where new cloth is used, because it is so long and large that the material can be made into other garments when its original form is outgrown.