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Show ' Woman's World Selection of Suitable Fabric Important in Tot's Garments Bu cCrfla MaLj WHEN children are growing by leaps and bounds, it's sometimes some-times a difficult job to keep up their wardrobes. If the mother is handy with the needle, the youngster is lucky because he or she can always al-ways be kept in suitable toggery. Just consider the position of the average family. Dad's shirts can always be converted into boy's shirts for junior, pinafores or dresses and blouses can also be used for dresses, blouses and skirts for the younger girls. When making clothing for the younger members, particularly in using old material, suitability should be carefully considered. Some plaids and prints used for mother's dresses or dad's shirts may be perfectly per-fectly stunning on the adult, but very poor for the young child. If there is enough fabric only for a skirt, make that out of plain or print, with little straps if there is enough material, and let the child wear a blouse of contrasting material. Classic Styles Popular For Girl's Dresses 1 Fortunately little girl's dresses ' vary little from year to year. You can buy several good basic patterns and use them again and again, with ! just slight variations. If you are good at alteration, you might even , use these patterns for several years, simply taking them in when you first get them, and then letting them out after a few months or years as the girl grows. Jumpers with several changes of blouses are very much acceptable for the girl under and slightly over 10. If you are using a heavy mate-i mate-i rial such as corduroy, be sure that the lines of the garment follow the rule of strict simplicity. Princess style dresses with buttons but-tons all the way down the front are very attractive on the immature figure. fig-ure. This type of dress may be made blouses for her, consider them as separate garments. When you finish fin-ish them, however, sew a tape around the waist of the skirt and place button holes all around it. Then sew buttons on the blouse so that the two can be attached together. to-gether. In this way you prevent j the blouse from gaping from underneath under-neath the skirt, and this is especially especial-ly important if the girl likes active play. Shirtwaist effects are popular in this age group and many tailored dresses can be concocted from shirts. If you have a blue or white shirt, parts of this might be made into the bodice and the sleeves while another shirt in a print might be used for the skirt. Buttons are used extensively on children's garments because they are easy for the youngster to manipulate. manip-ulate. Furthermore, they are eco- nomical and add decoration even to the simple dress. Because of the many washings which children's garments must take, always select a sturdy material mate-rial that will not lose its color or firmness of weave. A chiffon dress may be available for remodeling remodel-ing and it might occur to you to make a youngster's dress out of it, but neither the material nor its lack of wearability is suitable for the active girls under the age of 10. you lot e some old shirts . . , in any type of material and may also have a variety of trimmings. You'll want contrasting color tape on some, bric-a-brac on others and perhaps embroidery on still others if you have the time and are so inclined. Growing girls particularly need gored or full skirts, the basque type being very popular. It will particularly particu-larly please them If the garment has some grown-up feature like a plain colored bodice with a matching print in the skirt. If your youngster is old enough, let her work out some of the decorative deco-rative details of the dress herself. She may be interested in sewing a feather-stitch around a fu'l skirt, for example; or perhaps, she has learned some interesting weaving or braiding at school with which she might like to trim the collar, pockets pock-ets or sleeves. Speaking of pockets, these are a very handy feature in the youngster's young-ster's dress. Children just adore them, and they can easily carry decorative detail that will make the L'je them for daughter's dress. I lress unusually attractive and en- ; dearing to the little girl. If you are making a dress out of old things of your own or out of dad's shirts, and find that you are short of material, you might try a band along the hem, around the sleeves and neck in a contrasting color. This will not only add length to the dress, but is a very smart ; ftature in youngster's clothing. If the girl is in the under 10 group and you are making skirts and |
