tores. Some kinds are adjustable, but it is always best to
make a carefully fitted lining for it and pad out to the correct shape
and size. The pattern should be one that extends well over the hips and
heavy unbleached muslin may be used. After padding firmly, the front
opening should be oversewed. Special care should be taken with shoulders
and neck and the neck band should be carefully adjusted on the figure.

[Illustration: PADDED BUST FORM

(From Dressmaking Up-to-Date, Butterick Co.)]

A padded sleeve lining is also very useful in making sleeves.

Dressmaking never should be begun until each needed article required for
the work has been purchased. The sewing room should be in order; the
machine well oiled and wiped before any work is undertaken.

[Sidenote: Skill and Taste]

If the finished garment is to be perfect, careful attention must be
given to _every_ detail of the cutting and making up. To possess
mechanical skill alone is not sufficient. A successful garment depends
not only upon the dexterity with which the worker manipulates the actual
tools of her craft, but upon all her faculties and her power of applying
them. She must have a comprehension of the laws of beauty in dress,
construction, ornament, color, selection, economy. The artisan knows the
technical part only, and looks upon each dress--each piece of lace and
velvet--as so much material to be snipped and cut and sewed, copying
from the fashion plate, making gown after gown alike. The artist, on the
other hand, makes the gown to suit the individual wearer, considering
each dress no matter how simple--and the simpler, the more artistic--as
a creation designed to suit the woman for whom it was planned.

People who study economy from principle will never adopt anything
extreme in weave, or color, or make. These extreme fashions are never
lasting; they are too conspicuous and are vulgarized by bad copies,
while a thing which is known to be good and beautiful once will remain
so for all time. Those who are beginners in the art of dressmaking
should select plain designs until skill is acquired. The making up and
finishing of new fabrics and new or untried methods are problems that
often dismay even the most experienced dressmaker.

PATTERNS

[Sidenote: Selection of Patterns]

The makers of good and reliable patterns are many. Always buy patterns
of firms that make proportion of figure as well as fashion a study.
These patterns state lengt