Gored skirts that have a side plait or an inverted box plait let into the seams some distance up from the bottom, are sometimes troublesome because of a tendency of these

plaits to show below the bottom edge of the skirt since there is nothing to which they may be attached. This trouble may be avoided in the manner shown in Fig. 299.

The seam edge and the edge of each of these plaits are bound, and after the skirt is

Fashion Design Drawing - Skirts 22.jpg

finished a tape or strap of lining is sewed to the top of each plait and is carried from one to the other all around the skirt. The tape will generally be found sufficient stay, but in a woolen skirt of heavy cloth an additional tape or strap may run diagonally from the top of each plait to the next seam and be securely sewed there to the wrong side of the skirt. This stay also is shown in the illustration.

Flare Skirts are many-gored skirts that do not hang in plaits below the hips, and are made to stand out from the feet at the lower edge. These need special treatment in finishing, to preserve the flare and make them hang in just the right way. The proper finish of the seams on the inside can be seen in Fig. 300. After the seams have been basted and stitched, it is advisable to try on the skirt and pin a tape around the figure to determine the hip depth to which the flat seam shall extend. At the same time the length of the skirt should be determined by pinning it up around the bottom or by marking it with chalk. Mark the line for the bottom of the skirt with a basting thread and also mark the skirt with a thread along the edge of the tape. At the hipline clip both raw edges of each seam at the inside of the skirt in order to divide the flat-finished hip part from the rippled part. Make this clip or cut extend the full width of the seam edges, running in as far as

the stitching of the seam. The seam above the clip is to be pressed open, clipping or notching it wherever necessary to make it lie flat. It may be finished with a row of machine-stitching at each side of the seam and quite close to it, or both edges of the seam may be turned the same way, a row of stitching on the outside holding them in lap-seam effect.

Mark the hem or facing depth at the bottom of the skirt it is usually about three inches deep. Clip the seam in at this point; press this lower part of the seam open in order to hem or face the skirt properly. The part of the seam which has not been pressed open should be bound as shown in Fig. 301, using a narrow bias strip of lining material for the purpose. This portion of the seam is not to be pressed to either one side or the other, but stands out straight from the inside of the skirt, and gives a fluted effect to the breadths. Baste a bias facing in place, hem the lower edge to the turned-over edge of the skirt. The upper edge may be hemmed by hand or may have one or two rows of machine-stitching to correspond with the stitching on the upper part of the seams. The skirt should then be folded at each seam and placed in the machine in the same way as when the breadths were first stitched together, and a row of stitching, as shown in Fig. 301, made along the bound part of the seam close to the first row and extending across the facing forming that into a small seam.

HANGING A CIRCULAR SKIRT. A circular skirt is cut on the bias and a bias will always stretch more or less. One should let, in fact encourage, the skirt to stretch as much as possible, before the bottom is finished so that it will stretch very little, if at all, after it is hung.

A skirt stretches because its own weight and the weight of the hem or facing drags down the bias grain. If you hang the skirt up for two or three days properly weighted you will exhaust its powers of stretching. In your piece bag you will find plenty of useless material that can be used to weigh the skirt. Cut strips three or four inches wide and enough of them to make four or five thicknesses. Pin them to the lower part of your skirt. (Fig. 301 A.)

Pin the two halves of your skirt together at the top and pin loops of material to the skirt to hang it up by. (Fig. 301 A.) Slip the loops over hooks placed just far enough apart to hold the skirt band out even. Let the skirt hang for two or three days with the weight of the strips stretching it as much as it will. Then you can turn up the bottom without fear of its sagging.

TO HANG A SKIRT. Cut a strip of cardboard two inches wide and eight or ten inches long. Make a notch in one long edge at the distance you want the skirt to clear the floor. Put your skirt on and stand on a table. (Fig. 301 B.) Have some one mark the skirt with a marker and pins or else with a needle and a long thread. (Fig. 301 B.) Take the skirt off, turn it up at the marked line and baste it. Try it on again to be sure that the lower edge is perfectly even before hemming or facing it.

There is a homely but successful way to hang a skirt if you have no one to help you. Get a dish-pan and place it on a large, even pile of old magazines, arranging them so that the upper edge of the pan is the same distance from the floor that you want the lower edge of your skirt to be. Fasten a piece of soft chalk to a long stick. Stand in the dishpan with your skirt over the pan. With the stick

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