Smartening Up That Old Frock

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 193, 1 September 1937, Page 14

Smartening Up That Old Frock

How to Make 1936 Like 1937

TJEVTV3NG old frocks and giving them a new lease of up-to-date smartness is an art that is well worth while cultivating. Fashions do not really change rapidly itt the main and alterations in the details will often bring a last season dress right up to the minute. Eeview your last summer's frocks and light suits. Skirts of the newest dresses may he a little shorter, hut the silhouette is in most cases the same. Waists are in the same place and shoulders have much the same tendency to be broadened. Yarious little additions and eliminations are all that are wanted to make the older dresses appear as though they are brand new acquisiiions. What Can Be Done. Fabrics with amusing picture prints are one of the 1937 touches in summer fashions and they can be used in several ways to adorn and liven up a passe frock in a plain material. If the dress is one of the simple but-toned-down-the-front styles, a cotton waistcoat top in a picture print can be added. Wide lapels were a popular note in the previous summer's frocks and jackets, but whereas then they Were mostly plain, nowadays they usually have something decorative about them. Printed fabrics can be used to face the lapels and also make new belts and pockets. Patterned jackets with plain frocks are a hlessing for those little nipped-in at the waist coats are veiry useful for taking away any demode look about the outfit. Cutting away the front of a bodice in a V to the waist and filling it in with a tucked muslin front or a plain pique

one is one method of renewing interest in a light dress. The front can be made one with a cravat that may he tried in a how if the material is fine and thin, or knotted, with hrief jutting-out ends, if the fabric is thicker. % Changes hy Braid. A few yards of shiny hraid can work a wonderful change in a dress. I have seen it, in a contrasting colour, sewn down the front of a bodice and continued on the skirt, curved round and to the back at hip level to simulate the edge of a jacket top. Braid can also be employed to make imitation pockets in the right places for a 1937 frock. Two pockets set slightly , askew at the hips, for example, or a pair of breast pockets with flaps. Necklines vary from season to season, perhaps, more thjin any other dress feature. "While the little turn-down collar is still In evidence in new dresses, there are any number of more exciting ways of finishing a neck. r ' >i Adding a Yoke. Your cotton frocks can be giv^n something specially feminine by cutting away the neck into a deeper TJ or boat shape filling in this widened space with a yoke of one of the "lingerie" fabrics, gathered into an upstanding njffle round the neck, simple enough to achieve with a draw-string. A charming neck trimming for a tailored style of frock is a short scarf of

some soft silk, rolled and arranged round a collarlesS neck-line to be slotted through slits cut in the front of the bodice and then tied in a loose knot. Plain scarves for patterned dresses and printed ones for plain frocks are naturally the most effective, although sometimes two different prints can he brought into harmony quite well. A natural liiien seen recently was printed with a red spot that was just the shade of a silk scarf patterned with creamy spots. Piped Edges. Scalloped edges and contrast piping are new notes that can be added to old dresses. The silk bias tape that can be bought ready for sewing on makes it an easy and inexpensive task to trim a frock in this way. Long full sleeves are not seen so much this year and can he changed to a newer style by shorteiiing them to a point mid-way between elbow and wrist. If you do not like the loose flowing sleeve, you may pouch it into a fitting cuff buttoned at this point, or may flt the sleeve to the arm with a series of tiny pleats or tucks. Evening dresses can be touched up with new swathed sashes and floral trimmings. An attraetive idea with flowers is to outluie the armholes of a frock with a close row of blooms. This looks particularly well with dresses of the frill and flounce type. Transparent bolero jackets are valuable for hringing an evening ensemble up-to-date, and sleeveless overdresses of the "redingote" kind also in a flimsy material. Chiffon can be worn over almost any gown and bring it into line with the latest thing in dance and dinner modes.

"Half Used" Oddments. More waste occurs through the practice of only half using up foodstuffs, polishes, and other commodities, than through any other cause. It is a temptation to get bored with things that seem to last a long time, "and to throw or give them away before their useful days are over. Part of the remedy lies in the determination to avoid over-buying and to calculate carefully before laying in stores. Etren so, there constantly remains on the larder Shelves something that can hardly be calculated for. Half a lemon, for instance, left over after slices have been cut to decorate veal cutlets; the white of an egg, not needed for the mayonnaise sauce. It is a nuisance to have continually to think out uses for the left-overs, in terms of lemon *flavotirings, puddings with tops of whipped whites, meringues and chocolate mousses (actually these are excellent when whites only are folded in with the warm compound), and anaemic buttered eggs. So remember that there are household purposes to which the oddments may be put. A half used lemon rubbed well into the draining board or draining rack will remove stains. It will speed up the polishing of a brass door-tread, and get rid of accumulations of polish left in the ridge.3 of a copper coal-scuttle. "Witn the aid of a little salt it will renew the colotir of a light straw hat, and it will improve the appearance of hands tliat have been doing houaework. i