PLAIN SEWING.

BY MRS. M. C. HUNGERFORD.

ITH the present facilities for buying all varieties of underwear, all ready to put on, at prices to suit every purse, except the unfortunate empty one, plain sewing is likely to become one of the lost. arts in this country. European schools have not ceased to teach both plain and fancy needle-work, but our girls are growing up with small knowledge of the pretty art of which each gentlewoman was proud to be past mistress in our grandmothers' days, when every girl was expected to unravel the mysterious connection of seam, gusset, and band, and make a fine linen shirt for her father before her eighteenth birthday brought her to woman's estate.

Probably those expert and capable girls whose early proficiency with the "shining shaft" challenges our admiration congratulated themselves on being exempt from the necessity that lay on their grandmothers' youth of spinning and weaving with their own hands the material from which they fashioned their gear.

It would be hard lines for us truly if the ante-machine days were revived, and eyes and patience were tried over seams and hems slowly accomplished with fingers weary and worn. But those who are most ignorant of hand sewing and its details are the poorest workers on the sewing machine, so at least a cursory knowledge of the craft ought to be cultivated by all women.

Like the worker in any other handicraft, the seamstress needs a sufficient and wellselected set of tools; for no kind of work can be well carried on without everything necessary to its accomplishment being at hand and in good order.

The foremost need in a well-appointed work-box is a needle-book well stocked with all sizes of the very best needles that are made. These may be long or short as the worker prefers, but their points should be sharp and eyes large; and when one bends or breaks, it should be thrown away at once, and not cherished with the economical hope of some day supplying it with a stumpy little sealingwax head, for far better steel pins with decent little glass heads can be bought for two cents a dozen, and meantime while your broken-eyed needle awaits your leisure, it may be moved by the total depravity which seems to stimulate inanimate weapons of the kind, and spill itself upon the carpet, to lie in wait for an opportunity to pierce some slippered foot, or worse still, a creeping baby's baby's innocent hand.

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In sewing, be particular to use the sizes of needle and thread best adapted to each other and to the fabric. large needle carrying fine thread will pierce a hole too large for the thread to make. an even stitch. A vice versa arrangement will make an un

even ragged hole where the coarse doubled thread tears its way through the insufficient place its pioneer has made.

In supplying the work-box it is wisest to buy the numbers of thread in most frequent use by the dozen; the surplus stock can be stored away with colored cotton and different shades of spool silk for occasional use. One spool of each number should always be at hand. Smooth steel bodkins, with little knobs on the end, are among the floating properties required by the needle-worker. Scissors are also prime necessities. There should be a large pair in the work-basket for cutting out thick and heavy work, a medium size for constant use, and a very small pair for delicate use. They should all be of the best steel, for it is poor economy. to use any other, and they should be kept well sharpened and free from rust. It contributes to their preservation to keep them in a case when not in use.

As even the most systematic persons sometimes mislay thimbles, there should always

be more than one in possession. They are now so cheap

ly sold that it will do to be extravagant in their use, and when they become smooth or a hole breaks through, replace them without submitting to either drawback.

A good manager will devote a box or drawer to an ample surplus supply of stock, but among the articles indispensable in the work-box are black and white thread for sewing on buttons, all colors of darning cotton for staying the rents in stockings, and a good supply of black sewing-silk. Some additional stern necessities

Fig. 3.-SURPRISE DRESS OF PLAIN AND PLAID WOOL.-FRONT CLOSED. [See Figs. 1 and 2.] For pattern and description see Supplement, No. VI., Figs. 34-45.

are a small flat cushion for pins, a needle-book with several well-filled leaves, and an emery bag, which had best be home-made, as the fascinating little trifles sold under this name are prone to contain a spurious filling. A tape measure or a folding yardstick and a button-hole cutter may also be numbered among the indispensables.

The furnishing of the tool chest being complete, the next point is the work to do and the way to do it. In English and Swedish sewing schools the begi ner makes her first essay upon what is called overhand seams. Two selvages are basted together, and the pupil is taught to sew them over and over from left to right. There is a difference of opinion about this method of sewing, some believing it best to work from right to left; but in old times, when narrow sheeting was used with a join in the middle, it was believed that the former method gave more immunity from "puckering." That word seems mild of aspect as I write it, but it was then laden with woe and synonymous with torture, for seaming sheets was work that always fell to the lot of the little girls of a family, and a pucker meant ripping out the seam and doing it over with a smoothness satisfactory to the very critical powers that were. The stitches in a seam of this kind should be evenly set; and to have them perfect, the worker must always introduce the needle at the same angle. By doing this persistently, the precision soon becomes too natural to require effort. In making the same kind of seam where there is no selvage, the raw edges must first be turned down upon the wrong side.

Hemming seems like a very simple form of sewing, but carelessness in execution is only too common, and nice articles are cheapened in appearance by uncouth hems. There are many house-keepers who are unwilling to have machinework upon table or bed linen, finding the hand-work neater and less obtrusive. In preparing hems for sewing it is not well to be economical about basting, especially when a machine is to be employed. Neither the first folding, which bends down the raw edge, nor the second, which turns it under and conceals it, should

be pinched and crimped through the fingers, but the turns should be smoothly pressed down with the thumb, or rubbed up and down, as folded, against the edge of table. Mrs. Brush, who took the first prize for plain sewing at the World's Fair, says that turning hems in this manner has much to do with their neat finish.

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Fine stitching, which was once common enough, is now only seen upon baby clothes. To accomplish it in the orthodox fashion sew the goods together by putting the needle back two threads behind the place of its last insertion, bringing it out four threads in advance of the place it went in, continuing this in a line makes each stitch only the length of two threads of the material. But very few people count the threads now, nor is it necessary, for coarse stitches look as well, and the eye can guide them evenly without the strain of such exactness.

Back-stitching is like the other, except that the space taken up in advance of the stitch is twice as long as that taken behind it. "Two

"A back stitch and run" used to be spoken of with lofty scorn by needle-women who counted their threads, but women who valued time and eyesight learned to substitute it for fine stitching. Its name describes it very well; three or four stitches are taken by running the needle in and out, and then they are secured by setting the needle behind a short distance and taking one "back stitch." This makes a moderately strong if not very artistic seam.

Running is similar to stitching, with the difference that the needle is always put forward to take the stitch, never backward. A run seam has not much strength, but enough for breadths of dresses and petticoats. Tucks that are put in by hand are always run.

Felling is really hemming, but the position it occupies is different, as it is an addition to a seam, intended to add to its strength, and give neatness to the wrong side of the work. Nightgown and shirt seams and sleeves of the same are always sewed up in this way. First the cloth is seamed together, either on the machine or by hand. After that one of the raw edges is cut much narrower than the other, and the wider edge turned like the first fold of a hem, and then hemmed down. What is called a French fell, or more popu

larly a pudding-bag seam, is a quick way of felling much practised in these days of haste. The seam is first run together on the right side, then turned and stitched or run on the wrong side, the second seam taking in the raw edges of the first. In either form of felling the seams should be narrow and even, or the work will have a crude and careless air.

Overcasting is a term for the far apart overhand stitches binding together the two raw edges of an unfelled seam. In dress-making all the waist seams, unless ribbon-bound, are overcast.

In sewing a sleeve into a waist, shirt, or nightgown, be particular to hold the sleeve toward you. In sewing facings or folds upon a skirt, turn the work so that the larger portion is toward you and the edge of the seam turned away from you; and in sewing the facing or lining upon the edge of a basque, be particular to hold the waist upon your lap, leaving the edge you are sewing upon turned outward. Attention to this rule will secure the best results, and any one who has a habit of holding work differently will find it better to acquire this method. It will seem awkward at first, but will soon become easy.

Gathering is simply running with a thread strong enough to draw the stitches on. After they are closely drawn up, they should be secured by winding the thread around the needle and

stroking each stitch into position with a coarse needle, holding the straightened stitches firmly in the thumb and finger of the left hand as they are stroked.

Tucks should be folded or basted, and run evenly with fine thread. It is usual to use machine sewing for tucks, but for babies' dresses, and even for the first and second sets of short clothes, mothers of dainty tastes prefer hand-run tucks.

In measuring a tuck so as to make its width mathematically even at all points, the best way is to cut a piece of stiff card the depth needed for the tuck, marking the space between the tucks. Little triangular nicks in the card can be cut to indicate these measurements. Hold the card in the left hand with the notched edge toward the right, and move it along as you baste or mark. This simple method of measuring tucks is said to have been an idea of Dr. Franklin's, who watched his daughter, the beautiful Mrs. Bache, laboriously measuring the cloth every few inches by the part already sewed.

Button-hole making is a science, and only a practical illustration could convey much information as to their manufacture. But there are a few rules which may be followed with good effect. The foremost one is, be sure to cut the button-hole evenly; then let the stitches be all of the same length, and precisely the same dis

tance apart. If these rules be observed, the button-holes will certainly look tolerably well.

Before working a button-hole, overcast the edges with cotton, making a few stitches across each end for a stay. If silk is to be used, put a long lengthwise bar of thread on each side, and when working keep this drawn up to the edge, to give firmness to the stitch. If one round end is required, take up one or two threads on a pin at one end, and cut the pin out; this will leave a small circular place to work around with the same stitch used on the sides.

Hem-stitching enters so largely into fashionable fancy-work that people who know little of plain sewing may be very expert in it. It is now much used for pillow hems and for the ends of fine huckaback towels. Frequently, too, it is used on the wide upper hem of sheets. To make it, measure first the space that the hem will occupy, then draw out four or five threads, and turn the hem down to them, basting it evenly. Then, holding the wrong side toward you, and working from right to left, as in plain hemming, fasten your thread, and run the needle under five of the cross threads of the fabric. Repeat this stitch the second time, taking it through the edge of the hem. Proceeding in this way to the end, you will find the ravelled stripe divided into little strands at the same time that the hem is neatly sewed down.

CHAPTER XXI.

IN A DEN OF LIONS, AND THEREAFTER.

HEN Maurice Mangan, according to appoint

WHEN t, called at Lionel's rooms on the even

ing of Lady Adela Cunyngham's dinner party, he was surprised to find his friend seated in front of the fire, wrapped up in a dressing-gown.

"Linn, what's the matter with you?" he exclaimed, looking at him. "Are you ill? What have you been doing to yourself?".

"Oh, nothing," was the answer. "I have been rather worried and out of sorts lately, that is all. And I can't go to that dinner to-night, Maurice. Will you make my excuses for me, like a good fellow? Tell Lady Adela I'm awfully sorry-" "I'm sure I sha'n't do anything of the sort,' Mangan said, promptly. "Do you think I am go

* Begun in HARPER'S BAZAR No. 30, Vol. XXII.

ing to leave you here all by yourself? You know why I accepted the invitation: mere curiosity. I wanted to see you among those people; I wanted to describe to Miss Francie how you looked when you were being adored."

"My dear chap, you would have seen nothing of the sort," Lionel said. "To-night there is to be a shining galaxy of genius, and each partic ular star will be eager to absorb all the adoration that is going. Authors, actors, painters, musicians that kind of people: kid-gloved Bohemia."

"Come, Linn; rouse yourself, man," his friend protested. "You'll do no good moping here by the fire. There's still time for you to dress; I came early in case you might want to walk up to Campden Hill. And you shouldn't disappoint your friends, if this is to be so great an occasion." "I suppose you're right," Lionel said, and he rose wearily, "though I would twenty times rath

er go to bed. You can find a book for yourself, Maurice: I sha'n't keep you many minutes," and with that he disappeared into his dressing-room.

A four-wheeler carried them up to Campden Hill; a welcome glow of light shone forth on the carriage drive and the dark bushes. As they entered and crossed the wide hall they were preceded by a young lady whose name was at the same moment announced at the door of the drawing-room-"Miss Gabrielle Grey."

"Oh, really," said Mangan to his companion, as they were leaving their coats and hats. "I always thought 'Gabrielle Grey' was the pseudonym of an elderly clergyman's widow, or somebody of that kind."

"But who is Miss Gabrielle Grey?"

"You mean to say you have never even heard of her? Oh, she writes novels-very popular, too-and very deservedly so, for that kind of thing; excellent in tone, highly moral, and stuff

ed full of High-Church sentiment; and I can tell you this, Linn, my boy, that for a lady novelist to have plenty of High-Church sentiment at her command is about equivalent to holding four of a kind at poker-and that's an illustration you'll understand. Now come and introduce me to my hostess, and tell me who all the people are." Lady Adela received both Lionel and his friend in the most kindly manner.

"What a charming photograph that is of you in evening dress !" she said to Lionel. "Really, I've had to lock away my copy of it; girls are such thieves nowadays; they think nothing of picking up whatever pleases them and popping it in their pocket." And therewith Lady Adela turned to Mr. Quirk, with whom she had been talking; and the new-comers passed on, and found themselves in a corner, from whence they could survey the room.

The first glance revealed to Lionel that if all