| FABRIC REQ'D | 35" | 45" | 54" | 60" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIEW 1 | — | — | — | — |
| VIEW 2 | — | — | — | — |
| VIEW 3 | — | — | — | — |
| INTERFACING 25" | — | — | — | — |
Figures are in yards, rounded up to the next eighth, and they include the shrinkage allowance. Buy the 2 3/8. Do not buy the 2 1/4 and plan to be clever.
| SIZE | BUST | WAIST | HIP | BK LGTH |
|---|
Buy the envelope by your bust measurement, taken over your slip with the tape flat across the back. Never by the size printed in a ready-made dress; that number is a store's opinion and this one is a measurement.
The flat tissue will measure larger than you do, and it is supposed to. There are 2 1/2 inches of wearing ease at the bust and 3 at the hip built into this pattern so you can reach across a table for the sugar bowl. Do not cut it out of the tissue. You will not thank yourself.
Fold the cloth selvage to selvage, right sides together. That double thickness is the whole point: it gives you a genuine left and a genuine right sleeve instead of two lefts, which is a mistake you only make once and then remember for eleven years.
Every arrow parallel to the selvage. Pin both ends of the arrow first, before a single other pin goes in. Measure from the arrow point to the selvage, then from the other arrow point to the selvage, and make those two measurements agree. A front cut three degrees off grain will hang crooked for the life of the dress and no amount of pressing will ever argue it back.
Follow the printed layout even when you can see a cleverer one. Nine times in ten the clever arrangement crosses the fold or turns a piece off grain, and you find out at the second fitting.
Cut facings and interfacings last, from what's left. Anyone who cuts the facings first is short a skirt gore by ten o'clock.
60 inches will not save you the arithmetic you expect on View 3. The gore is 34 inches long; you are buying length, not width, and four gores of that length still want two lengths of cloth however wide the bolt is.
With nap — corduroy, velveteen, brushed wool, any one-way shading or one-way print — every piece must point the same direction down the cloth. You lose the trick of nesting a bodice front head-to-toe against a sleeve, and the yardage goes up accordingly. Buy the with-nap figure whenever you are in any doubt at all.
Thread. Nine 5/8" buttons (View 3: eleven). One 22" strip of interfacing for the band. Shoulder pads optional and not included. For View 2, two 3/4" buttons for the cuffs. Seam binding, 3 yards. Oakleaf 7239, the matching jacket, takes 1 5/8 yards of the same 54" wool and is cut from the same grainline rules; buy the two together and cut the jacket second.
Wool crepe, flannel, lightweight tweed, linen, chambray, poplin, piqué, denim, corduroy and velveteen (with nap). Not suitable for diagonal weaves or plaids requiring matching. Allow extra for one-way designs, stripes and large repeats.