Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/402

 DRESS 380 tailor's goose press well all over the damp cloth ; remove the cloth and continue pressing the canvas until it is quite dry, and has regained its ordinary firmness. Cloth can be slirunk in the same way, placed wrong side uppermost on the board ; but as cloth should be shrunk while it is still in the piece, and as it is rather heavy work, as well as a difficult thing for an amateur, it is well worth the extra sixpence per yard which is the charge usually made for having it done at the shop where the cloth has been purchased. If the cloth is to be shrunk before making, it is advisable to purchase about half a yard more than is necessary for a costume. To Make a Flap Pocket The size of the flap for the pocket is decided by the length and style the coat is to be made. The flap should be interlined with French canvas, which must be cut on the straight (which prevents its stretching), and with a perfectly straight edge all round. It may be cut about 4 J- or 5 inches in length, and 2,} or 2| inches in depth, according to the size required. No extra is required for turnings. This gives the net size of the flap, and allows a quarter of an inch on the upper edge for stitching it into the coat. The cloth must now be cut. Place the piece of canvas for the flap along, and quite level with, the cut edge of the cloth, and cut it out. allowing good turnings on the two ends, and a small turning on the lower edge ; the extra large turning on the two ends Is to allow of the cloth being " eased " when it is tacked over the canvas. If this is not done the corners of the flap will turn up. N.B. — If the cloth is one with a " face," care must be taken to make the flap so that the " face " will smooth downwards. When the worker has learnt how to make the various pockets and is sufliciently advanced to make a coat — the coat must be cut out first — and when the position for. the pockets has been decided upon, the cloth for the flaps must be cut at the correct angle to match the grain in the cloth of the fronts — e.g., if the flap is to be parallel with the waist- line, the cloth can be cut quite straight across the cut edge of the material ; but if the flap is to slope downwards the cloth must be sloped at the top and at the bottom, so that It may match the grain on the front of the coat, and any check or stripe in the cloth must also be matched on the flap. Tack the cloth on to the canvas, with the cloth uppermost, and with the work held over the hand, so that the cloth may be " eased " in tacking it on to the canvas. Still holding the cloth uppermost, turn it over the edge of the canvas, and tack it neatly down, near the edge of the two ends and along the bottom, but do not turn the cloth over the top edge' In turning the corners, cut away all the superfluous material, and make them as flat as possible, but be careful not to make the cuts too deep, or the raw edges of the cloth will show. Before the flap is stitched all round, it must be well pressed on the wrong side, under a damp cloth. N.B. — It is always well to press any work which is to be stitched round the edge before the stitching is done, as it makes the edge flat and sharp, and enables the worker to do the stitching nearer the edge and more evenly. Machine stitch one or more rows, according to the number intended to be placed on the rest of the coat, round the sides and bottom edge of the flap. It must now be lined with a piece of lining to match that of the coat. The lining should first be tacked on (not " eased," or the corners will turn up), then turned in near the edge to cover the stitching on the wrong side, tacked again, and neatly felled with silk to match the lining. Again press the flap on the wrong side with a dry cloth over it. It is now ready to be put into the coat, but as this is a lesson on pockets only, and the worker has not yet learnt to make a coat, the flap can be put into a piece of cloth, and the pocket made in that, instead of in the front of a coat. With a rule or tailor's square draw a chalk line on the right side of the piece of cloth for the position of the pocket, and on it mark the exact length of the flap. Cut on the straight (along the selvedge) a strip of linen, about two inches longer than the flap and about two inches in width ; place this on to the wrong side of the cloth, exactly under the chalk line (leaving an equal length of linen beyond the line at each end), and tack it on from the right side by a line of tacking along the chalk line. Take the flap and place it, wrong side upper- most, on the right side of the piece of cloth, with the raw edge on the chalk line and the finished edge turned upwards toward the top of the piece of cloth ; or. if on a coat, towards the neck of it. Tack it firmly in this position along, but not too near, the raw edge ; cut two pieces of lining (to match the lining in the flap) rather longer than the flap and the depth the pockets are desired to be made. Place one of these pieces, wrohg side uppermost, over the flap, with the cut edge level with the raw edge of the flap, leaving the same amount of lining beyond the flap on each side. Place the second piece of lining, wrong side uppermost, in the opposite direction, the raw edges of both pieces meeting on the chalk line, and tack them both to the cloth in this position. Machine stitch both pieces of lining on to the cloth along the raw edges, and as near to the chalk line as the material and lining will allo-w without fraying. The lines of stitching must be perfectly even and parallel, and exactly the same length; they must only extend the length of the flap, and must not be continued across the corners, or they will not set flat when the opening is cut, and the lining is turned inside. To be continued.