Page:A complete course in dressmaking, (Vol. 1, Introduction) (IA completecoursein01cono).pdf/50

This page has been validated.

A COMPLETE COURSE IN DRESSMAKING


Fig (19) For the woman who is older, there is be coming softness in surplice styles.
Are You an Older Woman?—Whether you are growing older, from forty or fifty or sixty, there are certain changes in your figure. Perhaps you are growing stouter, either all over or through your bust or hips and abdomen. Perhaps your chest has flattened. You may not be quite so erect.

You will have to suit your clothes to your new figure. They can be just as charming but they will have to be different.

What you want are clothes that will do kindly things—soften the lines of your figure. There are only a very few older women who can wear severely tailored styles well. are the broad-chested, straight-backed older women who always stand erect. As a general rule the middle-aged, or older woman, looks better in a onepiece dress or a semi-tailored suit that has a little trimming.

Three-piece suits, having a dress and suit coat are excellent. Or, if you make a blouse to match the color of your suit coat, and trim the blouse with a little suit material, it will look just like a dress.

Another way of making a suit into a one-piece dress is to cut the skirt off at the hips and attach it to a silk overblouse of a match-

[ 46 ]