The Camas Hot Springs Exchange

Plan Trim New Dresses for Fall
While Fabric Selection is Good

By Ertta Haley

IT SOMETIMES is hard to realize during hot summer days that all the big stores and foresighted women are planning their wardrobes for fall, but that's a fact. If you plan your fall wardrobe now, your chances of getting better material in a wider selection of colors and weaves is greater than if you wait a few weeks.

Every woman likes a few trim new dresses for fall, and the matter is easily solved, by selecting patterns and materials that will be figure flattering as well as practical.

One dress for the woman whose wardrobe does not permit the expenditure of too much money is a good basic style with several changes of collar and cuffs. She might like one set of collar and cuffs in a prim and dainty sheer fabric in frosty white.

For more dressy wear, a good choice would be a gay stripe or plaid, in taffeta or one of the rayons.

Then again, the basic dress may not need collar or cuffs for really formal, dressy occasions. For this you might like to splurge on some clever costume jewelry-a touch of glitter at the neck, and a matching bracelet. Remember how popular pearl type necklaces were -and still are-and how much they do for a simple black, brown or navy blue dress? That's what I mean.

Basic Dress Must Flatter Figure

Unless you select the most figure-flattering basic dress you won't be able to do a thing with it. The side drape is only good on some figures. Others look better in gored or slightly flared skirts. Still others prefer neat pleats or strictly straight lines.

Select figure-flattering material

All of these things must be important considerations in choosing a dress that will take the place of several. Select, too, one that has good sleeves and neckline. If you know, for example, that a V neck doesn't do a thing for you-and it doesn't do much for the very thin, flat-chested woman - then choose something with a little fullness in the bust.

If, on the other hand, you have a well-set pair of shoulders and are well-filled, stay away from too much material at the top of the dress.

Should you be planning several changes of collar and cuffs for the dress, then you will want a basic style that will be usable with collars most flattering to you.

Buy a good pattern, a good material, put the dress together as carefully as you know how, and you will then have the most important ingredients of the successful dress.

Black, navy blue, brown, dark green and gray are the classic colors for this type of dress. The one you look best in should be first, second and third choice.

Small Details Make Dress Fit Wearer

Recent figures prove what most of us have always suspected. That is that few women come close to the perfect figure. This means that small adjustments must be made on patterns and clothes to make them fit perfectly.

Adjust clothes to your figure

Some women run narrow in the shoulders and need an extra dart there or at the collar to make the dress lie smoothly. Shoulders, of course, can be built up with padding so that they will balance the figure, but this is an individual problem that must be handled directly in front of the mirror.

Another important problem in fitting is the bodice. To give a well-molded line, it's advisable to take one or two darts under the arms to get this effect. How much of a dart, and just where it should lie, is best determined by basting and fitting.

Just where the hemline should fall is another point that has troubled many of us for a long time. This should not be determined, I feel, so much by what the fashion is, but rather by where the line is most attractive to you. If you are short and plump you will want a longer skirt to give you the long line that is most flattering. The shape of the legs is often the most important factor in the length of the skirt.

Waistlines and sleeve lengths are another detail which would be judged by the figure. For this there is no guide like the full length mirror.

Another detail which can be used with the basic dress is to have one of those soft sheer wool or wool jersey jackets to wear over it. There are some gathered-at-the-waist styles that are nice. There are others that are more tailored.

If you wish to have a bolero jacket as another change of costume with the basic dress, select enough material and then choose a contrasting print for lining it and make a belt of the print to have with the dress.

Lingerie Touches

A dress will always do more for you if you have proper clothing to wear underneath it. A bulky slip can ruin the good lines of a dress, and a sagging slip is a mark of poor grooming.

Slender figures can wear bias cut slips; the stout figure should have one with gores.

Pay just as much attention to the seams on the slip as the fit. A too-small bias-cut slip will ride up and yield little comfort.

Select the correct length for your height. They now come in short, medium and tall lengths and everyone can be fitted properly. Leave only the minor adjustments for the straps.

Seams on slips should be flat and double-stitched. The zig-zag stitched seams wear well, but they may look wrinkled if you are wearing a sheer dress.

The top of the slip gets hard wear and should be flat and self-stitched around the edge. Lacy tops are pretty and dainty, but if a lightweight dress is worn, a simple slip will give the best lines underneath the garment.