Making a Child’s Overall from a Narrow Skirt.
Good quality washing materials for making children’s everyday frocks are now so very much more expensive than in pre-war days, that the economical woman who happens to have a number of washing skirts of the narrower type so popular a few years ago, would be wise to make some good use of them.
THE OVERALL THAT CAN BE CUT FROM A NARROW SKIRT.
While it is a comparatively simple matter for the woman who makes her own clothes to remodel a full skirt into a narrow design quite successfully, it is not so simple to adapt a narrow design to a wider pattern. Even if one could match the material, it is never wise to use new fabric with old, and the freshness of the new material would only give emphasis to the fact that the other parts were slightly worn.
Here is a suggestion that may not have occurred to everyone. Have you ever thought what really excellent little garments for the children can be made from the best parts of a cotton skirt? As an example, we are showing how the child’s overall illustrated can be cut from a two-piece skirt of quite the narrowest type (this design only measures 1⅜ yards round the hem) without even cutting into the parts that are likely to be the most worn.
Whether the skirt used is made of linen, piqué, casement cloth, or any of the stouter washing fabrics, it would serve admirably for making this little frock that can either be worn as an overall over another frock, or as a little summer play frock without another dress underneath.
The skirt made use of in this instance is a two-gored design, with a seam at each side, and to cut the pattern as shown on the diagram, the hem of the skirt should be unpicked, also the side seams from the waist to just below the hips, or just far enough to allow of the skirt being laid flat out on the table.
Easy to Make and to Slip On.
Take care to see that you have the skirt placed so that there is an even fold at centre back and front, and the side seams back one another, then lay on your pattern. You will see that in placing the sleeve portion it comes over the side seam of the skirt, giving you two seams in the sleeve instead of one, but the second seam will come on the under-arm so that it will not in any way spoil the appearance of the garment. The collar and cuff portions will need to be lined in order to neaten them, and you will probably find sufficient from the cuttings to cut these out again, or if not, a small piece of white calico could quite well be used for this.
A DIAGRAM FOR CUTTING OUT THE OVERALL FROM A SKIRT.
The back of the overall is cut down from neck to hem, and finished with a hem at each side, and fastened with buttons and buttonholes.
Many varieties of trimming could be used for a little overall of this description. French knots worked in a contrasting colour along the hem and round the collar and cuffs would be effective, or some simple cross-stitch animal designs would look well.
Use Clark’s “Anchor” Coton à Broder, No. 12.
A frock for a two-year old has been used as an example, but it would be quite possible to cut a larger size in a like manner, though it might be necessary to put a false hem of some other material.
Stitchery.