MAKING FRENCH KNOTS.
Gather the top of the front of the skirt, and draw it up to the size of the lower edge of the front of the yoke. Place the edge of the yoke and the edge you have gathered together just as if you were going to make a seam (be sure you put the right sides of the material inside) and backstitch along firmly.
Turn in a quarter-inch single turning, from the neck down to the lower edge of each of the backs of the yoke, then gather the backs of the skirt and join them to the yoke as you did the front.
Join the lining yoke portions together, turn your dress on the wrong side, and place the lining yoke over the dress yoke, so that the edges of the seams come inside. Turn the lower edges of the lining yoke in and hem them along to the back of the gathers, making it all neat inside, and in the same way turn in the straight edges of the backs of the lining to meet the single turnings you made on the dress yoke; oversew these edges together.
You will notice that the top edge of your sleeve portion is curved up much higher one side than the other; the high side has to come on the shoulder, and the lower side underneath the arm. You will have to be careful in joining up the sleeves, that in the second sleeve the high side comes the opposite side of the sleeve to what it does in the first sleeve, so that you have one sleeve for the left and one for the right arm.
Join up the sleeves with French seams. Take your little cuff band, fold it in half and join up one side with a single seam, so that it is joined in a circle. Gather the bottom of the sleeve, until it is the same size as the cuff. Place the cuff over the bottom of the sleeve (with the right side of the material inside), and backstitch the gathered edge to the edge of the cuff. Fold the cuff piece in half over the gathers right round, then turn your sleeve on the wrong side, and hem the other edge of the cuff to the back of the gathers. Make the other sleeve in the same way.
To put the sleeves into the dress, first gather the tops, until they are the size of the armhole of the frock.
Place the short part of the sleeve over the skirt seam, so that it will come under dolly’s arm, and place the sleeve seam to the seam joining the yoke to the skirt at the front. Make a seam of the armhole and the gathered edge of the sleeve. To neaten the armhole seams, bind them with narrow tape or ribbon.
Now you are ready to turn up the bottom of the frock. Measure dolly from her neck to where you want the bottom of the frock to come. Then measure the same distance down from the neck of the frock in front, and turn up a nice wide hem evenly all round.