Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1891 — GOWNS FOR SUMMER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOWNS FOR SUMMER.

to nnj Ladles Slay Ba Congratulated Upon t' o Tutlntn of the Season's Designs. The snmmer girl trill be smarter and more chic than ever this snmmer, for her flannel gown has lost its fullness and taken on new comeliness, says thp

New York Sun. It will be cut severely plaid in front, with plenty of fullness in the back, and will be worn with a little silk or flannel shirt, which belts down beneath the skirt instead of hanging over the belt in a blouse or waist. Now,every girl knows how much trouble it is to keep the skirt band from slipping down, below her belt, so some one, kindly wise, and we think a woman, has invented a girdle bolt with lacings on each side in front to cover the most unmanageable of the waist bands. Her sailor hat will ba a little lower and considerably broader brimmed than last y<ar, her waists decidedly more like shirts, and her brother’s sash arrangement will be generously patronized. Her challies and ginghams and india silks will be sflnplv frilled affairs with paniers and bretelles, or simply flounces of the material with bands of velvet. Every girl that has a pretty neck will be generous of her charms in a modest and maidenly fashion and most cool gowns will have turned back frills from the open neck. Now, the most wonderful thing about the wonderful summer girl who bowls and climbs mountains, flirts and dances, rows and rides the long summer days away, looking divine every blessed minute in these simple gowns of which we are talking, nine times out of ten makes the gowns herself, and that is why the designs are printed just to give the home seamstress some practical ideas now when she needs them.

There’s no girl in the universe except the American girl who can teach or write or sing for her living all the year and act like a princess royal when she gets away for her vacation. All the luxurious, high-bred gentility of the society queen who doesn’t comb her own hair promptly comes to the summer girl when she shakes off her shackles, and though she ba3 made her own dresses and earned them besides, there’s nothing of the working woman about her when her work for the year is done. Now, any clever girl, with a mother or sister to pin up the seams, can make out of simple cashmere or crepe lisse the most fetching kind of a gown with only a simple skirt of material in old rose or stem green with black bouncings, or blue, white or soft gray with white flouncing, and the little coat waist with full chemisette of mull and wrinkled sash of silk. The flounce on the skirt is gathered in clusters with ribbon knotted and fastened below the heading. Almost any clever girl may make the gown, but only the girl with the plump and dimpled neck can wear it with grace. It seems very hard that the pretty girls who do not need pretty gowns to make them charming are the only ones who can wear them.