Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 185, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1918 — Frocks for “The Awkward Age” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Frocks for “The Awkward Age”

From-about her seventh year until the is well along in the “flapper” stage the growing girl usually requires some special attention to clothe her becomingly. This is “the awkward age” with some children, who are either too angular or too chubby, while other* get through It without difficult lines that must be softened. But for all of them the straight line dress seems to be the safe choice —-the thin little girl and the fat little girl, with perhaps a little variation in waist line, wear It with equal success. New frocks for school, and other everyday wear this fall, have been presented, and two of them,_shown above, demonstrate how well the specialists who design children’s clothes have managed the straight-line idea. These two refined and sensible dresses are pretty and no little girl will look awkward in them. They will interest the mother who must busy herself with her daughter’s school frocks. Both these models are adapted to cotton or to wool materials, and both suggest ways for remodeling and “making over” woolen clothes that it is the part of patriotism to pass along from grown-ups to the small fry during war-

times —or any other times, for that matter. Any substantial cotton or reliable wool fabric may be made up like the frock pictured of plain goods. The bodice has the effect of a short jacket which buttons under a fly at the front, and the plain skirt —with flat saddlebag pockets applied—is gathered on to it. The sleeves are three-quarters length and the dress is worn over a lawn or batiste blouse with a small turnover collar. The decoration is the simplest sort of needlework trimming —merely .silk floss in outline stitch forming squares that -border all edges in the bodice and on the pockets.

Plaid and plain gingham or plaid and plain serge will serve equally well for the other dresses. Ih this model the skirt is plaited and set on to a plain body. There are two narrow belts of the plaid goods, the lower one terminating under a narrow box plait in th£ front of the skirt and the upper one fastening with a plain button. The white pique collar and cuffs are separate. Like the under blouse in the other dress, they are the means of freshening up the frock and teaching the little ones the invaluable lesson of daintiness in appearance.