Whatever garment it is you are wanting to make for dolly, you should first get a good pattern to cut it out from.

You will find that your paper pattern only gives half of the garment, and by cutting each piece on double material you get the whole article.

For instance, if you are cutting out a chemise for dolly, the pattern will give you half of the back and half of the front, and you will notice that the straight edge of each portion is marked “place to fold,” which means that you must fold your material and place these edges along the fold, so that when you have cut out the two portions you will have the full front and the full back of the chemise.

This rule of cutting on double material generally applies to all the portions of the pattern, but it is not always necessary to lay the edge against a fold, you only do this when your pattern is marked in this way. For instance, you will have the pattern for the whole sleeve when cutting out a frock, and by cutting it on double material you get a sleeve for each arm.

Before starting to cut out, clear your table of everything else, so that you have a nice flat surface; and whatever you do don’t try to cut out with a cloth on the table, or you will find you are constantly pinning your pattern right through to the cloth, instead of to the material only.

You will want a sharp pair of scissors to cut out well, and a good supply of pins. You will notice that one blade of your cutting-out scissors has a very sharp point, while the other blade has a rounded blunt end. To cut out successfully, you must always hold your scissors so that the blunt blade comes underneath your work. This prevents the sharp point of the scissors from running into the material, and making a hole where you don’t want one!

Look at each portion of the pattern carefully, and place it on to the material according to what is marked on the paper pattern, then pin it down securely and cut round the portion close to the edge of the paper.

Be sure you cut into the little notches that you will find cut in some of the edges, as these will help you in putting the pieces together. The edge that has one notch has to be joined to another edge with one notch, the edge with two notches to another edge with two notches, and so on.

If the material has a pattern on it, be sure that you have it the right way up. For instance, if you are making dolly a frock out of a piece of material with birds on it, see that you arrange the pattern on the material so that the birds come with heads up. And also see that both the pieces of material, if you are cutting it double, are the same way up. Wouldn’t it look queer if it turned out that one half of dolly’s frock—when you had put it together—had birds standing on their feet, while the other half showed them standing on their heads!