Good mothers always try to have their children dressed neatly and prettily, not only giving them nice hats and dresses, but having all the other clothes to match. Of course, you want to be like a good mother to dolly, but perhaps you do not know how to make some of the things.

Well, just look at this pretty set of underwear, and read what is written about them, and see if you can make a set for dolly.

The nightdress, chemise, flounced petticoat and the knickers are made of nainsook, and the plain petticoat of fine flannel.

You have a little article on page 83 telling you how to cut out the garments from paper patterns.

We will commence with the little nightdress. The seams of this are joined with what is called a run-and-fell seam. Lay the two edges to be joined over one another, placing the edge of the upper portion just below the edge of the under one, and run them together, about an eighth of an inch in from the upper edge. When you have finished running the seam, you turn the edge of the under portion over the upper edge, and fold the seam down flat and hem it (or fell it) along. This is shown in your illustration of the seam. The side you have hemmed is the wrong side of the seam.

When you have joined both the seams, make a half-inch hem round the bottom of the nightdress, and make the very tiniest of hems round the neck and sleeve edges.

To trim your night-gown you will want a little lace edging with a beading at the top that you can thread a piece of narrow ribbon through. Hem the edging along the hems you have made at the neck and sleeve edges, then thread in the ribbons with a bodkin, and draw them up to the size for dolly’s neck and wrists.

The chemise seams are joined in the same way as those of the night-gown, and narrow hems are placed round the neck and armhole edges, a little wider hem being put round the bottom of the chemise. Trim the neck and armholes with lace edging, as you did the night-gown, and draw up the neck only with ribbon.

In making the little petticoat you have only one seam to join up at the centre back. You can use a French seam for this, and to make this you run the edges to be joined together on the right side, then turn your work over and run the seam down a second time. I think the little picture will explain this quite clearly to you. The seam is shown being run the second time, and you will see how this covers up the raw edges and leaves you with a neat little double seam sticking out on the wrong side of your work. This seam will be useful when you want to make dolly frocks, etc., or anything where you don’t want to show any stitches on the right side of your work, and yet want it very neat on the wrong side.

Don’t join the back of the petticoat all the way up, but leave about two inches open at the top to form a placket. Make a narrow hem down each of the two edges of the opening on the wrong side, then place one hem over the other and backstitch them together across the bottom of the placket; this will make it firm, so that you won’t tear the seam when dressing dolly. When you want to backstitch, you start as you would for running, but only taking one stitch at a time, and for each stitch you put your needle back into the end of the stitch you have just made, so that you have a row of even stitches without any spaces between. I think the illustration will explain this to you. If you are going to trim your petticoat with a little embroidery flounce, you must turn a hem round it the same width as your flounce, then whip the top of flounce to the top of the hem. How to do whipping was described on page 60. The top of the petticoat is gathered and placed into a band the size for dolly’s waist; putting gathers into a band was described on page 4.

The petticoat is fastened with a button and buttonhole. If you do not yet know how to make a buttonhole, turn to page 6 for this. You have an illustration on this page showing how the button is put on. Use a small white linen button, make a little bar of threads across the centre, just working over and over through the button and the band, then bring your needle out at the left end of the bar of threads and work buttonhole stitches closely together along the bar. When you have worked to the other end, put your needle through the button and bring your cotton out between the button and the band, wind the cotton round four or five times, then put your needle down through the band and fasten off your cotton on the wrong side.

In joining up the little knickers you must first join each of the leg seams, then you join the two legs together from the front to the back, leaving a placket at the back as you did in making the petticoat. Finish the placket as before, then make a narrow hem round the top of the knickers, and thread a piece of tape through this to tie round dolly’s waist.

Gather the knee edges and place them into bands, and trim with a narrow lace or embroidery edging. Perhaps you will like to feather-stitch the bands; this stitch was described on page 7.

Now take the piece of flannel for your other petticoat. The seam of this has to be joined in a different way to the other garments you have been making. You first run the two edges to be joined evenly together, then fold them over and herring-bone the raw edges down flat. Herring-bone stitch is worked from left to right; you hold the edges of the seam down, and first take a little stitch below the edges, and then one just above, putting the stitches fairly close to each other so that the threads cross evenly. If you don’t feel quite sure of this stitch, take a small piece of flannel for practice and copy the little picture. Then, when you can work the stitch evenly, you can do your seam.

Place the top of the petticoat into a band and finish with a button and buttonhole. You will see that little pleats are made instead of gathers to bring the petticoat to the size of the band; the pleats set better in the flannel than gathers.

Finish the bottom of the petticoat with a hem and tuck. How to make a tuck was described on page 18.

The set of underwear illustrated was made for a doll 18 inches high, measuring from the top of the head to the sole of the foot. For this size set, about one yard of nainsook and a quarter of a yard of flannel will be sufficient. Two yards of lace edging, a yard of embroidery edging and two yards of bÉbÉ ribbon will also be needed.