Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- Juvenile fiction; Love stories; Women -- Juvenile fiction
"Sew it up as it is! I'm not sure that it won't look better, after all.
More Frenchy!" and Peggy pinned the odd pieces together, and smiled at
the effect with a complacency which left the other breathless with
astonishment. She seemed oblivious of the fact that she had made a
mistake, and utterly unconcerned at the prospect of wearing a garment in
which the pattern reversed itself in back and front. Such a state of
mind was inconceivable to the patient toiler, who rounded every corner
with her scissors as carefully as if an untoward nick meant destruction,
and pinned and repinned half-a-dozen times over before she could satisfy
herself of the absence of crinkles. Peggy was ready to be "tried on"
before Eunice had half finished the first process, and though she went
obediently at the first call, the ordeal was a painful one to all
concerned. Eunice was so nervous and ignorant that she dare hardly make
an alteration, for fear of making bad worse, while Peggy wriggled like
an eel, turning her head now over this shoulder, now over that, and
issued half-a-dozen contradictory orders at the same moment.
"The shoulder creases--put the pins in tighter! The back is too wide--
take a great handful out of the middle seam. Why does it stick out like
that at the waist, just where it ought to go in? Oh, the fulness, of
course, I forgot that. Leave that alone then, and go on to the neck.
Put pins in all round where the band ought to go."
"Tryings on" were numerous during the next few mornings; but, while
Eunice's blouse gradually assumed a trig and reputable appearance,
Peggy's developed each time a fresh set of creases and wrinkles.
Neither girl was experienced enough to understand that carelessly cut
and badly tacked material can never attain to a satisfactory result, nor
in truth did they trouble very much over the deficiency, for Peggy no
sooner descried a fault, than her inventive genius hit on a method of
concealing it. Revers, niches, and bows were tacked on with a
recklessness which made Eunice gasp with dismay, but she could not deny
that the effect was "Frenchy" and even artistic, for, whatever might be
Miss Peggy's shortcomings as a plain sew-er, she had a gift of graceful
draping which amounted almost to genius. After the first day's
experience Peggy had readily consented to her friend's plea for a week's
preparation, and well it was that she had done so, for it was five good
days before the bodices were sufficiently finished to allow the sleeves
to be taken in hand. Oh, those sleeves! Who would ever have believed
that it could be so difficult to fit such simple things, or to persuade
them to adapt themselves to holes expressly provided for their
accommodation? The girls spent weary hours turning, twisting, pleating
in, letting out, tacking, and untacking, until at length Peggy's long-
worn patience gave way altogether, and she vowed that not once again
should the blouse go on her back until she donned it for the evening's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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