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It was shortly after Loni's divorce that she became ill and went to stay for awhile with a girl friend. Her wardrobe was a simple one—mostly staunch cottons. No frills, nor furbelows—just neat. The friend had other ideas; she liked filmy lingerie and fluttery robes of soft materials. Never were two girls farther apart on the subject of wearing apparel!

Hearing that she was ill, Loni's ex-husband telephoned and asked to call. When he arrived, her friend, clad in a soft and lovely silk robe, answered the bell, then discreetly retired from the room. Her former husband's first words caught Loni off guard and set her wondering.

"Why," he said, "didn't you ever wear anything like that?"

Knowing that he was referring to the silk robe, Loni glanced down at her cotton pajamas, and well-laundered, but hardly new, plain cotton robe, and then and there made a vow. Never again would anyone say a thing like that to her. She would have the loveliest wardrobe of lingerie and lounging togs in town! She would make it herself. She'd show them. Temporarily, she completely forgot the financial problem.

She thought back to the time when, eight years of age, she wanted a new doll for Christmas and was told the family budget would not stand it. Undismayed, she completely redressed her old doll, using scraps of material she found around the house. Then, obtaining a long cardboard box, which formerly held macaroni, she lined it with a vivid pink, placed the newly dressed doll in the box and raffled it. Since it was so near Christmas, it was no problem getting the other children interested, and she wound up with enough nickels and pennies to buy a new doll, which she promptly dressed. Finding success so easy, she did this for several years, always assuring herself of a new doll for Christmas.

Remembering that she made all the doll clothes by hand, and decorated them with scraps of lace, and simple embroidery stitches, she felt sure the same method could be made to pay off with some very nice things for herself.

THE NEXT time Loni went shopping she forgot the practical side altogether—she was looking for glamour! Instead of buying a ready-made cotton robe, she shopped until she found a remnant sale, and bought a piece of soft, sheer cotton which cost her much less than a finished robe. This she took home and, using a simple pattern, cut the robe, stitched it by hand—with all seams finished on the inside. Then she monogrammed the pocket, fringed the ends of the belt with contrasting thread, and used the same thread to make a fine running stitch along the collar and the edge of the cuffs. Now she knew she had a robe that could not be bought in a specialty shop for less than ten times the cost of her material. What an accomplishment! But that only whetted her appetite for more. She practically haunted the stores for remnants.

However, even remnants cost money, so after she had completed several articles, she began showing them to friends. In a very short time she obtained enough orders to make her feel that this could be made a very profitable hobby, indeed. Friends came to her for suggestions. Often they brought old evening gowns, a partly worn silk dress, or even a silk blouse which had seen better days. These, she told them, were not worthless. From the old blouse she could make a dainty bra or two; from the dress, a lovely petticoat, and from the old evening gown of sheer material, an attractive bed jacket, or negligee, or even a matching gown and jacket.

Loni felt that if she had a spot on the main street—just a very tiny spot where she could display some of her garments, she could branch out. She spent many days looking for such a place, and one day, located just what she wanted. It was, of all things, a cubby-hole just behind a peanut stand, but it was in a wonderful location—and in less time than it takes to tell, she had completed arrangements with the peanut vendor to rent the tiny space to one side of the cubby-hole, in which a lot of empty boxes and miscellaneous objects were stored. She cleaned this up, put up a tiny display counter, and was ready for business. Though the setting was incongruous, the garments were so lovely, many stopped to look, and quite a few placed orders, and Loni was on her way!

SINCE THE competition is small—not many persons in these hustling, bustling days want to take time off from their various duties and amusements to sit down and sew a fine seam, as most girls did in grandmother's day—Loni feels that this is one hobby field which is not overcrowded, and there is an excellent chance for the girl who has the ingenuity and patience for this work.

Vacation time is an excellent time for the small town girl to start out on a hobby of this sort. In a couple of weeks, with consistent work, she can complete at least one display set; a housewife can do this work while listening to her radio. Having completed several garments, arrangements might be made with one of the stores in a non-competing field to display them in one corner of a store window. Or, the girl may pack and carry them to the homes of friends and display them there; and, of course, they can always be displayed in one's own home. Arrangements might be made with several girls to call at the same time for the showing.

In the large cities, opportunities are many. Vacation trips, showers, the planning of going-away-to-college wardrobes, the bride's trousseau, all offer possibilities. Rare is the girl who can turn down the chance to include at least one of these frilly, frothy garments in her wardrobe.

Loni says the girl who is just starting out will find the search for the right materials and trimming at a price she can afford to pay something of a treasure hunt. Her advice is, "Haunt all the sales. You can never tell where you might run across a bit of fine imported lace, too small to return to stock, which the storekeeper will part with for a song; or a few skeins of embroidery silk, or a small remnant of fine material for a few pennies.

"The secret is to locate the finest materials you can buy and, at the same time, keep your costs low. This will keep you on a continual shopping spree, but it is worth it. When I first started out, I ran across a small remnant of lace with two heavily embroidered flowers on it. I carefully cut around the flowers, appliqued them on each side of a soft negligee, near the shoulder, outlined the petals in tiny seed pearls and, for a comparatively small amount, produced a very elegant negligee which would have cost a small fortune in an exclusive specialty shop. Of course all the work was done by hand. That is what makes my lingerie so special—that, and the fact that I always try to personalize the garment, with a monogram, a name outlined in a running or chain stitch in contrasting color, etc."

Loni also says that substitutions are easy. If you find that fine imported lace is too expensive for the bottom of a petticoat, for instance, you can pleat a narrow piece of the material, use it for a ruffle, and run a chain stitch or outline stitch of pastel color along the top and bottom of the ruffle. Above that, on the petticoat, using the same thread, with a matching stitch outline the girl's. name, or even a favorite motto; or, perhaps, the customer's favorite flower. These are the personal touches which make the garment "different."

On the pocket, or across the front of a softly tailored bed jacket, or lounging jacket, the name of the girl's college (including even the year) can be outlined.

On trousseau garments, the girl's first name may be outlined in silk thread. Should it be a short name it could be spelled out in the girl's own handwriting, in very narrow fine lace and put on with tiny stitches.

Large bows of narrow lace splashed diagonally across one side of a petticoat, and caught in the center with a tiny silk (or even sheer cotton) rosebud, and a couple of very small leaves quickly fashioned from a narrow piece of pale green silk ribbon are also very effective.

Brassieres are a little tricky to make, but a worn, well-fitting bra can be carefully ripped apart and used as a pattern. Parts of a fine old silk blouse, white, cream, or soft pink or blue or even a nylon blouse which has seen better days, may be used as a foundation for the bra, and this may be covered with all-over lace—a very small remnant will do for this. When the bra is finished, it may be trimmed with small rosebuds and little ribbon bows, or edged with narrow lace, or even decorated with an outline of the girl's first name. The bras may be made in color; Loni finds that black lace with tiny pink rosebuds, sells very well, indeed.

ALL GARMENTS should be exceptionally well finished. Loni stresses this point particularly, and says all her garments are French-seamed; that is, the seam is finished off on the inside of the garment so that no raw edges of material are exposed. This, says Loni, will make the garment last much longer, and it will never pull out of shape.

Baby-sitters will find lingerie making an excellent way of killing two birds with one stone. In addition to being paid for baby-sitting, after they have put the babies to bed, they can take out their material and sew a fine seam or two. Loni finds this work almost as soothing as crocheting, and she says she has done considerable crocheting. In fact, when she first started on this hobby, and could not find the narrow fine lace she needed, for the price she could afford to pay, she simply crocheted enough of it for her purpose. However, now that her business has zoomed to such proportions, she can no longer afford the time to do this.

Should your business develop to the point that it will be impossible to make the garments by hand, don't resort to the machine, Loni warns. Instead, look around for one or two older persons who like to do fine hand-sewing and make arrangements with them to do all the seaming. This will leave you free to do the designing, trimming and finishing, and, after all, it is in the trimming that you can really let yourself go, and give the garment that personalized touch.

Little appliqued red silk or lightweight satin hearts splashed around the bottom of a petticoat, or one large red heart, with a bow of narrow white lace or ribbon; a tiny spray of forget-me-nots made in a simple running or chain stitch of blue and green on a garment intended as a birthday gift; or even a small embroidered replica of the state flower on a garment intended for a friend in another state, all make for the "personal" touch. The possibilities for trimming and decorating are endless. The inventive girl will never be at a loss for new ideas!

Never deliver a garment to a customer until it is as fine as you can possibly make it. This will quickly build up your reputation for exclusiveness and fine work—the sort of work one does not find in a mass-produced article.

Never miss an opportunity to display your garments. If you make an elegant robe, or a pair of pajamas for yourself, take advantage of every opportunity to show them off to your friends, and point out to them just what it is that makes them so very special—the sort of garment that cannot be duplicated in the stores. Show them the careful finishing, and impress them with the fact that this makes for longer wearing qualities.

You do not have to be concerned with style. You can develop your own style. A simple foundation pattern is all that is needed. After the garment is cut, carefully fitted and carefully put together, you can take it from there—let your imagination go, on the trimming—but give the customer an opportunity to express her preference if she has any, as to decoration. Anyone can learn the simple chain stitch, and a running stitch is nothing more or less than a fine basting stitch. These stitches are daintier than the heavily padded satin-stitch for monograms on filmy materials.

Never use heavy materials, unless a customer desires a special robe or pajamas for wear in a very cold climate. The filmy materials are so much more feminine-looking, and Loni has found that husbands really go for those lovely soft, clinging robes with "the dainty touch." She has sold many of them as birthday or anniversary presents for wives, to men who looked as staid as the absent-minded professor!

WHILE DEVELOPING her hobby, Loni worked at several jobs, mostly selling, at various stores and shops, and occasionally worked as a seamstress. Finally, her hobby began to consume more and more of her time—so much so that eventually she was spending more hours per week working on her hobby than on her regular job. It was then that she had to make a decision, and the hobby won out! She had built up a considerable demand for her garments, and her cubby hole beside the peanut stand had become much too small, so she found a spot to her liking in New Orleans' famed French Quarter and, about a year ago, opened her French handmade lingerie shop. Business is booming and Loni could not be happier! She has more than made good on her vow; she not only has one of the loveliest wardrobes (perhaps the most elegant in town), but is responsible for the inclusion of at least one of her "light and foamy as a cloud" articles of French lingerie in the wardrobes of many a sweet-girl-graduate, vacationer, or bride, throughout the United States—since much of her business, now, is done by mail.

METHODS FOR making these garments are not complicated. Anyone who makes her own or her children's clothes, and has sufficient patience for hand-needlework, can make them. But imagination is also a very necessary requirement, for imagination in trimming and decoration, is what makes these garments so special.

The pattern for a simple, short bed jacket may be obtained in any department store, but it is the trimming which makes it so unusual. The bed jacket requires 1½ yards of crepe, which may be obtained at a remnant shop for fifty-nine cents a yard, or for even less at a department store end-of-the-month remnant sale. Six yards of Valenciennes lace at six cents a yard; half of a twenty-five-cent bunch of tiny pink cotton or velvet forget-me-nots; 1¼ yards narrow black satin picoted ribbon, about fifteen cents; thread, ten cents; and a half yard of wide, black and white rayon embroidery, on black net, which was picked up at a lace remnant sale for fifty cents, brought the cost of materials for this garment to approximately $2.10, and and the jacket can be sold for $7.50.

After the jacket has been stitched together, the narrow Valenciennes lace is gathered and stitched all around the edges of the jacket, the narrow turnover collar and the ruffles at the edge of the sleeves. The embroidered designs, cut from the black net, are also edged with the narrow ruffled lace. One is then stitched flat to each side of the jacket, in front, about seven inches down from the shoulder seam. The third design is stitched onto the jacket, at the right side, about 3½ inches from the bottom. The top of this design is left open to form a small pocket. The jacket is closed at the neckline in front with a snap, and a tiny black bow of ribbon with a spray of forget-me-nots is stitched over this. At the wristline a tiny black ribbon bow with the forget-me-nots is also placed at the top of the ruffle. This completes the jacket.

For the top of a half-slip cream cotton lace can be used to the hip-line. Next, a ruffle of flesh-colored tulle is stitched to the lace to carry the slip to a point halfway between the hipline and the knees. A wide flounce of the flesh-colored tulle is then stitched to the bottom of the garment to bring it to the desired length. Another wide flounce of the tulle is stitched to the edge of the lace and allowed to fall over the intervening ruffle of tulle. Covering the line where the top ruffle is stitched to the lace, is a band of tulle ruching, and down the center of the ruching runs a narrow flesh-colored ribbon, knotted at intervals. This top ruffle is also edged at its bottom with a band of the ruching and ribbon, and at intervals all around the bottom edge of the top ruffle, flat bows of the ribbon are stitched. In the top-center of the top ruffle a large flat bow of the ribbon and a small bunch of velvet flowers form the decoration.

The customer's name, made of pale green sequins, is placed toward the left front side of the lace top. Sequins were used so that the name would glitter through a sheer dance frock. However, the monogram, name or flower decoration can be created from many different materials. While there is considerable work involved in this half-slip, it is not difficult to make, and is exquisite!

Materials needed are: one-half yard of cotton allover lace, costing about $1 in a remnant shop; 3½ yards tulle at sixty-nine cents a yard; bunch of tiny flowers, fifteen cents; five yards narrow flesh-colored ribbon, total twenty-five cents; sequins, fifteen cents; one yard one-inch flesh-colored satin ribbon for the belt, eight cents; slide-fastener, twenty-five cents; or a total of about $4.50. The half-slip can be sold for $20 or more, depending on the quality of materials used and the working time put into it. Using one flounce instead of two and omitting the flowers and sequins, will bring down the cost and the selling price of the garment.

A CHEMISE can be made of red lace trimmed with narrow black Valenciennes, for a daring but effective combination. Black lace garters may be decorated with a rosette of the narrow black lace, in the center of which is placed a rhinestone button, or a tiny bow of fur may be placed in the center of the rosette, and a single large rhinestone placed in the center of the fur bow. Scraps of lace, ribbon, and fur may be used for these garters, and a discarded pair of rhinestone earrings may be pried apart and used for decorations. The garters sell at $2.50 and up. A black lace bra, requires only one-half yard of black allover lace, 1½ yards of narrow pin ribbon and a small bunch of tiny velvet flowers. An old bra may be ripped apart and used for a pattern. Shoulder straps are of one-half-inch black ribbon. The bra sells for $3.50 and up, depending on materials used and time required for workmanship.

If you feel you must cut expenses to meet the requirements of your clientele, you can always resort to putting your garments together on the machine, doing the finishing and trimming by hand. However, Loni prefers the garment entirely made by hand.

WHILE YOU, the hobbyist, may never reach the stage where you might like to open a shop, you can still develop an excellent business right in your own home. The longer you work at this hobby, the easier it becomes, and you will find yourself turning out the articles faster and faster, while keeping your work up to the highest standard. While stress has been placed on the sales value of this hobby, the gift angle is not to be overlooked. What girl or woman would not like to receive a dainty piece of handmade lingerie as a gift, particularly if it is personalized?—and, if one is a good shopper, the cost of materials and trimming can be almost negligible.