DRESSMAKING AT HOME.
By SYLVIA.
A Nightingale or Bed
Jacket.
Now that so many of our brave fellows are unfortunately in
hospital, wounded more or less seriously, the demand for articles for their use
when under treatment is very great. As
some of the cases are serious, and the men are unable to wear ordinary
garments, owing to wounds, which make it difficult or, perhaps, impossible to
move the arm, the garment which is always associated with its inventor, the
woman to whom our splendid nursing system is due, Florence Nightingale, is the
one generally favoured.
The wrap, known as a "Nightingale," is one of the
simplest possible to make up, but one of the most suitable and comfortable possible
for the purpose for which it is designed. It is sketched in No. 1,847, with the addition
of a pocket, which will add to its utility where a masculine wearer is
intended, though the wrap can be worn by invalids of the other sex, and I know
one now—a Belgian refugee— who is experiencing the comfort of such a gift, and
was loud in praise of the comfort and practicality of a garment she had never
seen before.
To Make Up.
Simplicity of the most extreme kind characterises the
making-up of the wrap, which consists of one long strip, pleated in a box-pleat
midway of its length, which comes to the centre of the back. The corners of the
length are secured together for a few inches to form cuffs, the point of the
corner being turned up to give a smartening touch to the wrap, which is merely
hemmed all round and ornamented with feather-stitching, or binding if
preferred.
The collar is an addition which gives a more finished
effect, and possibly a more masculine touch to the wrap, and this must be put
on afterwards. In the original design,
however, this detail is usually omitted. As to materials, flannel and flannelette are
those selected either in red, khaki colour, or grey, and homespun in the latter
shade makes a very useful wrap for hospital purposes. The making, as I have said, is of the simplest,
and about 2¾ yards of material will be needed for a full-sized wrap.
[There are frequent mentions of nightingales in lists of garments made by volunteer groups for hospital, and in Red Cross appeals, but this is the only description I have seen of the garment. It is, as Sylvia says, extremely simple to make. There was a pattern that readers could send off for, but a pattern hardly seems necessary.]
I was intrigued by the source of this article, named as the Brecon County Times from 1915. The local paper in Brecon, which was my mother's home town, is the Brecon and Radnor Gazette (I think) and the county was always until recent years, known as Brecknockshire.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the Brecon County Times - the Brecon and Radnor Gazette was also being published during the First World War. I imagine that the Brecon County Times disappeared later - there were a lot of local papers published all over the country at that time.
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