It seems odd in these days to remember all the strings and buttons with which clothes used to be fastened. Doing up one’s buttons was an achievement in early youth, and buttoned boots a storm centre round which many a battle raged between nurse and infant. And now, except as an ornament, a button is a rarity, and the place of strings equally has been taken by a zipper or by that ubiquitous material elastic.
Elastic has extraordinary labour-saving quantities, and it has also much improved in texture in recent years. It is at once pliable and strong, and it does not give, as did formerly the sides of elastic-sided boots. At the same time it needs treating properly.
Where suspenders are concerned only the very best elastic should be used, and it should be very frequently cleaned, especially when it is used for belts and is liable to be affected by heat from the body. As a rule a mere belt, if properly made, is more comfortable than the half-stay variety, and it should have pieces of very strong elastic let in at intervals round it, so that it has plenty of give everywhere.
Where elastic is used for keeping up knickers it should never, all advice to the contrary, be sent to the wash. This applies all the more to garments that have to be boiled. The best plan is to put two small buttons on the waist hem of the knickers in front, take a piece of elastic of the required length with a loop at each end, thread it, and put a loop over each button. When the knickers are washed the elastic takes out quite easily and can as easily be put back. This prevents the disagreeable stage when the elastic has sagged, but not quite enough to warrant its replacement.
A safety bathing suit
A most amusing novelty is a lifebelt bathing-dress which is intended for sea bathing and also for wearing on sea voyages as an undergarment. From under the arms to above the waist the garment is made double, and inside this part is a double lining of rubber with a tube sufficiently long for the wearer to be able to blow up or deflate the garment herself when in wear. It does not produce symmetry of form, but, on the other hand, might be welcomed by those who shrink from exposing themselves in a modern bathing-dress.
