A dress not fitting well is so uncomfortable that what I can write to help young beginners in the art of making a dress fit well, I hope will be of use to many. When you put a body on the figure, do not drag it first right and then left. I can assure you dragging or pulling will ever make a dress fit well; neither will pinning it as tight as ever you can to the figure answer either the plan of putting a piece of holland on the figure; and then making the pleat is very difficult for beginners. I think it requires an even eye and long practice to make a graceful pleat or pleats. My plan is this, that all who will attempt dressmaking should have at least six different size paper patterns with pleats already made in them, so that you can cut out your body by one and then tack it together and place it on the figure; the shoulder and under the arm are the principal places to let a body out or take it in. You will now ask me how you are to know which pattern will fit Mrs. Brown or which will fit Mrs. Jones? You must measure your paper pattern on the party you are going to fit. Let the lady keep her dress on while you are measuring your pattern down the shoulder seam, under the arm seam, down front and back seam, and back seam, and across the chest from are seam to arm seam; the same with the back. If one pattern is too large or too small, try another; practice and industry will soon make you quite perfect. It is a good plan to keep two or three sizes made up ready to fit on; but I should wish you to measure quite a dozen figures before you venture to place a body on that you think will fit. A really clever dressmaker knows very nearly what body will fit before she puts it on. The taking the size of the waist is the least important part of your body. I find most fault in young beginners not placing the bosom pleats right; the pleats should not be carried high over the bosom. Any one wishing to fit well must consider whether the bosom is high or low; if low, the length from the seam on the shoulder to the bosom pleats will be longer than for another body whose bosom lies high; so many would not be complaining of the dress being tight across the chest if this part of the body was more attended to; the changes are often occasioned by stays driving the human figure. Now and then you meet with a lady who lets her figure remain in its natural position, and then you will find a difference in the fitting; a figure of this kind requires more than all others to be well fitted, and certainly no pulling will make it set well. A figure braced in stiff stays will remain as you fit it; but our natural figure, being elastic, requires the dress body to move with, and yet fit well.