If it’s one of those cool woven skirts, it really should be lined.

Edna just completes the lining as if the lining were a half-slip, leaving the placket open. Mark the darts as in the skirt.

Then when joining the skirt and lining at the waist, with wrong sides together, press the skirt darts toward the center and the lining darts toward the sides. This is of course to even out the bulk.

Then put the zipper in the skirt fabric only, later stitching (by hand) the lining’s edge to the edge of the zipper tape. Now she just joins the lining to the skirt at the waist and puts the waistband on.

Edna said she had been told so many times that to keep thread from tangling as you sew by hand, just knot each thread separately. She found it worked on some thread but not on others — why we don’t know. I’ve had the same experience. The way it is wound on the spool I suppose — as it does seem that the cheaper threads tangle more easily than the polyester-wrapped threads. So perhaps it pays to buy the better quality threads. It makes sense to me.

I also have another hint that works for me. Just fold a sheet of fabric softener, then before you knot the thread pull it through the sheet a couple of times.

I like to read Guideposts magazine, it’s so “all of us.” In there I once found and clipped this little jewel, spoken by an old veteran of the news force, Hugh Downs. He said, “A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.”

Until next week, God Bless you now.

— Aunt Norie, P.0. Box 265 Tonganoxie 66086; auntnorie@bdc.net