Sew-In Interfacing: Cotton Shrunk Overnight Before Cutting

The cloth basted inside a collar or coat front to give it body is only useful if it has been shrunk first: otherwise, as Butterick's New Dressmaker (1921) warns, it "will shrink on the first damp day and will draw in and wrinkle the coat". This is the book's sponging method: roll the cloth up with a damp muslin overnight, press it dry, then cut it by the pattern. Butterick names soft canvas, cotton serge or cambric for wool, and butchers' linen, cambric or muslin for linen; ours is cotton muslin. The picture: the book's Ill. 102.