When your mother was a little girl, often seamstresses stayed in the house for a week to outfit the family each year. Then the inside of a dress was just as finished as the outside. Those seamstresses took pains to finish each seam so that they could be sure it wouldn't ravel. Recent graduate research at Iowa State has taken guesswork out of seam finishing. Findings will mean no more unnecessary sewing or hopelessly raveled seams for the modern dressmaker.