The Making of a Trade School Part 6

2. New principles: (1) Flat fell--shaped and bias edges on princess ap.r.o.ns and drawers. (2) French seam--shaped edges in petticoat seams. (3) Loops--on petticoats and dressing sacques. (4) Hems--shaped edges in gored skirts, princess ap.r.o.ns and nightgowns, baby slips and children's dresses. (5) Overhanding--pieces on nightgowns, piecing ruffles and lace on underwear. (6) Plackets--faced in drawers, petticoats, bloomers, and dress skirts.

(7) Bias band--applying to top of ruffle in petticoats and drawers.

(8) Bias binding--corset cover and nightgown. (9) Ruffle--finishing with bias bands on petticoat and drawers. (10) Cuffs--making and applying to nightgowns, baby slips, rompers, and house dresses. (11) Sleeves--gathering on wrong side and putting into baby slips, nightgowns, dressing sacques, etc. (12) Pressing. (13) Sewing hooks and eyes on petticoats. (14) Machine instruction in cleaning, oiling, and attachments.

3. List of articles made for stock and order: Ap.r.o.ns--princess, maids', fancy. Women's clothes--dressing sacques, nightgowns, kimonos, lounging robes, house dresses, chemises, drawers, skirts (washable, mohair, silk), collars, and corset covers. Children's clothes--nightdresses, night drawers, drawers, skirts, rompers, dresses, and ap.r.o.ns.

4. Materials used: Cotton, silk, woolen, and worsted.

II. Vocational Section. The increasing demand for ready-made clothing has opened a new field for girls obliged to enter the business world as soon as the law will permit them to leave school. This requires hand finishing on fancy waists and plain and fancy gowns, which are made by the dozens on machines run by electric power. It is not necessary to have a knowledge of actual dressmaking to be able to do this work. The ability to do good handwork rapidly is the prerequisite. In some establishments there are opportunities for girls of ability to rise from finisher to draper, which latter position commands a high wage.

The producing of fine, handmade underwear, waists, and dresses is another opportunity for girls who can take but a short time in which to prepare to earn their living. Work of this character is of a much higher grade than that of the wholesale finishing, and demands the ability to do extremely good hand and machine work. The worker must be able to handle the finest kind of materials and to do the most intricate work, such as hand tucking, setting in lace, and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs.

Although the course in the Vocational Section trains for specific branches, it is very necessary that all dressmaking students should have experience in these lines in order to be better prepared for the actual dressmaking. If, however, a girl has the ability to do the work of these cla.s.ses, she is allowed to skip either one or both of them.

Course of work in the Shop for Gymnasium and Swimming Suits: The students are drilled for one or two months in putting garments together, st.i.tching, and finishing. As but two kinds of garments are made, speed is acquired and a certain amount of accuracy is gained through much repet.i.tion. Definite arrangements have been made through wholesale houses for the disposition of the product. The materials are furnished by the school. The price is that of trade.

(1) Articles: Swimming suits (patented), bathing suits, and gymnasium suits. (2) Materials used: Cotton, wool, worsted.

Course of work in White Work Cla.s.s: The previous training having been a general one for accuracy, speed, and the mastery over mind and hand, attention is now given for two and one-half or three months to fine detail work and the handling and keeping fresh and clean of the daintiest of cotton goods. The materials are furnished by the school and the work is sold to customers at trade prices.

(1) Principles: Hand-tucking, rolling and whipping, mitering corners, overhanding tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, inserting lace and embroidery by hand and machine, fine featherst.i.tching, and white hand embroidery. (2) Garments for stock and order; fine underwear, waists, and baby clothes. (3) Material used: cotton.

III. Trade Section--The Business Shop. Trade demands skilled workers, and preference is given to those who have had practical training. The trade section aims to add experience to skill by offering the students the actual work and conditions demanded in the outside market. The general scheme is the one in use in moderate-sized dressmaking establishments.

The workroom has its tables devoted to separate kinds of work, the students obtain a definite amount of knowledge from each experience, and pa.s.s from one to the other as rapidly as their ability to grasp the principles will permit. Each division is in charge of an instructor with practical trade experience, who prepares and supervises the work and also does the skilled parts which the students, on account of their lack of experience, are unable to do.

The girls are not taught cutting, fitting, and draping, as trade would not permit a sixteen-year-old girl to attempt this work on account of her lack of judgment and experience; but they have the opportunity to see and a.s.sist in the preparation of work. No girl in the trade shop will make a complete garment, but she will have worked upon all parts many times.

Custom orders supply the shop with work. The customers are interviewed, measurements are taken, estimates are given, and dates for fittings are planned. The information obtained is recorded upon blanks prepared for the purpose. The materials are purchased, the garments cut, and the different parts (skirts, waists, sleeves) are delivered to the tables where such work is done. Blanks are provided for the recording of all materials used for customers' work, and from these the bills are made out in the main office. Stock is obtained from the storerooms on signed requisitions only. The stock clerk measures and delivers the materials and notes the amount withdrawn on each package.

Course in Dressmaking Shop:

1. Linings: Waist (practice materials): basting, st.i.tching, pressing, binding, boning (whalebone, featherbone); hooks and eyes; facing; overcasting.

2. Shirtwaists and nurses' uniforms: Covering rings; making shirtwaist cuff; making shirtwaist placket; putting on neckbands.

3. Skirts: Petticoats or drop skirts for; basting, st.i.tching, pressing; seams, bands, plackets; tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, pinning, putting on band.

4. Trimmed skirts: Slip st.i.tching; milliner's and flat folds; covering b.u.t.tonholes; binding, shirring, cording, tucking, piping, facing, braiding.

5. Trimmed waists: Application of principles; experience in making and applying tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and handling delicate or perishable materials.

6. Trimmed sleeves: Application in general knowledge and experience in applying tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs.

7. Garments made in the shop: Shirtwaists, fancy dressing sacques and wrappers; nurses' and maids' uniforms; dancing dresses; elaborate waists; street, afternoon, and evening gowns; tailored suits.

8. Materials used: All varieties of cotton, linen, silk, woolen, and worsted dress fabrics; chiffon, mousseline, and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of all kinds.

IV. Results of training. A change in the general appearance of the girls is soon apparent, for which ability to make their own clothes and the refining influence of the doing of good work on good materials is probably responsible. The elements of good order, obedience, thoughtfulness, judgment, self-control, industry, and thrift are fostered, and every effort is put forth to make intelligent workers.

The fact that on entering trade the girls from the Trade School receive nearly double the salary given untrained girls indicates that they are fitted for the outside workrooms.

V. Departmental relations. The emphasis which the Academic and Art Departments have laid upon accuracy, careful work, appreciation of measurements, distances, color, and form has been of great value to the students in the Dressmaking Department. The Operating Department has also been of service in training some of the students to work on special machines, thus enabling them to make dress decoration. The use of the electric power machine in custom dressmaking establishments is on the increase.

VI. Trade relation. The department is kept in close touch with trade conditions through personal visits, through the houses which purchase its output, and through those from whom the stock is bought. Many opportunities to purchase materials at reduced rates have been secured through the kindly interest of the trade.

An advisory board, composed of business men and women, has been appointed to pa.s.s judgment upon the scheme of work, the standard and quality of work, and the cost and market value of the products.

MILLINERY DEPARTMENT

Aim

The aim of the Millinery Department is to train a.s.sistants, improvers, frame makers, and preparers for wholesale and custom workrooms.

Short Course

When this department was first opened the scope of the work for the day cla.s.ses was much more extended and included training for copyists, designers, and milliners. The curtailing of the course to more elementary preparation was brought about by a feeling of dissatisfaction with this trade for the young, untrained, or partly skilled workers.

Close and continued contact with millinery shops showed that for young wage-earners a small, initial wage and a not very rapid rise are usual; that a short, irregular, seasonal engagement is almost inevitable; that a long experience is needed before even the trained girl can rise to the higher positions; that young workers become discouraged and are apt to drop the trade altogether, even for lower wages, if they can obtain steady work in another occupation. As it was the fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl who came for the instruction, it was better for her to be well trained as an a.s.sistant than to detain her at the school for a more advanced position which she would probably not be allowed to take on account of her youth and inexperience. Students in this department need to be watched with especial care to determine whether they are well adapted for their occupation, and the mediocre worker would better enter some other field where the opportunities for her are more encouraging. As the advance is slow the girl also whose poverty is hurrying her into wage-earning would better not elect this work.

The night cla.s.ses which have been offered at the school gave training in the more advanced lines of millinery. The day cla.s.ses are also prepared to do so whenever older workers feel they can give time for the instruction.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION

Length of course: Six months.

1. Practice: Shirring, tucking, cording, rolled hem, plain fold, milliner's fold, and cutting and joining bias pieces.

2. Making and covering buckles and b.u.t.tons; wiring ribbons and laces; making hat linings and wiring hats.

3. Bandeaux: Wire, capenet, and buckram.

4. Wire frame construction from dimensions and models; making frames of buckram, capenet, and stiff willow.

5. Covering frames with crinoline, capenet, mull, maline, and soft willow.

6. Facings: Plain, shirred, and in folds.

7. Bindings: Stretch, puff, and rolled.

8. Plateaux: Plain and fancy.

9. Making hats of straw, silk, chiffon, maline, and velvet.

10. Sewing tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs on hats and sewing linings in hats.

11. Renovating: Ribbon, velvet, lace, feathers, flowers.

12. Machine work: Plain st.i.tching, tucking, shirring, bias strips st.i.tched on material.