SUMMARY OF REPORT ON DRESSMAKING AND MILLINERY
At the time of the last census the total number of women in Cleveland
employed as milliners or dressmakers was approximately 5,000, of whom
about seven-tenths were dressmakers and about three-tenths milliners.
For the most part they were of native birth. The proportion of young
girls engaged in these occupations was relatively small, the age
distribution showing that only about one-third of the milliners and
less than one-fifth of the dressmakers were under 21 years of age.
DRESSMAKING
Four distinctive lines of work are done by those who are classified by
the census as dressmakers and seamstresses: dressmaking proper,
usually carried on in shops; alteration work in stores; general sewing
done by seamstresses at home or in the homes of customers; and the
work of the so-called dressmaking "school," in which the dressmaker
helps her customers do their general sewing.
Shop dressmaking is in the main confined to the making of afternoon
and evening gowns and fancy blouses. Nearly uniform processes of work
are maintained and the workers in the different establishments need
about the same kinds of abilities and degrees of skill. There is a
strong and increasing tendency towards specialization of the work.
Among each 100 workers in dressmaking shops about 13 are head girls,
55 are finishers or makers, 16 are helpers, eight are apprentices, and
the rest are lining makers, cutters, embroiderers, errand girls,
shoppers, and stock girls.
Alteration work constitutes a separate sewing trade and consists of
the adjustment of ready-made garments to individual peculiarities. It
furnishes employment to several hundred workers in Cleveland.
The weekly wages most commonly paid to each class of workers in
dressmaking shops may be roughly stated as follows: apprentices, $2 to
$4; helpers $6 to $9; finishers or makers $10 to $12; and drapers $18
to $20. Lining making, done in most shops by apprentices or helpers,
pays from $4 to $6 a week. In one shop a specialist on linings
received $12. Women cutters, found in two shops, and doing supervisory
work similar to that done by drapers, earned from $15 to $25.
Hemstitchers earn $10 to $14 and a guimpe maker in one shop earned
$12. Errand girls were found at $3 and $6; stock girls at $8, $12, and
$13; and shoppers at from $3.50 to $10.
Beginners in alteration departments are started at from $5 to $7.
Regular alteration hands earn from $7 to $18, the average being $9 or
$10. Fitters earn about the same as drapers in dressmaking shops,
averaging from $15 to $18, with a range of from $10 to $25.
As a rule comparatively little time is lost through irregularity of
employment. Workers average from 10 to 11 months' work out of the
year. Establishments usually close during the month of August and for
one or two weeks in the spring. Workers in alteration department
average 11 months of work. Dress alteration work is steady, while suit
and coat alteration is irregular.
Apprenticeship in dressmaking comprehends a trying-out period of from
six months to a year. Most shops take apprentices, the proportion in
the trade being one to every 12 workers; and an effort is made to keep
these new workers if they are at all satisfactory. There is no
standardized apprenticeship wage. Girls may serve without pay for six
months, or may start at from 50 cents to $4 a week. At the end of six
months they may be earning from $1.50 to $6. The lack of any wage
standard in apprenticeship probably accounts for the fact that it is
difficult to get girls to enter this trade.
MILLINERY
Millinery requires the handling of small pieces of the most varied
sorts of material, most of it perishable. The materials must be
measured, cut, turned, twisted, and draped into innumerable designs
and color combinations, and sewed with various kinds of stitching.
The main processes are making, trimming, and designing. Making
consists in fashioning a specified shape from wire or buckram and
covering it with such materials as straw or velvet. The covering may
be put on plain, or may be shirred or draped. Trimming consists in
placing and sewing on all sorts of decorative materials. A combination
of the two processes of making and trimming, known as copying,
consists in making a hat from the beginning exactly like a specified
model. Designing is the creation of original models.
The increase in the use of the factory-made hat has decreased the
number of workers in custom millinery, and has also had an effect in
diverting business from small retail shops to millinery departments in
stores. The number of millinery workers constantly fluctuates, not
only from season to season, but from year to year. According to a
close estimate not more than 2,000 workers were actually engaged in
millinery occupations during the busiest part of 1915. Between 1,200
and 1,400 were in retail shops; about 300 were in millinery
departments in stores; and about 300 more were in wholesale houses.
The data collected indicate that the wages of workers in retail shops
are lower in general than the wages of workers in millinery
departments in stores and in wholesale houses. Makers in retail shops
earn from $3 to $16 a week, the average being about $8. Trimmers earn
from $10 to $40, with an average of about $18. Out of 45 retail
shops, only 22 paid as high as $10 to any maker; 15 paid as high as
$12; six paid as high as $15; and only one paid over $15.
In millinery departments in stores, trimmers, who are generally
designers, earn from $15 to $50 a week or more. The rate most commonly
received is $25. Makers are started at from $4 to $6 and may advance
to $15, with an average of about $10.
In wholesale houses designers earn from $25 to $60, or more. Makers
start at about $5, and the usual range is from $10 to $15. Those
employed in straight copying may earn between $15 and $20. The 1914
report of the Industrial Commission of Ohio presents data showing that
of the women 18 years of age and over employed in wholesale houses 37
per cent receive under $8, about 22 per cent receive between $8 and
$12, while 41 per cent receive $12 and over. The girls under 18 years
of age were, with one exception, receiving less than $4 per week.
Employment in retail shops averages about 32 weeks during the year; in
the millinery departments of stores from 32 to 42 weeks; and in
wholesale houses about 40 weeks. The proportion of workers employed
the year round is very small. The majority of millinery workers are
faced with the problem of tiding themselves over two dull seasons,
aggregating from 12 to 28 weeks each year.
The millinery apprenticeship period lasts for two seasons of 12 weeks
each. Almost all retail shops take apprentices in large numbers, there
being one apprentice to every three or four workers in the trade. Few
apprentices are found in stores and wholesale houses. The
apprenticeship wage is extremely low. The usual rate is $1 a week
during the first season and from $1.50 to $2 during the second.
THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING
The needs of girls who are soon to leave school and go to work can
best be met by a modification of the junior high school course and by
the establishment of a one-year trade school for girls. Before a
re-organization of the junior high school work is made to meet the
needs of these girls an effort should be made to reduce retardation so
that more girls will reach the junior high school before the end of
the compulsory attendance period. The present courses should be
reorganized so as to give basic preparation for wage earning and
should be as concrete and real as a thorough understanding of the
requirements of the gainful occupations can make them. Thorough sewing
courses planned from the standpoint of the sewing trades should be
offered, extending over two years. The program suggested closely
resembles that recommended for the garment trades.
It is also recommended that a one-year trade school be established for
preparing girls to enter employment in dressmaking and millinery. The
history of trade schools for girls, both private and public, indicates
that such a school, if properly conducted, would be highly successful
in Cleveland.
The classes in sewing and millinery in the evening technical high
schools do not offer trade-extension training for workers and it is
not likely that they could be easily reorganized to furnish such
training. It is recommended that if a trade school is established in
Cleveland, short unit courses in sewing and related subjects, such as
design, be given in evening classes.