DRESSMAKERS AND SEAMSTRESSES
The head of a dressmaking department in a large store in a city, when
asked how she prepared herself for her position, told this story. "I never
took any lessons; but I had always made my own dresses and my sisters'.
I remember walking down the street of the little town where I lived, one
day after my father died, and as I passed the door of the best dressmaking
shop in the town, it occurred to me that the man in charge of the store
had often said that he would gladly pay me good wages if I would work for
him. I made up my mind while passing his shop that day that I would not
work for him, but that I would open a dressmaking establishment of my own.
I did so, and it succeeded from the first. After a few years I thought I
should like to move to the city. I applied for the position here and was
appointed."
A second instance shows how a girl may have ability which she has not at
first understood how to use. In this case the girl was anxious to enter
another occupation. She wished to be a painter and had studied for some
years both in Canada and abroad. Needing to earn some money, she found
that she could sell dress designs to a manufacturing establishment, but
there was not a large demand for such work in the city where she lived.
Accordingly, she and another girl, also an artist, took a studio in a city
which was a centre of fashions, and together they worked on dress designs
for exclusive shops. They both had some money saved, and one of the girls
had a small, regular income. The first girl proved to have a very rare
sense of colour and design. It is now her work to make colour combinations
and provide the ideas for original designs, while the second girl, who is
a good draughtsman, executes the coloured drawings. These girls are now
recognized as two of the best costume designers in the city where they are
working.
It is apparent, then, that the girl with good eyesight, clever hands, and
a fine sense of colour and form, is likely to be a success as a dressmaker.
But how is she best to prepare herself for her chosen occupation? She
should practise sewing, either by hand or machine. She should cultivate
steady application to such work, and she should not object to spending a
good part of her time indoors. She should have a certain amount of taste
and some ingenuity in carrying out her own ideas or the ideas of others.
Manual skill, originality, and artistic ability are required by the
successful dressmaker. The girl who means to make dresses for others,
should, herself, dress quietly and in good taste.
If the girl is able to continue at school and has a natural gift for
dressmaking, the best way for her to learn her trade is to spend some
years at a technical school. Here she will be taught sewing in all its
phases--fitting, finishing, designing, the choice and use of materials,
and the business details of dressmaking. The dressmaker cannot learn her
trade once for all and go on repeating operations which do not require
originality. Styles change, and season by season she will have to adapt
and carry out alterations in fashion which will tax all her ability.
If she cannot give more than two years to learning her trade in school,
she is still at a great advantage when she enters a dressmaking
establishment. She will understand all the different processes and will
be able to work in the various sections, thus gaining far more rapidly
in experience than if she had had everything to learn from the beginning.
Actual trade experience will teach her a great deal. If, however, she is
obliged to leave school at fourteen, she should at least have had the
advantage of the instruction in sewing which is given in the public
schools. It is probable that she may be obliged, when she enters a
dressmaking establishment, to act as a messenger girl. She should make
sure, however, that she is not used for running messages only. It would be
better for her to accept less pay, with the understanding that she is to
be taught the details of dressmaking, than to earn more money and have no
opportunity to learn. The more she tries to understand and imitate the work
of experienced dressmakers, the better will be her training. The custom of
having apprentices has fallen rather into disuse, and the girl will find
the learning of her trade left largely to her own initiative. As soon as
she begins to have some skill in the operations of the workroom, she should
attend evening classes in sewing, fitting, finishing, and designing. She
should wait, however, until she is sixteen or seventeen before she attends
these classes. While she is learning from other dressmakers, she will have
sufficient work for a few years.
The first work she will be given to do will be finishing the underside
of dresses, felling and binding, sewing on buttons, pulling out basting
threads, and working button-holes. After this, the younger workers begin
to specialize in skirt-making, waist-draping and waist-finishing.
The designing and cutting are the work of a head dressmaker. There are
also sleeve makers and their helpers, embroiderers, and collar makers.
One of the younger workers is called the shopper and is sent to wholesale
and retail establishments to buy furnishings, trimmings, and materials of
various kinds.
The working hours in large establishments are eight, eight and a half, and
nine hours. Smaller businesses have hours from eight to six o'clock.
Dressmaking is somewhat seasonal, and the dressmaker must reckon, to some
extent, on slack time. Generally speaking, there are two dull months in
summer and one in winter.
A messenger girl may begin at from five to eight dollars a week.
A dressmaker who does machine work and who does not specialize in other
work, may earn ten dollars a week. Other wages range, according to the
worker's ability and the work she can do, from twelve to fifteen, and from
sixteen to eighteen dollars. Head dressmakers who cut out and design,
receive salaries of thirty dollars a week in large establishments, less in
smaller establishments. In somewhat rare cases a head dressmaker is paid
more than thirty dollars a week.
The experienced dressmaker, who is at the same time a good business woman,
may conduct an establishment of her own which will bring her in anything
from one thousand to six thousand a year and over. But she must be able to
manage matters of capital and credit, understand buying, and succeed in
winning the favour of her clients. Custom dressmaking is being increasingly
limited to high-class and exclusive work. The small and highly specialized
dressmaking factory is affecting the custom trade. Girls, therefore, who
are thinking of dressmaking as an occupation, should examine opportunities
in the exclusive factory, since this branch of the industry is becoming
increasingly important.
Another department of dressmaking to which no reference has yet been made
in this chapter is the work of the seamstress who sews by the day in the
homes of her employers. If she is really a competent dressmaker, her
employment is assured. But it is a mistake for a girl or young woman
without training or experience, or without a dressmaker's gifts, to
undertake dressmaking by the day. A dressmaker--to define the term--is one
who understands cutting, fitting, and making dresses sufficiently well to
undertake the occupation as a trade. A girl should be at least eighteen or
twenty before she becomes a day seamstress. In this work she is on her own
responsibility and is handling goods of some value, so that she needs
judgment as well as knowledge. The rates of payment are from a dollar and
seventy-five cents to two dollars and a half a day, meals included.
Sometimes the home dressmaker may be paid even three dollars or more a day,
but in this case she must be quick, and her work must be exceptionally well
done. The ordinary seamstress should be a neat sewer and should know how
to fit, but she is not expected to design or to make elaborate costumes.