Limits of time and space have only allowed me to touch the fringe of a
fascinating and useful subject; but the frequent conferences of teachers
now being held in different centres, and the new suggestions of the
Board of Education are stimulating so much interest and discussion that
I feel that the educational teaching of needlework in its broad sense in
England has a cheerful future. There is already much excellent teaching
and work done in some of the trade schools in London as well as in a few
of its elementary schools, and others elsewhere, which leaves little to
be desired from many points of view.
Apart from the modern educational treatment of needlecraft and
dressmaking, though arising directly from it, are the unquestioned
advantages which may result to any woman of whatever rank or social
position who is willing to devote, in the first instance, a little time
and intelligence to mastering a few elementary principles introductory
to their practical application, either by herself or by any one in her
employment, to the cutting and making of her own garments from direct
measurement, modified by measurements of individual carriage or
conformation.
When these modifications are clearly understood, the proving of the flat
pattern on the table after drafting should produce a well-shaped and
correct lining, without the misery of standing for hours in the ordinary
way to be "fitted on." If finer touches are needed, they are of the
nature of "moulage," or modelling; the different parts of the pattern
retain their balance and relative proportions, and the length of the
operation is much shortened.
The majority of women, especially when past youth, are not so happy as
to possess the theoretically perfectly balanced and well-proportioned
figure which has been so successfully adopted by the best business
houses as the basis for cutting high-class ready-made garments. Happy
indeed is the woman who can "walk straight into them" without the
offered "slight alteration" which so often spoils the cut and brings
bitter disappointment to the wearer. There are few women who have not
groaned under the waste of time and fatigue entailed by being "fitted
on" under the hands of the "little dressmaker," or for that matter under
hands of much greater pretension, with no idea of principles in cutting,
who pinch and drag and smooth down by rule-of-thumb, producing garments
without balance or ease, whose faults may be disguised by trimming or
drapery, but whose discomfort is always present to the wearer.
Women have in fact so long submitted to this tyranny of rule-of-thumb in
dress-cutting, as inseparate from it, that, as is their nature, they
continue to endure what they think cannot be cured. Nevertheless, the
discomforts and uncertainties of this rule-of-thumb misery may be
entirely eliminated, and it is for the modern woman to demand and insist
upon its elimination.
Let me especially recommend to ladies possessing the invaluable
qualities in this connection of taste and style in dress, who may be
thinking of taking up dressmaking as a profession, that as an important
preliminary step they should master the principles of a good method of
cutting. Let them make sure that the method can lay claim to this
description; that it is reliable and not altogether empirical. Thus they
will render themselves to some extent independent of the possible
vagaries and misfits of their cutters and workers. The excellent courses
of instruction now carried on in the trade schools already referred to
should ere long create a supply of well-trained young women who will do
their best work under an instructed head, and will be able to carry out
intelligently her ideas and directions. Under such conditions there
should be no room for failure in a business of this kind. As a result,
the arts of needlecraft and of dressmaking will be raised to the plane
of scientific certainty and success which is their due, instead of
remaining at the often low level of the unorganised, empirical and
inartistic occupations--a frequent source of financial disaster to their
exponents and of perennial vexation to the helpless victims of their
products.