Denim

“ The women across the room were busy examining the rolls of blue and brown denim that Wise Olaf’s Kaisa displayed upon the counter, and had been chattering together busily. The summer was a good one, and they could buy extra yards. ”

“ The materials used in curtains, portières, and screens should be of cotton or linen, or some plain woollen goods which are as easily washable. A one-coloured, heavy-threaded cotton canvas, a linen in solid colour, or even indigo-blue domestic, all make extremely effective and appropriate furnishings. The variety of blue domestic which is called denim is the best of all fabrics for this kind of furnishing, if the colour is not too dark. ”

“ Can you tell why wool makes a better holder than cotton? For appearance we can cover the holder with some pretty piece of chintz or cretonne; perhaps you have in the piece bag some pieces which are large enough. Denim is strong for a covering. A piece of asbestos might be placed inside. Why? Pin all these thicknesses together, with a cover top and bottom. Now baste from corner to corner and from side to side. This is good practice. Make basting stitches of even length such as you made on the towels. Then baste carefully all around the four sides so that the edges are held securely. ”

“ Popular liking, if continued, is always founded upon certain incontrovertible virtues. If a manufacture cannot hold its own for ever in public favour, it is because it fails in some important particular to be what it should be. Products of the loom must have lasting virtues if they would secure lasting esteem. Blue denim had its hold upon public use principally for the reason that it possessed a colour superior to all the chances and accidents of its varied life. ”

“ You will probably find more to do here than at the other end."
Here the wall had been covered with a plain gray denim, against which were pinned samples of wall-paper of every quality and color. Some were quiet and in good taste, as well as inexpensive; others were evidently costly, and at the same time loud and glaring. Each piece was numbered, and the girls were asked to write in their books their opinion of these samples. ”

“ Remove the denim and punch holes through the cloth at the four places designated on each piece; button-hole stitch the openings, and run the tapes through, drawing the cloth down tight and flat upon the pasteboard; smooth the brown covering out evenly and turn the four sides neatly over the edges where they can be securely fastened by long stitches of strong thread taken from edge to edge of the cloth. Cover the wrong side of each piece with heavy, rough, brown paper; paste it on carefully and put them under weights to dry; the paper forms the inside and the cloth the outside of the portfolio. ”

“ Then denim, as a floor covering, wears far better than low-cost matting and never becomes disagreeably faded; for, being made for hard usage, it but takes a quieter tone when other blues would surely fade into unpleasant, soiled-looking hues.
Some Useful Bits of Furniture.
A settee table of oak has an adjustable top, which can be turned over by the removal of two pegs, making a high back to the bench, whose deep seat is utilized as a household linen closet. These tables are in great demand where the saving of space is an object and come in various sizes. ”

“ A basket or box of some sort is very nice to have, as we have said above, for your sewing, but suppose you were going to sew with another friend and you wanted a handy case in which to carry your sewing implements? A cloth case that can be folded or rolled is very much more convenient and may be carried in the large pocket of your apron. One made of denim is inexpensive, wears well, and is highly practicable. ”

“ The extent and variety of our cloth manufacture, our fertility in making designs, our different ways of weaving, were really remarkable. We made cloth in stripes broad and narrow, and in checks wide and small. We made plain cloth, twilled cloth, jeans, and salt-and-pepper cloth, the latter by alternating one thread of white and one thread of black the width and length of the warp, and the same in the woof. This was a slow process, as the shuttles, with the quills of black and white thread, were changed at every tap of the batten. Plaids were woven both of wool and cotton thread. ”

“ Last season she planted, tended and gathered corn—in short she is always busy.
Her dress at the time I saw her, was made and worn after, the Indian fashion, and consisted of a shirt, short gown, petticoat, stockings, moccasins, a blanket and a bonnet. The shirt was of cotton and made at the top, as I was informed, like a man's without collar or sleeves—was open before and extended down about midway of the hips.—The petticoat was a piece of broadcloth with the list at the top and bottom and the ends sewed together. ”

“ Shirts and blouses of thin flannel, washing silk and muslin can be brought in any number that space allows—the more the better, but the local laundry cannot goffer frills and almost always tears lace! Cambric and muslin blouses of the ‘shirt’ order are the most useful kind, as silk rots almost at once. For this reason let your smarter blouses be of crêpe de chine rather than silk. Evening gowns you will scarcely want; one, or at most two simple dinner frocks, and a tea-gown to wear for dinner at home, will be ample. ”

“ Several articles of dress were derived from the tanner, who worked up his leather into shoes, ankle leathers, and leathern hose. The art of tanning skins with the wool or hair on, was also practised, and dyeing was in great request, for in a rude age a love of gaudy colours is a natural characteristic of the people. The most skilful artificers were found in the religious houses, but under each landowner serfs were trained in the mechanical arts. Silk was worn by the wealthy, but the common materials for wearing apparel in this country were cotton, linen, and woollen. ”

“ Truly respectable were they, and, in those days of simplicity, praised.
Growing ambitious in proportion to our success, we spun for ourselves each a dress out of fine cotton, carded in long, beautiful rolls by my mother. A portion of the yarn was bleached to a snowy whiteness, and the remainder dyed a beautiful fawn or salmon color. ”

“ In a climate so variable as ours, garments made of cotton and wool are to be preferred to linen. By careful selection they may be obtained as soft and agreeable to the wearer; and they are to be pre­ferred to all other fabrics, except silk, which, from its warmth, lightness, and beauty, is more desirable than any other article from which apparel can be made. ”

“ The garments worn by high personages in the embroidery, and meant to imitate a golden textile, were done in gold passing sometimes by itself, sometimes with coloured silk thread laid down alternately aside it, so as to lend a tinge of green, crimson, pink, or blue, to the imagined tissue of the robe, as if it were made of a golden stuff shot with the adopted tint. ”

“ A peculiar feature in the costume of both sexes was sleeves distinct from the gown, but attached (so as to be changed at pleasure) to the waistcoat. Among the inventories we find three pairs of purple satin sleeves for women, one pair of linen sleeves paned with gold over the arm, quilted with black silk and wrought with flowers; one [Pg 8] pair of sleeves of purple gold tissue damask wire, each one tied with aglets of gold; one pair of crimson satin sleeves, four buttons of gold being set on each, and in every button nine pearls. ”

“ He himself is half dressed in an unfastened shirt and an immense dressing-gown, once gorgeous, now food-splashed and dirty, as it serves him for towel, handkerchief, duster, and every other use to which a textile fabric can be put by a slovenly man. ”

“ It was the habit of our family, and not a peculiarity at that day, that this article of dress should be of domestic manufacture. With us the yarn of which they were made emanated from our own wheels, and was more durable, because more carefully wrought, than what was for sale in the shops. We produced cotton of various degrees of fineness—linen thread for summer, and wool for the colder seasons. ”

“ Now, a shirt should be a workmanlike thing, as neat as a man’s, and with long sleeves finished by real shirt-cuffs with links. It can be composed of silk, flannel, or linen, but if it is a shirt—that is, a garment for the morning, and to be worn with a rough serge or tweed winter suit—it should have no meaningless fripperies about it. ”

“ Afternoon dress consists of a double-breasted frock coat of soft cheviot, vicuña, or diagonal worsted with either waistcoat to match—single-breasted or double-breasted—of fancy cloth, Marseilles duck or piqué; trousers of different material, usually cashmere, quiet in tone, with a striped pattern on a dark gray, drab, or blue background; boots of patent leather, buttoned, not tied; a white or colored shirt with straight standing white collar; a four-in-hand, puffed Ascot, or small club tie; silk hat and undressed gray, tan, or brown kid gloves. ”

“ I wish to see this people manufacture their own clothing, and make as good cloth as is in the coat I now have on, and as good silk as is in the handkerchief around my neck, and as good linen as is in the bosom and wristbands of my shirt. ”

“ Besides their ordinary housework, they had to spin the yarn for all their clothing, hatcheled their flax, and card their wool, bleach all their linen for shirts and some other uses, make all the wearing apparel of both men and women, and did all the knitting of stockings and mittens, which amounted to more than double the knitting now done for a family, which had become necessary in consequence of the fashion of men in former times wearing short breeches, which also made it necessary for them to wear over stockings. ”

“ Shirts and collars should be taken freely, as it is well to remember that the native washerman—the well-abused “Dobie”—has a marvellous skill in producing a saw-like rim to the starched collar and cuff of the newest shirt; while the elegant and delicate lace and embroidery, with which the fair are wont to embellish their underwear, take strange and unforeseen patterns at the hands of the skilled workmen. ”

“ You will find such a dress makes up prettily in a silk, a cotton or a woolen goods that is medium in weight. Tricotine, serge and twill are especially suited to such styles. Wool jersey is also made up in the overblouse effects. You might try cottons such as gingham, linene, chambray or ratiné. If you are planning a silk dress choose, faille, taffeta, satin, charmeuse or a fairly heavy crepe. ”

“ The variety of qualities will suggest some idea of the utility of the fabric. Its uses are even more varied than are the qualities. The finer grades are [Pg 174] used for dress goods and all kinds of lingerie for summer wear, etc., while the cheaper grades are used for linings in washable and unwashable shirt waists. Batiste is woven in the gray, that is, with yarn direct from the spinning frame, with the exception that the warp yarn is well sized, in order to stand better the strain to which it is subjected during the weaving process. ”

“ Merchants, policemen, and private gentlemen are arrayed, in winter especially, in a long cotton or silk gown similarly padded, an overall which reaches below the knees, and some, especially those in the Government employ, or in some official position, wear either without this or over this an additional sleeveless garment made of four long strips of cotton or silk, two in front and two at the back, according to the grade, almost touching the feet and divided both in front and at the back as far up as the waist, round which a ribbon is tied. ”

“ Patterns in dress fabrics, shirtings, and other articles made entirely of cotton are frequently mere combinations of fancy shades, while fabrics composed of silk and jute materials, including silk ties, handkerchiefs, etc.—in fact the cloths in which fancy shades are used—show that coloring and its combinations in all woven product embellished with design, are elements which give tone and character to the styles. ”

“ As a man I could appreciate little of the improved quality of fabrics, save as I noticed their beauty, and that my own clothes wore longer, and both looked and felt more agreeable. But women told me how satisfying it was to know that silk was silk, and wool, wool. This improvement in textile values, with the outgrowing of that long obsession called fashion, reduced the labor of clothes-making materially. ”

“ We must, therefore, do away with the ordinary cotton or linen shirt, which only covers the middle part of the body, and substitute for it a garment with long sleeves, fitting closely round the throat and reaching to the feet, or a little below them. ”

“ It fits the body either closely or fairly loosely. It is made of abaká fiber when imported cloth is not available. It is always adorned with embroidery of imported red, white, blue, and yellow cotton, on the cuffs, on the seams of the shoulders and the side, and on the neck and lower edges. The garment of the man differs from that of the woman in being all of one color, except that across the back, over the shoulders, and as far down as the breasts, are horizontal, parallel, equidistant lines of inwoven blue cotton yarn. ”

“ The ordinary dress of men of the middle classes comprises a short shirt cut low at the throat, drawers, socks of material made with a single seam up the back, a long embroidered coat, and a shorter jacket of some plain fabric, held by a broad waist-belt, embroidered in colours and fastened by a jade ornament. ”