Workwear

“ Remember this, dear, the tag of the maker of your apparel is not the only important mark of an exclusive shop—the principal mark is the cut and style, and these high-grade shops turn out hats, coats and gowns which the other shops endeavor in vain to imitate. That is why one can be recognized in a way by the clothes they wear. ”

“ The Board concluded: 'The men's clothing industry is thus an industry which is nearly entirely dependent in its operations upon purchases and sales in interstate commerce and upon interstate transportation. There is a constant flow of raw wool from the western States and foreign countries to the mills of New England where it is transformed into men's wear fabrics, thence to the sponging and shrinking plants of New York and Philadelphia, then, joined by the other necessary raw materials, to the fabricating factories of the Middle Atlantic States for manufacture into clothing. ”

“ All those engaged in the making of garments and other goods of silk, artificial silk, linen, cotton and woolen fabrics, such as clothing workers, workers in collar and shirt factories, including all salesmen, clerks, stenographers in distribution places (dry goods stores) . All workers employed in establishments where wearing apparel is made of fur, felt, straw, etc., as furriers, glove makers, hatmakers, straw hat makers, millinery workers. ”

“ Before sewing machines were to be found in every home and ready made clothing in the stores styles did not change so rapidly. Commercial conditions now make it to the advantage of a great army of people that the styles in dress change often and radically. The manufacturers of cloth, the wholesale merchants with their agents, the retailers and their numerous clerks, wholesale garment-makers and their many employes, pattern-makers, dress-makers, milliners and the manufacturers of all minor articles of clothing are all benefitted by this oft recurring change in style. ”

“ Although there is a particular daintiness and charm about hand-made underwear, much fine and beautiful work may be done on the machine. The saving of time is so great that when a number of pieces are to be made this method is usually given the preference. A few of the smaller pieces—a corset cover, chemise or a pair of drawers—can easily be made by hand, but the amount of work on gowns, petticoats or combination garments inclines one toward the machine method. ”

“ In regard to making full-fashioned goods almost every form of garment can be made on it-pants, shirts, hose and half-hose, coats, vestings, caps and gloves, are only a few of the garments procurable. These can be fashioned by the worker to the required form and an interpretation can be given to symmetry and style of the human form. It has found an extensive application as a hand machine to the making of seamless gloves being used by the most progressive firms in the trade, and with the application of power it can be adapted with considerable success to the making of goods in the bulk. ”

“ Shirtwaists, children's dresses (cloth and cotton) , boys' waists, infants' wear, children's clothing, women's underwear, fancy petticoats, kimonos and dressing sacques.
2. Special Machines— (seasonal to year round work, depending on kind and demand, wages good) : Lace stitch, hemstitching, buttonhole, embroidery (hand and Bonnaz) , and scalloping.
3. Dressmaking Operating— (year round, wages good) : Lingerie, fancy waists and suits.
4. Straw Sewing— (excellent wages for a short season, but the worker can then return to good wages in general operating) : Women's and men's hats. ”

“ There are the workshops, quite ready for another contingent of lads, such as are now busily at work in the tailoring department, where they are sitting on the board in the proper tailor-fashion, sewing away at one or other of the many private orders for gentlemen's clothes, or "juvenile suits," which are the better appreciated because they are hand-sewn, instead of being made with that machine, at the end of the room, to learn the working of which is, however, a necessary part of the modern tailor's trade. ”

“ Much of the charm that invests the patent-leather shoe, the stainless linen, the lustrous cylindrical hat, and the walking-stick, which so greatly enhance the native dignity of a gentleman, comes of their pointedly suggesting that the wearer cannot when so attired bear a hand in any employment that is directly and immediately of any human use....
The dress of women goes even farther than that of men in the way of demonstrating the wearer’s abstinence from productive employment. ”

“ In the system of under-clothing which I advocate, and which is illustrated by the above figure, combinations should be worn next to the skin; or, if the objection to these, which I spoke of on p. 131, is raised, a vest of woven wool, coming well down over the hips, may be worn next the skin, and drawers, either of the same material or of flannel, can be buttoned on to the bodice. The thickness of the material of which this and all the other garments are made can, of course, be varied to suit the temperature of the air. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Our paper garments, of course, are seamless, and made wholly by machinery. The apparatus being adjustable to any measure, you can have a costume turned out for you complete while you are looking over the machine. There are, of course, some general styles and shapes that are usually popular, and the stores keep a supply of them on hand, but that is for the convenience of the people, not of the department, which holds itself always ready to follow the initiative of any citizen and provide anything ordered in the least possible time. ”

“ Beyond was a little market-place where men were ranging their goods on long forms under a zinc roof. All round lay huge bundles of wearing apparel—one bundle would contain men's underwear, another trousers, another coats, not to mention piles of old boots, hats, and indiscriminate rubbish. ”

“ He thinks, when business revives, there will be work enough for all in this line, and even more. Shirts are such an essential part of a man's wardrobe, that as long as men exist, shirts must be made. With the many improvements in sewing machines, Mr. P. has shirts, when cut out, given to the operator, and turned from the machine complete, with the exception of buttons and button holes. No basters are employed. All the felling is done by a feller, and all the hemming by a hemmer. ”

“ If the food of an artisan would now be thought coarse, his clothes would be thought abominable. A pair of yellow buckskin or leathern breeches, a checked shirt, a red flannel jacket, a rusty felt hat cocked up at the corners, shoes of neats-skin set off with huge buckles of brass, and a leathern apron, comprised his scanty wardrobe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ How well he remembered the strange depolarized feeling consequent upon realizing that his whole worldly possessions consisted in three “grey-back” shirts, two pairs of cotton pants, two pairs of woollen socks, a towel; a hold-all containing razor, shaving-brush, spoon, knife and fork, and a button-stick; a cylindrical valise with hair-brush, clothes-brush, brass-brush, and boot-brushes; a whip, burnisher, and dandy-brush (all three, for some reason, to be paid for as part of a “free” kit) ; jack-boots and jack-spurs, wellington-boots and swan-neck box-spurs, ammunition boots ”

“ Shirt-makers who make by machine the common kinds of shirts, are paid 7d., 8d., and 9d. per dozen shirts for machining. They can machine 1-1/2 dozen sevenpenny shirts in a day, by working till midnight and later. The shirt-finishers, who make the button-holes by hand and sew on the buttons, get 3d. a dozen shirts, finding their own cotton, and can finish 1-1/2 dozen to 2 dozen in a day. Silk mantles, costing in the West End shops from £1 to £25, are made throughout in the East End for 7-1/2d. apiece, out of which the sweater pays the actual maker 5d. ”

“ Fashioned Goods Fashioned goods are garments which, while being knit on the machine, are made the proper shape to fit the wearer.
If the garment to be fashioned is a sweater, the fashioning or shaping to be done is the sleeve, the neck opening, the collar, and at times in the better class of sweaters, the arm holes are narrowed back from the lower part to the shoulder in order to shorten the shoulder length, thereby insuring a better fit. When making underwear not only the sleeves have to be shaped but the legs of the drawers are shaped also. ”

“ The size and shape of the pieces which compose the finished garment are determined by changes in style which vary from the minor modifications occurring yearly in men's clothing to the radical changes in the style of women's clothing. A wide variety of fabrics is employed, ranging from thick to thin, smooth to rough, closely woven to loosely woven and from plain weave to fancy weave. In one season a single establishment will make garments from as many as 200 different fabrics, and each operator is likely to work upon 60 or more different kinds of cloth. ”

“ As wealth increased the home loom and spinning-wheel were slowly supplanted by the mill and factory. The different textile manufacturers at length found that competition was so keen that it was necessary to adulterate, particularly any fabric that was popular. The classes of goods that are most adulterated are the expensive fabrics, those of wool and silk. There are such changes of fashion in dress at the present day that garments composed of materials formerly considered good enough are often thrown aside as old-fashioned when only half worn. ”

“ But the old fashions are passing from Europe: the sewing machine and the railway sweep before them the pleasant provincialisms of dress. A shirt with the bosom heavily embroidered, a skirt with a year’s stitching in the hem are not to be imitated by the dealer in ready-made clothing, who offers, instead, cheapness and the brisk variety of the town. ”

“ At the time when every woman was occupied at home with the making of garments for her family, shoes were the only article of clothing that she did not make nor even help to make. Each pair of shoes was the product of the skilled labor of one man, a master workman at his trade. The village cobbler either made shoes to order in his own workshop, or he travelled about from farm to farm, making and repairing shoes for the farmers and their families. ”

“ I have had so many things to direct your attention to, that I had nearly omitted to notice that most useful garment to a workman in a hot country—a flannel jacket, with sleeves, made of good materials; for it will be more comfortable and healthy to work in than a shirt ”

“ 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. ”

“ Shooting coats that had seen better days, a dozen shabby overcoats-worn proudly through the hottest noons-raggety breeches and trousers made by some London tailor, queer baggy homemades of the same persuasion, or quite simply the square of cotton cloth arranged somewhat like a short tight skirt, or nothing at all as the man's taste ran. ”

“ An eminent woollen manufacturer having been asked what cloth he would recommend for wear and warmth to a backwoodsman, answered quickly, “Nothing can wear like a good blanket.” The small manufacturers generally dispose of their cloth in the rough state.
The progress of machinery has called into existence a great number of factories, especially in worsted and mixed stuffs, has given value to many descriptions of wool formerly valueless, and, coupled with the repeal of the duty, brought into the market many kinds unknown a few years ago. ”

“ As the shuttles fly the finished fabric is rolled up ready for inspection, and, when passed, goes to the market, and later is made into garments.
It is a huge task to clothe the modern world. No one realizes how much it means until he looks into the work of the textile-mills which have grown up in our own and in other countries. ”

“ Improvement in recent years in the machinery employed in combing wool has so changed the character of what are commercially known as worsted cloths that the latter have largely superseded woollen cloths for use as men's wearing apparel. ”

“ Indeed it has been my experience that it is economy to buy the best quality of cloth you can afford, for then the garment always keeps its shape, even after hard wear, and can be cleaned and made ready for another year, and another, and another. ”