River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-10-15
NATIONAL GARMENT CUTTER.
A HOUSEHOLD NECESSITY.
Simple, Cheap, Accurate---It Takes the
Lead of All Other Systems.

This offspring of modern genius is
expanding its popularity from week to
week, and is making many wives their
own dressmaker and tailor, and giving
scores of young ladies an opportunity
to become skilled in the indispensable
art of sewing, by enabling them to cut
and fit the material themselves. 1t is
"a fact that has already engaged the
attention of those who constantly OBJ
serve and note the progress Of differ
ent branches of industry, and the de-
velopment of rising generations, that
the women of the present age are rap
idly losing all knowledge of the most
useful and profitable household art,
viz: that of making different articles
of apparel for themselves or those who
are dependent upon them for this
work 1t is not because the house
wives of America are becoming indo-
lent and acquiring natural ennui for
this duty, but because modern taste
and the voice of fashion have made it
Imperative that our apparel shall be-
come "a thing Of beauty" as well as
an article of necessity. and this idea
has so firmly fastened itself upon the
minds Of the present age, that almost
any one of reasonably well developed
refinement will sacrifice means which
they can lily spare to conform to this
sentiment. How frequent are the an
nouncements that Industrial Schools
have been established by the many
ladies benevolent societies through
the country. for the express purpose
of instructing young ladies and girls
in this declining art. How numerous
are the expressions of surprise made
by the ladies themselves, at the cost
of having their wear made in accord
ance with the prevailing styles, aside
from the cost of material, etc. How
often we hear of young ladies who are
practically wasting their time, while
there is an abundance of sewing
awaiting busy hands, wish in vain
that they could only prepare the gar
ments for the needle, when they could
proceed to do the work themselves,
thereby becoming proficient in the use
Of the scissors, needle and machine.
Were this state of things to continue
for another decade, the making of
garments for men, women and chill
dren would be as little known to the
masses as the art of telegraphy or the
intricacies Of a signal service station.
This is wrong. 1t would wreck the
ethics of domestic life to a degree,
and make the American woman an OBJ
jet of disparaging comment through
out the world.
Yankee ingenuity comes to the res
cue, however, just as it has on many
former occasions when we seemed
doomed to. precipitate destruction,
aud lifted us up out Of and beyond
the apparent peril. The Garment
Cutter, with very little practice, com
paratively speaking, enables any one
to learn the most intricate part of
dress-making or tailoring. Practice
is all that is needed to make every
lady in the land an expert in this
work; ana now that the long standing
problem has been solved, there is 10
reason why the reform should not
begin at once. Let every family pro-
cure the simple system" and every
child Of sufficient age learn its use.
ami in a very short time clumsily fit
ting garments will be a thing of the
p st; and the girls now idhng away
time and wearing clothing the secret
Of whose construction they know not,
will learn to be useful, industrious
and skillful, being a satisfaction to
themselves and d source of assistance
to their mothers.
WHAT WE CLAIM.