St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-07
DRESSMAKING At HOME.
The Discouraging Experience Of an Am
bilious Girl With a Dress.
THINGS THAT ARE HATEFUL.
TO Make an Old Dress New No
Always An Act of Econ
Omy.

E56f$4 ER all tillllh, speak, OF
80 i: s: &; -, ): j: e.:
when the first bright
sunshine makes winter garments look
so old and shabby, when on the count
ers and in the windows are displayed
gay, alluring spring fabrics, bOnnets
bright with spring flowers, everything
new, fresh, tempting.
The femenine soul rarely scars above
the love of things beautiful in clothes
or anything else, and she wants so
much invariably while ordinarily she
must be content with so little.
Oh! the rarity OF human charity.
These wants are of the kind that no one
helps to ameliorate; no one is ready to
give her that lovely hat, that some one
more, fortunate steps in to buy; no one
stands waiting to say: eff you want
that pretty dress, which would undoubt-
edly be SO becoming, out of my plenty l
will give it to you" The gift of an AL
addin's lamp would not surprise her
more. Woman, the ordinary everyday
woman, finds early in life that she must
stitie such wishes in her heart and study
out solution to her problem alone in
her most secret closet. For what if
some one would give her the dress?
How could she get it made? AYE,
there's the rub"
IT'S then the thought of dressmaking
at home steals alluringly before her
this every day wOman-and she sees
visions of what can be done with her
own ideas, her own opportunities of
seeing what is pretty and stylish and
fitting, together with the aid of a seam
stress at dollar day.
Why! summer clothes Just grow by
magic and her closets hang full lin
fancy's eye) in no time at all. No
former experience holds her back; she
can do it, she knows she can, and save
all those abOminable dreSSmakerS' bills.
She refuses to remember that grapes do
not grow on thiStles, nor can silk
purse be made from sow's ear.
The memory of that five yards of
black silk ground up to nothing in the
same mill only last fall, cut into terri
BILE mistit, thrown into the rag-bag: of
that last springs suit, such mass of
plumbers that it now has to be made
over. cannot stem the tide of her pict-
ure painting.
In a week, in two weeks, if she work
like grim death, and be tired and half
sick for days after, she and this tO-be-
braidS on all the leftover gowns, can
clean and press the cloth suits and re-
drape and loop the draperies, remodel
that ball gown into a tea gown, and
make a simple yet neat little house dress
and, at least. the skirts of new spring
suit.
AND THE WAIST?
Why! by little white lying about
wanting a new bodice to an old dress a
good dresSmaker or tailor will be coaXed
to make it, and there she is, with her
summer wardrobe all in good order for
not much more than half the cost of
one handsome suit from a good place.
1t sounds pretty we'll to read about,
doesn't it? 1t may not be week or
fortnight OF absolute bliss, but she is
plucky little woman, anyway, to make
the attempt after so many failures.
Why, poor, misguided soul, she believes
that those very failures are only so
much schooling toward success now. 1t
is the old story over again, this time it
will be different."s
She finds her dreSSmaker for that dol
lar day-10 cents an hour. Their
needles fly, scissors go clip, clip. clip;
backs ache, heads ache, fingers ache,
temper is little stirred when the first
thing goes wrong. A little more than
whole day is spent taking out the work
of the day before, nerves grow strained
and rasped, husband and children are
ScOlded until mammals frOWn is thing
to be dreaded, and the two weeks end.
What is the result? So many yards of
silk wasted in trying tO,make waist;
on one nail in a closet hangs two waists,
one only little worse fitting than the
other, waiting for buttons to be sewed
on, seams Overcasted and all the finish
ing details. On another nail hangs
wrapper, Of which no mortal power can
make the two sides alike; it also with a
couple of days finishing work to be
done on it. A skirt or two ready to be
looped, for, to the seamstreSs at 81
day, fashion books are an impossible
luxury, and little she knows about
draping,
The tired schemer has not the faintest
idea where she may get these dresses
Topped; her money is spent. she cannot
take them to dressmaker, even if she
could get one willing to do it.
The sight of the things is hateful to
her eyes; the prospect of all that finish
ing-off work is appalling. She doesn't
know which way to turn, and even
though this '"She" of ours may be a
sensible, clever, even middle-aged she,
at this point she collapses and bursts
into tears.
Nearly every woman can take this
story no me; it is the truth.
What, then, should she do? Alas!
there is no remedy. She who would
throw herself, in complete despair and
disgust, upon sofa, will dream anew
next fall that she alone can accomplish
the impossible, and will probably go
through Just such trial with new
seamstress at dollar day next fall.
If she would remember that a good
seamstreSS who is capable of complet-
ing a dress in goOe style cannot be
found for less than s. a day, that a fair
one demands and gets 81. her next eX-
perience might be different.
Another little thing might help. No
amount of turning or twisting or PLAN
ming can get waist out of less than
three yards, nor skirt out of less than
six yards, nor a stylish drapery with
less than seventh widths, nor a wrapper
of less than ten yards, all these of ordi-
nary silk width.
AS for any other help, sympathy
from the male members of the family is
what a woman longs for, and she will
be satisfied to try the same old plan
over and over again if she only gets it
GsVary T,0pu Rafxvaan DripES