The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-23
DREssMAK1NG IN IMMATURE.
A Woman Who Earns a Good In
come as a Dolls Costumer.

A work for women which has rapidly
increased in New York during the last
two years is the making and designing
of doll clothes. Not because dolls are
new. for so old are they that no one
seems ever to have heard or read of the
making of the first doll baby, but be-
cause before that time all doll clothes
sold in the stores were imported \
young woman looking around for some
way whereby she might earn a living,
was impressed with the expensiveness
of doll clothes as sold in the stores. She
made several complete outfits, took
them to one of the leading toy mer-
chants and asked for orders. That was
her beginning lust a little more than
two years ago. Today she employs
regularly two assistants. and in the
fan before the holiday season she has
been forced to employ for several weeks
as many as II.
When visited at her home on East
NinthNstreet the other day. this --oung
woman, in speaking of her work, said:
"Of course ] am not the first person
who ever made doll clothes for the
stores, but 1 believe ] am the first per-
son in New York to make it a profess
sion and devote my whole time to it..
1 began just as you have been told,
by making a few gowns for Children
dolls" that is. dolls which are dressed
like little girls S or 10 years old. Now
We make them for all ages, though
still prefer to make for dolls of that
age.
The gowns are prettier and we make
more on them. Then, too, they require
less handiwork than the clothes to be
worn BIZ the baby doll' or a boy
DOLL The clothing for these last
named require very careful work, both
machine and hand. and have to be
carefully pressed as for genuine chill
dren. and we are paid less for making
them than for any others. That IS the
reason 1 never care to receive orders
for boys clothes. Yes. the pay is fairly
good. For q dress like this one of
taffeta silk and lace, with the two
undergarments. oetticoat and drawers
Of lawn and lace trimmed, receive "a,
the materials amounting to about one
third of that amount, because, you see,
1 have SUCH large orders that l can
afford to buy my goods at wholesale.
1 have understood that the pay for
making clothes for the cheaper grades
of dolls was very poor, and that many
of the smaller garments were made at
the rate of four for a penny
Doll hats are all imported from
France or GERMANY, where there are
regular factories for their making.
They are in the latest styles and
shapes, though, as a rule, few are
brought over trimmed. the trimming
of hats for several of the larger toy
stores being done by trained milliners,
who devote their time to it and dupli-
cate any imported style ordered. The
rubber cats and mackintoshes for dolls
sold IN New York are mostly made
by a well-known rubber company, and
are as up to date in cut and finish as
those made for the ordinary human be-
ing. There is no factory for dolls shoes
and gloves in America, so all of these
articles are imported. They range in
price from something over dollar to a
few cents. and are numbered and let
tered Just as those for children. Doll
toys and iewelry are also imported
from the factories of Germany, France
and England. But their furniture
dishes and stoves, with cooking uten-
sis, ere made by factories in these
United States. and are much better
finished than those formerly imported.
EMILY MLAWS.