The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-03
DIGNITY OF DRESS
 MAKING
By SOPHIE IRENE LoEB.

I wonder how many women realize the difficulties that confront the wo- man that makes our clothes-tho hours. the nerve -racking energy that dress makers put into the business of making you look nice?
 Most forcibly. indeed this came home to me the other day when sat in room with four young wo- men who make dresses, dresses dresses-all the time.
 They never have any clothes of their own because they are so busy doing it for others-building com structng. working-ail to make somebody else look well. I wonder they have any nerves at all.
 They were such young girls Mary and Sally, who is so clever with the needle; to say nothing ef Marietta is a lovely. darll-haired dark-eyed. refined girl, with soft voice. who started the business when she was almost a child
 For eight years she has been mali- ing dresses, dresses, dresses-until now she is the chief designer in the largest establishment in the city.
 She will go far, because she has learned the work from the ground 5 all the requisites necessary to mako her a headliner in her line. It is great art, and I wonder that many girls do not learn this business if for no other reason than for their own interest.
 Many girl thinks that to be stenographer or an office worker is perhaps more "dignified." What folly such an idea i., To be able to con struct things out of cloth. to make something out of raw material is just as dignified, if not more so, than the mere business of taking dictation and writing letters.
 When, oh when, will We realize that no matter what kind of work it is. if you make It workmanship, therein lies the dignity of it after all. And these girls have it.
 If you watch them at worlS-it looks so easy, and things just seem to develop themselves so rapidly that you marvel at it. and before you know 1t the thing is done, where others stew and stew" over it.
 That is because they have learned how deftly to handle material. how cloth works, pulls. etc, and there fore do not waste unnecessary ener- gv in practicing. In fact, there Is no chance to practice-the thing must be right at once.
 No time can be wasted, nor ma terial. The thing Is purely business. After all, this is the best place to get a foundation-where all kinds of things are being made and where the greatest care must be taken in conserving cloth and saving hours of energy.
 There are dressmakers and dress makers. Some women it takes ages to do work that others can do in q very little while as these girls do. This is because they have not nearly every woman who has some leisure might well do.
 Leastwise the girl who stays at l home or does little or nothing to l contribute to the maintenance of the There is nothing more useful to any 1 woman.
 The day will come when the deft- ness with which girls or women will make dresses will be just as worthy of diploma as being a good typist or a good musician. Already schools and colleges are developing courses in this line of endeavor which Is so universally useful, and there will be college graduate dressmakers who will be heraldsd with as great re- spect as in any other worthy call- ing.
 In the meantime. those who can not make dresses might better give some thought to help tighten the burden of those who do. l Copyright by the New York Even ing World Press Publishing Col