work for a few years.

The first work she will be given to do will be finishing the underside
of dresses, felling and binding, sewing on buttons, pulling out basting
threads, and working button-holes. After this, the younger workers begin
to specialize in skirt-making, waist-draping and waist-finishing.
The designing and cutting are the work of a head dressmaker. There are
also sleeve makers and their helpers, embroiderers, and collar makers.
One of the younger workers is called the shopper and is sent to wholesale
and retail establishments to buy furnishings, trimmings, and materials of
various kinds.

The working hours in large establishments are eight, eight and a half, and
nine hours. Smaller businesses have hours from eight to six o'clock.
Dressmaking is somewhat seasonal, and the dressmaker must reckon, to some
extent, on slack time. Generally speaking, there are two dull months in
summer and one in winter.

A messenger girl may begin at from five to eight dollars a week.
A dressmaker who does machine work and who does not specialize in other
work, may earn ten dollars a week. Other wages range, according to the
worker's ability and the work she can do, from twelve to fifteen, and from
sixteen to eighteen dollars. Head dressmakers who cut out and design,
receive salaries of thirty dollars a week in large establishments, less in
smaller establishments. In somewhat rare cases a head dressmaker is paid
more than thirty dollars a week.

The experienced dressmaker, who is at the same time a good business woman,
may conduct an establishment of her own which will bring her in anything
from one thousand to six thousand a year and over. But she must be able to
manage matters of capital and credit, understand buying, and succeed in
winning the favour of her clients. Custom dressmaking is being increasingly
limited to high-class and exclusive work. The small and highly specialized
dressmaking factory is affecting the custom trade. Girls, therefore, who
are thinking of dressmaking as an occupation, should examine opportunities
in the exclusive factory, since this branch of the industry is becoming
increasingly important.

Another department of dressmaking to which no reference has yet been made
in this chapter is the work of the seamstress who sews by the day in the
homes of her employers. If she is really a competent dressmaker, her
employment is assured. But it is a mistake for a girl or young woman
without training o