r experience, or without a dressmaker's gifts, to
undertake dressmaking by the day. A dressmaker--to define the term--is one
who understands cutting, fitting, and making dresses sufficiently well to
undertake the occupation as a trade. A girl should be at least eighteen or
twenty before she becomes a day seamstress. In this work she is on her own
responsibility and is handling goods of some value, so that she needs
judgment as well as knowledge. The rates of payment are from a dollar and
seventy-five cents to two dollars and a half a day, meals included.
Sometimes the home dressmaker may be paid even three dollars or more a day,
but in this case she must be quick, and her work must be exceptionally well
done. The ordinary seamstress should be a neat sewer and should know how
to fit, but she is not expected to design or to make elaborate costumes.

CHAPTER XI

THE MILLINER

Millinery, like dressmaking, is partly a factory trade. But it is also,
like dressmaking, carried on in shops and in departmental stores. The
average girl is interested in hat-making, and is able to turn out a hat
which she can wear with satisfaction. But a first-class milliner is really
an artist. Her hands must be skilful and quick, her touch light and sure.
She must have a sense of colour and form, and originality and creative
ability. A girl who combines these gifts with business ability is likely
to make a success of an establishment of her own.

Training for this occupation may be obtained in several ways. The girl who
can afford to remain at school may take a course in millinery at a trade
or technical school. She may then obtain a position in a millinery
establishment as a maker of hats, and will receive a beginner's salary
according to the quality of her work. She should have no difficulty in
advancing rapidly in her occupation if she has the necessary gifts.

The girl who leaves school at fourteen may find a place as messenger girl
in a millinery shop or a millinery department. Some milliners make a
special point of training their own helpers, and any girl who enters an
establishment of this kind will receive valuable instruction. There is a
danger, however, that the girl in some shops will find her work confined
to running messages. In this case she will not become a trained milliner
and her prospects of advancement are poor. She should, therefore, see that
she is being taught her trade. It is usual for an apprentice to work for