work of the so-called dressmaking "school," in which the dressmaker
helps her customers do their general sewing.

Shop dressmaking is in the main confined to the making of afternoon
and evening gowns and fancy blouses. Nearly uniform processes of work
are maintained and the workers in the different establishments need
about the same kinds of abilities and degrees of skill. There is a
strong and increasing tendency towards specialization of the work.

Among each 100 workers in dressmaking shops about 13 are head girls,
55 are finishers or makers, 16 are helpers, eight are apprentices, and
the rest are lining makers, cutters, embroiderers, errand girls,
shoppers, and stock girls.

Alteration work constitutes a separate sewing trade and consists of
the adjustment of ready-made garments to individual peculiarities. It
furnishes employment to several hundred workers in Cleveland.

The weekly wages most commonly paid to each class of workers in
dressmaking shops may be roughly stated as follows: apprentices, $2 to
$4; helpers $6 to $9; finishers or makers $10 to $12; and drapers $18
to $20. Lining making, done in most shops by apprentices or helpers,
pays from $4 to $6 a week. In one shop a specialist on linings
received $12. Women cutters, found in two shops, and doing supervisory
work similar to that done by drapers, earned from $15 to $25.
Hemstitchers earn $10 to $14 and a guimpe maker in one shop earned
$12. Errand girls were found at $3 and $6; stock girls at $8, $12, and
$13; and shoppers at from $3.50 to $10.

Beginners in alteration departments are started at from $5 to $7.
Regular alteration hands earn from $7 to $18, the average being $9 or
$10. Fitters earn about the same as drapers in dressmaking shops,
averaging from $15 to $18, with a range of from $10 to $25.

As a rule comparatively little time is lost through irregularity of
employment. Workers average from 10 to 11 months' work out of the
year. Establishments usually close during the month of August and for
one or two weeks in the spring. Workers in alteration department
average 11 months of work. Dress alteration work is steady, while suit
and coat alteration is irregular.

Apprenticeship in dressmaking comprehends a trying-out period of from
six months to a year. Most shops take apprentices, the proportion in
the trade being one to every 12 workers; and an effort is made to keep
these new workers if they are at all satisfactory. There is no
stan