The Making of a Trade School Part 5

I. A pupil must be given a short time to adjust herself to the workshop environment, consequently she is put first at some simple work, such as ripping or cutting up old garments. This gives her freedom while using her hands to look about the workroom and to get accustomed to the sight as well as to the sound of machines in action.

II. The pupil is taught to control the power by which the machine is run, and is then given an intelligent understanding of the mechanism of the machine or machines she is to operate.

III. The pupil then begins her regular course of work, and her feeling of responsibility of the value of _time_ is awakened--that is, her seconds, minutes, and hours, days, weeks, and months are now important factors in her life, and they may be used for good or evil. In the language of the department, time may be spent wisely or foolishly, and, while studying at the Manhattan Trade School, seven hours out of every day of the girl's life is given over to productive work and should be accounted for. The department has developed its own plan of time payments, which is much like the piece-work system employed in trade.

Through its rewards for time well spent it makes the fact real to the pupils, as no form of punishment could do, that wasted time is gone forever.

The department is divided into five cla.s.ses, three of which must be taken to make an all-round operator, namely: Elementary, two months'

course; Intermediate, four months' course; Advanced, six months' course.

In trade, salaries for such positions range from $5 to $15. The other two cla.s.ses train specialists on the electric machines, special machines of various kinds, straw-sewing machines. Special machine work requires from three months to one year in addition to the full course of all-round operating. Salaries range from $6 to $30. An expert trade worker is in charge of each cla.s.s.

_Course of Work_

Regular Operating Course:

1. Control of power--learning names and uses of parts of machines.

Making bags, clothes, and operator's equipment.

2. Straight and bias st.i.tching, equal distance apart.

3. s.p.a.ced bias st.i.tching from given measurements.

4. Making and turning square corners, st.i.tching heavy edge for tension practice.

5. Machine table ap.r.o.n, using former principles. This is used to protect operator from shafting and oil.

6. Seams: Plain seam, plain and band seam; French seam; bag seam on warp; bag seam, one warp and one bias; bag seam, two biases.

7. Hemming: Different sized hems turned by hand for correct measurements; hems run through hemmer to learn use of attachment and give speed; seams through hemmer--bag seam, flat fell.

8. Quilting: Following designs made by pupils in Art Department.

Practice for control of power, starting and stopping machine at given point.

9. Banding: Straight and bias bands placed by measurement from design made in Art Department. Practice for edge st.i.tching, turning corners, accuracy of measurement.

10. Advanced seams on cloth and silk: Flannel seam, slot seam, umbrella seam.

11. Yokes made and put on: Round yokes--petticoats; round front and straight back--drawers and petticoats; bias yokes--waists; shaped yokes--ap.r.o.ns; round yokes--children's dresses; miter corner yoke--dresses.

12. Tucking: Free hand tucking for accuracy in measuring and use of rule; special tucking on length and widths of different materials to give speed and skill in handling different fabrics.

General Construction: Trade Stock and Order Work (See Order Work): Infants' slips, children's underwear; children's rompers; children's dresses; women's underwear; s.h.i.+rtwaists; ap.r.o.ns; house dresses; fancy negligees.

Special Machine Work:

b.u.t.tonholes; tucking; two-needle work; hemst.i.tching; Bonnaz (Corneli) embroidery; machine hand embroidery, scalloping. Students of special ability only are fitted to take this course. One girl in fifteen has usually the requisite application and self-control to operate a special machine successfully. Each machine is specialized, _i. e._, does its own particular work and no other. Patient attention to little things is required on the part of the operator in order that good results may be produced. Such machines are supposed to need only a hand behind them to guide the work. Our experience has proved to us that good results are produced only when intelligence and patience are factors. In the factories, machinists keep the special machines in order, but the school aims to train the operator to keep her own machine in good condition, thus saving her valuable time.

Bonnaz (Corneli) embroidery work offers excellent opportunities for correlation with the Art Department. Both Bonnaz (Corneli) and machine hand embroidery must be felt in the muscles before they can be carried out on the material, therefore the work with the pencil in making designs which are to be carried out on the machine is of first importance. Free-hand designs must be made first in large, free movements on the machine until the arm muscles are thoroughly familiar with the curve, sweep, and feeling to be executed. After mastery of movement and sweep are acquired, the same designs may be reduced in size ten or twenty times and the pupil will still work them out in perfect rhythm. After the mastery of movement is acquired, the cording, braiding, and three-thread attachment work are easily learned by a pupil who has the necessary mechanical sense. The course of Bonnaz (Corneli) work covers: chain st.i.tch, lettering, applique work, cording, braiding, three-thread work.

Machine hand embroidery should be given as a supplementary course to Bonnaz (Corneli) embroidery. It gives excellent training in design and color work.

Special trade machine straw sewing should also be taken up after the regular course in operating. It gives splendid exercise for quick handling of material, but makes a poor foundation of itself on which to build a painstaking, expert, all-round operator. Speed is the first requisite in getting a hat properly shaped, as the straw braid is flying through the machine at the rate of four thousand st.i.tches a minute; hence the general operating is given first to the pupil to train her in the requisite neatness. As straw-sewing has long slack seasons, the operator can during such times return to the regular operating.

DRESSMAKING DEPARTMENT

Aim

The aim of the Dressmaking Department is to train girls in the elements of the dressmaking trade, in order to enable them to immediately secure employment as improvers and finishers or as a.s.sistants on skirts, waists, and sleeves, and to give them a preparation which will help them eventually to rise to positions of skill and responsibility. The training eliminates the errand girl and apprentices.h.i.+p stages, and makes possible a living wage at the start. The result is accomplished in from nine to seventeen months, the time depending entirely upon the capability of the girl, her physical condition, her application to her work, her regularity of attendance, and her previous training.

Cla.s.ses

The department is divided into three sections: (1) The Elementary, which consists of two cla.s.ses for the teaching of simple sewing and machine work. This section is rendered necessary by the poor preparation of the students at the entrance. It would be not only practical but desirable for elementary public and industrial schools so to train their students that they could omit this part of the Manhattan Trade School course. (2) The Vocational. This section also includes two cla.s.ses. The work is tradelike in character, but much time has to be given to developing right habits of work as well as to learning specific kinds of handwork.

The public secondary schools could offer this section to advantage, and through it train pupils for a better knowledge of the home or for future livelihood. (3) The Trade Section. This is a business shop, which reproduces trade conditions as nearly as possible and is subdivided into the same progressive divisions. Although the object is to work as trade does, the educational aim is also prominent, and the course of training has been planned with both ends in view. Order work plays an important part in this section, for it makes possible the quant.i.ty and variety of material necessary to supply the many repet.i.tions of important phases of dressmaking, the new views of old principles, and the elaborate costume manufacturing which are needed in the training. It would be impossible for a school to adequately deal with the many varieties of garments in this trade without some equivalent for the order work. The use of models or of practice material is not satisfactory on account of the great difference between theoretical and practical knowledge in handling valuable materials. A girl may learn to run fine tucks on cheesecloth, but this will not enable her to do satisfactory hand-tucking on chiffon.

Neither is it a correct educational or economic principle to cut up quant.i.ties of good material, which the students will look upon as "rags," and then, after working on them, to throw them into a receptacle for waste or sell them simply to get rid of them. To secure the best results in any line of instruction there must be interest and enthusiasm. The aim, therefore, must be definite and the results vital.

The work is planned to foster these higher qualities. The students produce articles for a definite use; they are given a required time in which the work should be completed; trade itself sets the standard of judgment, and a definite relation exists between the work of all the cla.s.ses, so that old principles may be recognized when presented in new forms.

Courses of Work

I. Elementary Section. (1) Beginners' Cla.s.s. First, a test is given each girl when she enters which enables her instructor to judge of her ability in sewing. It has been found necessary, in the majority of cases, to teach all or the greater part of the following principles: the use of sewing utensils, the making of the st.i.tches, their application in articles, and the running of the sewing machine. Hence the second step has been a course of work covering the use of these needed principles, each girl beginning at the point where she needs training. Third, the final test. On the satisfactory completion of this very elementary training a test is given to show a girl's ability to work, to think, and to utilize ideas. If she is not yet fully prepared, further time is spent in emphasizing the points she still requires.

The work in the Beginners' Cla.s.s is done upon articles which have a trade value and which are sold to customers or to the students for about the cost of the materials. The school furnishes the materials for all elementary work, but the students must provide their own tools and keep them in good condition. These include a thimble, needles, scissors, a tape measure, an emery, and a white ap.r.o.n.

Cla.s.s instruction followed by individual criticism is the method of teaching in the Elementary Section. Emphasis is placed upon the proper use of the utensils, the position of the body, and the handling of the work. Individual records are kept of the grade of work and of the time taken to finish a problem. The course takes from two to three months to complete, and the students are at work four and one-half hours per day.

OUTLINE OF WORK IN BEGINNERS' CLa.s.s

1. St.i.tches and special forms of sewing: Basting, running, overhanding, overcasting, hemming, blind st.i.tching, sewing on b.u.t.tons (two hole, four hole), b.u.t.tonholes, featherst.i.tching.

2. Seams: Plain; selvage and raw edges; French; felled; straight and bias edges; overhanded.

3. Machine st.i.tching: Straight seams and rows; hems; facings--points; use of tucker.

4. Principles: Measuring, seams, hems, tucks, cutting by a thread; matching stripes; turning and basting hems; making casing for drawstrings; putting on band--by hand, by machine--one and two pieces; setting strings into bands; finis.h.i.+ng ends of hems; putting on pockets--straight and shaped; plain placket; cutting bias strips; piecing bias strips; facing curved and straight edges (armholes, neck, waist, points); joining waist and skirt with bias facing; making straight tucked ruffle; inserting ruffle under tuck on skirt; ripping.

5. Articles used in the work (this list is changed at will and is merely representative): Handwork--Pin cus.h.i.+on, bag, towel, white ap.r.o.n with ruffle. Machine work--Belt, gingham ap.r.o.n oversleeves, child's dress with waist, uniform ap.r.o.n.

6. Supplementary work: Shoe bags, silver cases, holders, bibs, silk bags, darning bags, needle books, traveling cases, baby caps and work of a similar character.

7. Materials used: Cotton, linen, silk.

(2) Intermediate Cla.s.s. The Beginners' Cla.s.s gives most of its time to hand sewing, the Intermediate Cla.s.s emphasizes machine sewing. The work is a repet.i.tion of the principles taught in the Beginners' Cla.s.s, but is presented in a different manner, with new applications. Orders are taken from individuals or business houses for the garments which are made in this course. The price is that of the trade. These orders furnish a market for the entire output of the cla.s.s. A certain amount of cla.s.s instruction is given, but the girls are expected to do independent work under supervision.

OUTLINE OF WORK IN INTERMEDIATE CLa.s.s

1. Review of former principles on new garments: (1) French seam--straight edges, baby slips and nightgowns. (2) Hems, (_a_) straight, (_b_) turned by hand, on princess ap.r.o.ns, bloomers, sleeves, etc., (_c_) turned by machine--hemmer on ruffles, for drawers and petticoats. (3) Overcasting--seams of skirts. (4) b.u.t.tonholes--all garments. (5) Plackets--plain hemmed, on skirts, baby slips. (6) Bias bands--joining and applying to straight and curved edges, on princess ap.r.o.ns, drawers, top of petticoat. (7) Ruffle--joining, measuring, and applying under tuck, on skirt and drawers. (8) Machine instruction--threading, setting needles, winding bobbin, scale of thread, needle, and st.i.tch.