“There are many more things to be learned about dressmakers,” went on her mother. “Let us talk about some of them this evening.”
“Mother, I suppose father will ask a lot of questions—just as he did about the tailor.”
“I don’t doubt that,” said Mrs. Duwell, “and I am glad that you are interested. I have heard my grandmother say that when she was young, there were no ready-made paper patterns.”
“Why, mother, how could people make dresses then?” asked Ruth.
“It was done in this way. A seamstress or some one who liked to make dresses would cut out and fit a dress for somebody in her family or neighborhood. If the dress was pretty, the pattern would be borrowed and used by almost the entire village.”
“Didn’t people mind if other dresses were made just like theirs?” asked Ruth.
“No,” said her mother, “styles did not change quickly in those days. Indeed, the getting of a new dress was a great event in the life of a girl, and it was chosen most carefully.
“You see, it served first as a best dress; then, being turned, it often served as second best. After that, perhaps it would be handed down to a younger child to be worn as long as it had been by its first owner.”
“My,” cried Ruth. “I am glad I didn’t live in the days when new dresses were so scarce.”