AND

DRESSMAKING.

FROM THE FRENCH

OF

MDLLE. E. GRAND'HOMME.

WITH NUMEROUS DIAGRAMS.

London:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1879.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

THE following pages are a translation of the new edition of a small work published some time since by Mdlle. E. Grand'homme, the dressmaker who has been engaged by the Maire of the Ninth Arrondissement, in Paris, to give a course of cutting-out lessons gratis, in the rooms of the Mairie, to all women and girls who care to attend. The experiment has proved most satisfactory. The class has been in existence now for three years, and each winter the number of pupils increases. It is not intended to supplant the regular apprenticeship at a dressmaker's, but simply to supply a defect universal in such establishments. However good the teaching may there be in making the different parts of a dress, in the trimmings and other minor details, it is well-known that none but the forewoman or her deputy is allowed to handle a pair of scissors, or given any idea how to measure or cut out the many hundred dresses which the young apprentices help to make. The result is, that they are perfectly ignorant, when left to themselves, where to begin, or how to put together the simplest child's frock which may be entrusted to their supposed "accomplished hands." It is, therefore, to supply this deficiency that Mdlle. Grand'homme's method has been found so useful. We have this winter more than once visited her class in the Mairie of the Ninth Arrondissement, and been much struck by the universal satisfaction expressed by all her pupils, both as to its utility and clearness. About one hundred generally attended, and this number consisted of various ages : girls of twelve and thirteen preparing to enter a large dressmaking establishment as apprentices; those who had just left some well-known house, but on obtaining situations as ladies-maids found their lamentable ignorance in this essential particular an insuperable drawback; and also a large proportion of mothers, old and young, of the shopkeeper class, who eagerly seized the opportunity of obtaining knowledge they had long been in search of. So successful has the experiment proved, that it is said other Maires intend to follow the example of the spirited Maire in the Ninth Arrondissement, and establish similar classes in various parts of Paris.

Meantime, the method has been adopted in the Communal schools, of nineteen out of the twenty arrondissements into which Paris is divided, Mdlle. Grand'homme personally teaching in three of them, besides holding a special class for school-mistresses or teachers who have been placed under her tuition at the École Supérieure de la Ville de Paris. She is seen, perhaps, to most advantage amongst the children, her pupils of predilection, for being without preconceived notions they learn more easily; a fact, on the other hand, which goes far also to prove the clearness of her system, and induces us to recommend it strongly for orphanages, poor schools, and all similar institutions.

In conclusion, we may say, that the measures have been carefully transferred from the French to English, but as the "centimètre" is so minute compared to our inch, great attention must be given to observe the eighths of every inch indicated, precision in small details being essential in this method. A tape inchmeasure marked with the eighths of inch will, however, be found sufficient for every purpose.