^ 



2 MISC. PUBLICATION 4, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTUBE 



1021 throiii^h 1925 there was a marked downward trend. Sales ol 

 silks ant! velvets increased throujjh 1920 almost as rapidly as the 

 sales of cotton. There was a similar decline in 1921, but the trend 

 from 1921 thioiitjh 1925 was fjencrally upward. On the other hand, 

 sales of woolen and worsted piece goods increased throuo:h 1920, but 

 not so niarkcdly as did the sales of cotton. F'roni 1921 to 1925, 

 inclusive, they decreased but more gradually than in the case of 

 cotton. 



PREVIOUS STUDIES OF HOME SEWING 



The first study on record which definitely attempted to report 

 the amount of home sewing being done was made during 1912 to 

 1914 b}' Leeds {10), who questioned 60 families living in Pennsyl- 

 vania. Fift(^en of these families made no clothing in the home, 50 

 bought all or most of their clotliing ready-made, all bought more 

 than half ready-made, and over one-half of the families reported 

 that they made more than "a few" garments at home {10, p. 51). 

 The garments mentioned as being made at home most frequently 

 were dresses, shirt waists, petticoats, skirts, hats, and night robes. 

 The clothing made to order was usually women's hats and men's 

 suits, and half a dozen women had tailor-made dresses. 



In 1919 a survey was made by the ollice of cooperative extension 

 work of the United States Department of Agriculture {11), covering 

 about 10,000 representative farm homes in rural regions of the 33 

 Northern and Western States. Of the 9,72-1 who answered the ques- 

 tion concerning home sewing, 86 per cent of those in the eastern por- 

 tion of the ;irea studied, 94 per cent in the central, and 95 per cent 

 in the western portion reported that they were doing their own sewing. 

 This merely gives the number who did some of their own sewing; it 

 does not indicate the number making most or all of their clothing. 

 The lower proportion doing home sewing in the eastern section, where 

 presumably shopping centers were more accessible, is interesting. 



Results of a study of 1,400 families living in 10 counties of Illinois 

 were summarized by Wilkerson {12) in 1920. It showed that 20 per 

 CQwt of the women made all their clothing except tailored suits and 

 coats; 8.6 per cent did not sew; 15.4 per cent made shirts for their 

 husbands; 05.4 per cent made dresses or underwear; and 68.7 per cent 

 of those having children made children's clothing. 



In 1922 Brown (5) made an investigation regarding clothing habits. 

 Reports were received from about 60 married graduates of home- 

 economics courses, 82 per cent of whom had children. They were 

 living in 18 States. One-third of these women made practically all 

 their children's clothing, even knitted garments; 43 per cent made 

 pajamas and underwear for their husbands; and 31 per cent made 

 shirts for the husbands. Six per cent of these women made none of 

 their own clothes; over three-fourths made their own underwear and 

 at least some of their dresses. Two of them made all of their clothes, 

 even their hats. Fifty per cent professed to enjoy making clothing. 



Andrews {3) summarizes these studies of Wilkerson and 13rown and 

 also gives the results of questioning 30 women home-economics 

 teachers. During the preccdin": two years some of these teachers 

 had made summer hats, thin silk and cotton waists, cloth (?1 

 and wash dresses, and undenvxar. A larger percentaj^ hj 

 underwear than had made any of the other ganneuts namec' 



