THE ECONOMICS OF CLOTHING AND DRESS.

REMAKING AND MENDING.

SHAKSPEARE tells us that "an old cloak makes a new jerkin;" and with such authority and sanction for turning old materials to new purposes, we will make no apology for giving our readers a chapter of advice and instruction on some of the most feasible plans of turning old garments to good account.

Many are obliged by necessity, or as a matter of good economy, to do this; and those who are richer, and can afford frequently to purchase everything new for themselves, will greatly add to their kindness to their poorer neighbors, if, when they give a cast-off garment, it is accompanied by a little judicious instruction as to how to make the best of it.

We will suppose a poor woman receiving the gift of a lady's dress fully trimmed all over, and so near a fit, that she might think it had been made on purpose for her, if it was not a little too tight. Would it be the wisest thing she could do to take and wear the dress just as she received it? If she did so, the probability is that she would do those about her, as well as herself and her dress, a great injury. She would, most likely, be very cross in her family, for that is often one of the ill effects of dressing too tight. She might, too, begin to think that she looked so like a lady with this full-trimmed dress, that sundry unbecoming airs would be likely to creep over her. And as to the dress, nature would endeavor to free itself from restraint, and hooks and eyes would be bursting this way and that, and the flounces, that were very suitable to a lady's mode of life, would soon be torn and soiled in the household occupations of a poor woman. And in two or three weeks, this dress, that might have been made to do her good service for months, will have such a slovenly and torn appearance, that it had better be put out of sight.

We should recommend, as a preferable course, that, on receiving such a gift, all conspicuous and needless trimmings be taken off, and the body and sleeves be made a comfortable fit, by putting in pieces where they are needed; for which purpose some of the trimmings will be useful. Or, if it should be a very full skirt, it might be better to take a breadth from that, which will serve to make a fresh body. If it is too long, or if it is rubbed, and a little worn at the gathers, the skirt should be taken from the body, and sewed on again at the right length, at the same time placing the middle of a different breadth to the middle of the body, so as to put the worst worn part of the gathers to the place where they will have the least wear. This will oblige running up the opening at the back of the skirt, and making a new one. All this trouble will, however, be well repaid by having a comfortable and suitable dress; and ladies are much more likely to repeat a kindness when they see that their gifts are well used and valued.

When a mother has worn a dress as long as she can, it will be strange if there is not enough which is pretty good left in the skirt, which will make a frock, or perhaps even two, for a little girl. It is well to bear this in mind in buying a dress, and to choose one of a pattern that would not be very conspicuous or unsightly if it should afterwards be used for children.

Another good use to which to put an old dress is, by altering the body and sleeves, to adapt it for a petticoat. It is well, however, not to be in a hurry to do this. Two mothers had each a good black satin dress; in the course of time they became, as unfortunately all dresses will, too shabby, or too old-fashioned for their wearers' use. One mother picked hers to pieces, washed and ironed it, and made from it two handsome-looking mantles for her daughters. The other adapted hers for a petticoat, and spent five dollars in the purchase of new mantles for her two daughters. The mantles made of the old material were far the better looking, and the more serviceable. Now one dollar would have bought a petticoat; and thus the saving of four dollars might have been made for the pocket of the husband.

Bonnets may be lined or made from the cuttings of old silk dresses. A lady benevolently disposed can find the means of assisting a needlewoman in want of work, by employing her to use up odd pieces in this manner. She will thereby give the workwoman the means of earning a few shillings, and at the same time she will, at a comparatively little cost, enable herself to rejoice the hearts of various old women by the gift of a comfortable silk bonnet.

The remaining parts of some dresses will prove suitable for making aprons and pinafores.

But what can be done with dresses that are so washed and worn as to be of no service even for a child's frock or pinafore? Why, they may be cut up for dusters, if they will do for nothing else, and they will serve nicely for the little girls to learn hemming upon. Indeed, it only wants an active, notionable mind to discover good uses for almost anything that may be at hand, and render it applicable to some of the requirements of the possessor.

About the worst thing to do with old dresses is to carry them to an old clothes-shop, or to dispose of them at the door for something out of a basket.

Woollen garments, such as coats and trowsers, offer rather more of a puzzle as to how to dispose of them. They are, however, articles to be by no means despised, as a peep into the working-rooms of some old clothes establishment might soon convince our readers. Many a second-hand waistcoat, cap, and even child's complete suit, have been contrived from the refuse contents of an old clo'-man's bag. These old clothes-merchants, however, never cut up garments that can by any contrivance of piecing and cleaning be made suitable for wear, or to fetch a price in their original form. This a good home manager should also observe.

Cheap bought slop-clothes are scarcely worth the time and trouble of remaking into anything. But a bit of broadcloth that has been originally good may be brought into use over and over again, when its original purpose has been almost forgotten.

In a family of restricted means, where the father is obliged, by his line of life or connections to keep up what is called a respectable or genteel appearance, if the mother is a good contriver very little need be purchased for the clothing of her boys until they reach their teens. The clothes that the father is, for the sake of appearance, obliged to lay aside, will afford good material for clothing them. But how often pride, more than a want of knowledge, comes in here, and prevents the mother from doing what she might and could do. She is afraid that if she herself makes clothes for her boys, she may be laughed at as "a hen tailor." And if she should employ a needlewoman, who could do such things well and inexpensively for her, she is afraid the woman will speak of it, and think her mean for using old clothes; and she will in preference buy cheap, ready-made clothes, which will not last so long, and perhaps not look any better than what she might have obtained for a tithe of the cost by using the materials laid by at home.

To keep up a genteel appearance with only a small income, is a very trying situation to be placed in; nevertheless, it is the lot of very many; and a wise woman will feel sure that she is not acting meanly, while she acts in accordance with the limits of her husband's purse. Nothing can be more mean than to increase his anxieties by indulging in any needless expenses in dress.

When it is designed to make any cloth garment into a smaller one, it is generally best to look upon it merely as a piece of material, and not to attempt to bring any of the old seams into use. If it has been previously worn in the same family, and not much soiled, a good dry brushing may be all that is required for cleanliness. But if it has been long worn and made dirty, it had better be picked to pieces and thoroughly washed. Good broadcloth will bear washing just as well as a bit of calico; and so will very many other articles that are frequently considered unwashable.

Supposing the garment unpicked and brushed, or washed, it should be well examined as to the thicker and thinner parts, and the smaller pattern laid on and cut accordingly, always observing to keep the nap of the cloth all one way, from the top to the bottom of the garment. Much of the secret of the neat appearance of clothes made by tailors is in their flatly placing and pressing down all their seams by means of heated irons. The seams should be opened out—that is, each side of the seam should be folded back, and damped and smoothed by a hot iron before the lining is put in. As to a pattern, the best way to obtain one is from a tailor; and great assistance in the making up may be obtained by observing how the article picked to pieces was made. All visible button-holes should be made with silk, and not thread; and a strip for strengthening laid where buttons and button-holes are to be. There is no reason why clothes of this description, made by women, should either be bad fitting, or the work clumsy looking. This is not always the case; and any woman who has learned the use of her needle, and uses her powers of observation, might as well rival the tailor as not.

Odd cuttings of cloth are serviceable for mending or remaking the tops of boots. Foot-stools also may be covered with remaining pieces, and if braided with a lively-colored braid, have a neat and ornamental appearance. We have also seen made from the tails of a coat, a work-bag, which had a pattern with colored wools worked on each side, and really had a handsome appearance. Girls in a family might just as well use such materials to exercise their fancy and ingenuity upon, and so often save a good many wasted shillings.

Hearth-rugs are sometimes made by cutting cloth into strips half an inch wide and two inches long, and knitting them together with string. This is done by inserting the piece of cloth exactly at the middle, in the loop of the knitting and drawing it in very tight; it is rather hard finger-work, and some make the rug by sewing the strips of cloth on to a piece of old carpet or any other strong material that may be at hand. This sort of rug will in winter form a very comfortable addition to a poor man's fire-place. Or the bits may be knitted into smaller pieces for door-mats.

But when all the best bits have been employed as use or fancy may dictate, there will still remain some rough or thin cuttings which cannot be worked up any how; what is to be done with these? Perhaps we could not easily have answered this question, had we not recently heard a girl say, "Oh, mother is very glad indeed of such pieces; when she gets any, she washes them thoroughly, and sets us children to cut them up very small indeed, and fills a case with them to make a pillow; all our pillows and bolsters, and even the beds at home, are made like that, and we find them very comfortable; mother could never afford to buy proper beds for all us children."

Linen and cotton, and even flannel under-clothing, may generally be darned and pieced until the whole fabric is too much worn to be worth making into garments of any other form. It may sometimes be worth while, where the material has been originally good, to slightly make from them shirts and petticoats for infants; as the growth of the infant forbids their being worn any great length of time, and the material having been previously used is softer than new.

MAY-DAY.

The observance of May-day was a custom which, until the close of the reign of James the First, alike attracted the attention of the royal and the noble, as of the vulgar class. Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth, and James patronized and partook of its ceremonies; and, during this extended era, there was scarcely a village in the kingdom but had a May-pole, with its appropriate games and dances.

The origin of these festivities has been attributed to three different sources—Classic, Celtic, and Gothic. The first appears to us to establish the best claim to the parentage of our May-day rites, as a relic of the Roman Floralia, which were celebrated on the last four days of April, and on the first of May, in honor of the goddess Flora, and were accompanied with dancing, music, the wearing of garlands, strewing of flowers, &c. The Bettein, or rural sacrifice of the Highlanders, on this day, as described by Mr. Pennant and Dr. Jamieson, seems to have arisen from a different motive, and to have been instituted for the purpose of propitiating the various noxious animals which might injure or destroy their flocks and birds. The Gothic anniversary on May-day makes a nearer approach to the general purpose of the Floralia, and was intended as a thanksgiving to the sun; if not for the return of flowers, fruit, and grain, yet for the introduction of a better season for fishing and hunting. The modes of conducting the ceremonies and rejoicings on May-day may be best drawn from the writers of the Elizabethan period, in which this festival appears to have maintained a very high degree of celebrity, though not accompanied with that splendor of exhibition which took place at an earlier period, in the reign of Henry the Eighth. It may be traced, indeed, from the era of Chaucer, who, in the conclusion of his "Court of Love," has described the feast of May, when

And it should be observed that this, the simplest mode of celebrating May-day, was as much in vogue in the days of Shakspeare as the more complex one, accompanied by the morris-dance and games of Robin Hood. The following description, by Bourne and Borlase, manifestly alludes to the costume of this age, and to the simpler mode of commemorating the first of May: "On the calends, or the first day of May," says the former, "the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight, and walk to some neighboring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, where they break down branches from the trees, and adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. When this is done, they return with their booty homewards, about the rising of the sun, and make their doors and windows to triumph in the flowery spoil. The after part of the day is chiefly spent in dancing round a tall pole, which is called a May-pole; which, being placed in a convenient part of the village, stands there, as it were, consecrated to the goddess of flowers, without the least violence offered to it, in the whole circle of the year."

"An ancient custom," says the latter, "still retained by the Cornish, is that of decking their doors and porches on the first of May with green sycamore and hawthorn boughs, and of planting trees, or rather stumps of trees, before their houses. And, on May-eve, they from towns make excursions into the country, and, having cut down a tall elm, brought it into town, fitted a straight and taper pole to the end of it, and painted the same, erect it in the most public places; and on holidays and festivals adorn it with flower-garlands, or ensigns and streamers." So generally prevalent was this habit of early rising on May-day, that Shakspeare makes one of his inferior characters in King Henry the Eighth exclaim—

But, about the commencement of the sixteenth century, or sooner, a very material addition was made to the celebration of the rites of May-day by the introduction of the characters of Robin Hood and some of his associates. This was done with a view towards the encouragement of archery, and the custom was continued even beyond the close of the reign of James the First. It is true that the May-games, in their rudest form—the mere dance of lads and lasses round a May-pole, or the simple morris with the Lady of the May—were occasionally seen during the days of Elizabeth; but the general exhibition was the more complicated ceremony which we are about to describe. The personages who now become the chief performers in the morris-dance were four of the most popular outlaws of Sherwood Forest. Warner, the contemporary of Shakspeare, speaking of the periods of some of our festivals, and remarking that "ere Penticost began our May," adds—

These four characters, therefore—Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian—although no constituent parts of the original English morris, became at length so blended with it, especially on the festival of May-day, that, until the practice of archery was nearly laid aside, they continued to be the most essential part of the pageantry.