Our red hat society ladies, red hat Christmas gifts are 3 inches in diameter. The red hat society ladies, red hat Christmas gifts consist of a red hat with red glitter around the brim. The red hat society ladies, red hat Christmas gifts have a purple ornament with two rhinestones and red and purple feathers. The red hat society ladies, red hat Christmas gifts hang from a 3 inch loop of red stain ribbon.
History of the Clothing Industry.
The reason why we can clothe ourselves much better now than in the past is because we have learned to work together in the task of getting our clothing. In pioneer days in America, each family tried to provide clothing for itself. The father kept a few sheep and raised a plot of flax. The mother spun the yarn and wove it into cloth. Often she mixed wool and linen in a single cloth called linsey woolsey, with linen threads lengthwise and wool threads crosswise. She had to make all the clothing for the father, the children and herself. Father helped out by curing the skins of animals and making shoes for the family. Coats also were sometimes made from animal skins. But there was almost never enough material to dress the whole family well, or enough time to make their clothes carefully.
The first big improvement in our way of getting clothing came with the invention of spinning and weaving machinery. After 1800, material for clothing began to become more and more plentiful at low prices, but most clothing still had to be made in the home. Sewing machines were used in a few places between 1832 and 1852, but really good ones were not developed until after the War Between the States. Tailors and dressmakers took from the housewife some of the burden of making clothing, but many people could not afford their help.
With improved machinery, the ready made clothing industry began to develop. At first, ready to wear clothing was made in only a few sizes and usually did not fit the customer. Most people who could afford it still preferred clothes made by the tailor or dressmaker and other people preferred homemade garments. The ready to wear industry improved very rapidly between 1890 and 1920 and soon was turning out most of the clothing worn by men and boys. Today, by far the greater part of the clothing worn in the United States is ready made. To get it, we need only to make a trip to the store. But the materials come from about everywhere in the world and hundreds of people have had something to do with the making of every suit or dress.
The Garment Industry.
The garment industry in America has grown from a handful of scattered, inefficient factories in 1860 to one of the country’s largest industries in value of products. It employs about 740,000 people, who earn more than $1,745,000,000 yearly. The garment industry produces more than $1,745,000,000 in buying power while making more than $6,740,000,000 worth of clothing. Factories, which produce women’s wear, do most of this business. More than 7,000 factories specializing in dresses, skirts, suits or coats produce more than $2,440,000,000 worth of wearing apparel. These factories employ around 200,000 people, who earn more than $650,000,000. Men’s and boy’s suits and coats are made in about 2,000 factories, which turn out close to $1,450,000,000 worth of goods. These employ about 150,000 people at wages totaling over $400,000,000.
,br>The largest concentration of garment factories is found in the middle Atlantic region. New York State leads with over 5,000 factories producing women’s clothing and almost 1,000 producing men’s. Many garment factories are located in the North Central section of the country, particularly in Illinois and Ohio. On the West Coast, California is the foremost garment center. Top apparel producing cities include New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The United States owes its success in the clothing industry to many things. The most important single factor is the excellent fit of the American ready made garments. These fit is the result of scientific pattern construction. That is, the patterns are sized so that they can be shortened in the factory to make short clothing of certain hip, shoulder and waist measurements, or lengthened to fit unusually tall persons of the same hip, shoulder and waist measurements. The cost of clothing made in the United States is reduced by the speedy production methods, which factories have reached through division of labor. The cost is lowered further because manufacturers buy material in large quantities and therefore at lower prices.