2MILLINRY AS A TRADE FOR WOMEN 
 
 
make frames, if she is in a workroom where frames are made by 
hand, and to cover them with various materials. Ability to sew 
firmly and to tack is a prime requisite in millinery. Handling 
millinery materials so as to obtain an artistic appearance re- 
quires practice, and, while it is not surprising that an apprentice 
often complains that she did nothing but make bands or folds, 
she thus shows that she fails to realize that these afford practice 
in the a b c's of her trade which should be learned with as little 
expense as possible to her employer. Much of the work is diffi- 
cult and hard to "pick up," so that the making processes as a 
rule must be learned. 
  After the apprentice has served her time she is advanced to the 
position of maker. Employees from one or two of the best 
shops in Boston used the term "improver" to designate a worker

who has completed her apprenticeship, in other words, an in- 
experienced maker. This word is commonly used in Philadel- 
phia in the same sense in which it is occasionally used in Boston. 
It does not apply to a separate process, but rather to the stage of 
experience, or inexperience of the worker. Thus whenever an 
employer who used the term was asked to define it, she invariably 
said, "Oh, an improver's the same as a maker."        The same

meaning is given to the word abroad, as a general term applied 
to workers just advanced beyond the apprenticeship stage.' 
The word "preparer" was used in a few instances in both cities

to designate an advanced maker sitting beside the trimmer, and 
performing the more difficult and expert work of making.2 
  The maker constructs from measurements the wire or buckram 
frames and covers them with silk, velvet, chiffon, or straw. She 
has some rather difficult problems to solve. Her trimmer may 
sketch a hat and tell her to make one like it with no other guide 
than the sketch, and perhaps a measurement or two. A high 
  A Trades for London Girl, and How to Enter Them. Compiled by the 
Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Association, 36 and 37 Denison 
House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, S. W. (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 
1909.) Introduction p. xviii, also p. 39. 
  ? As an illustration of the lack of confusion of terms in Boston, no 
worker was interviewed who claimed to be either an improver or a pre- 
parer. The term "milliner" which in New York and in Philadelphia
is 
usually employed to designate one who does the work of a maker, is fre- 
quently applied in Boston to a worker who knows thoroughly both the mak-

ing and trimming processes. 
 
 
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