Ruby Wexler
2016
A Day In The Life Of A Colonial Milliner
Ruby Wexler 11/15/16
Humanities B A Day In The Life Of Eliza Smith
I open my eyes, there is a soft orange glow that tells me the sun has just risen. I sigh, sitting up and swinging my legs off the bed onto the cold wooden floor. I just had the most wonderful dream, I was at a ball everyone was in the most elegant dresses all of different vibrant colors shinning in the bright light. I was in one of silk, a deep midnight blue. Though I am silly that could never happen, I make the dresses not wear them. I must stop dreaming and get to work. I am a milliner not gentry class, and that will not change unless I marry rich. I know that will not happen, I am no good at the social games other girls play to catch men.
“Eliza! What are ya doin up there we need to start work!” Peggy yells from upstairs.
“I’m coming!” I yell back, “stupid petty coats.”
I mutter struggling to step into the skirt. I pull on my stiff dress, it’s pretty but simple. The base color is white with light purple vines and flowers decorating it. The sleeves only come to my elbows in the newest fashion. I twist my long brown hair into a bun at the back of my head and cover it with a bonnet. I tie my apron as I rush down the stairs more tumbling down than running. The shop is dim only with a few candles lit. I see Peggy standing there she looks at me and sighs.
“You’ve put your cap on backwards,” she says with exasperation.
She walks to me and fixes it, then steps back with a satisfied grin. Peggy always looks so wonderful, She stands with perfect posture and always moves with grace. Her skirt drapes perfectly, like a waterfall, barely moving when she steps. I look around the sun has fully risen now and the shop is filled with light, the gold and silver in some of the new ball gowns shimmer and dance with light. There is a party soon and women come flying in for the latest fashions. Parts of unfinished dresses lay on the counter and hang on pegs. Hats and fans sit on shelves that line the walls behind the counter.
A while before dinner a young lady comes in to be fitted for her a new ball gown. Peggy starts to suggest styles while I take out fabrics to show her. Once she finally decides on a light pink silk with white trim, we start draping the fabric, cutting, and sewing. It is a very complicated dress. Unlike tailors, Milliners don’t use patterns. All the clothing we make is fitted perfectly to the customer. There are a lot of us working on the dress and even Anne the apprentice, who is only in her third year, still has much to learn. We have a couple more women come in before dinner, all wanting new dresses for the party. Peggy and I eat together in the back of the shop. Then I decide to take a break and go for a walk. The sun is shining warmly, it’s a perfect April day– not too hot or cold and no rain. I see James Anderson carrying a roll of fabric into his tailor shop. His cap is askew and one of his shoelaces are untied, one sleeves is unrolled and one is messily scrunched at his elbow.
“Good afternoon Mr. Anderson,” I say, trying not to giggle at his appearance.
“Good afternoon to you too, Miss Smith,” he replies tipping his hat to me, almost dropping it in the process. “You know there is a new shipment of fabrics at the dock.”
I grin, “Oh good, I’ve been waiting for the longest time. And there’s a big party soon, everyone wants new clothes!” I reply.
He smiles “Ah, yes I think I heard about that. I sometimes wish that I could go to those, I mean I do love Taverns… but what would it be like to go to one of those…” He finishes looking wistfully into the distance.
“Yes,” I mutter “well it was nice to see you.”
“And you,” and with that he pushed the roll of fabric through the door and went into his shop. As I walk towards the dock I wonder about James and my dream, could they be related? No, I tell myself, again you’re being silly. I must focus on the fabric. Though it was hard to not to daydream about parties and big fancy houses on the way to the shipping port.
“It’s a good thing we’re about to run out of that blue silk,” I mutter to myself.
Peggy doesn’t like to go the docks and barter for fabric, she’s always too nice and spends all of our money. I have deals with a lot of the people in the fabric business. A big part of my work is bartering and advertising. I must know what the newest fashions are, it’s not all about sewing. One thing that I must do aways is think ahead. A lot of gossip happens in the shop and if I hear that a ball could be planned I’ll order fabric ahead of time like now. I know I’m there before I can see it, the smell of salt and unwashed sailors reaches me quickly and is very strong. Resisting the urge to pinch my nose I venture forth into the mass of sailors, sails men, travelers, shoppers and any other person who might be on these docks. A few greet me, but most of them are too busy to notice me. I make my way to the ship that holds the fabric.
“Good afternoon Miss Smith,” a gruff voice says from behind me making me jump. I turn to see one of the merchants I often trade with.
“Oh, good afternoon Mr White,” I stutter. “Do you have any good fabric for me today?”
It turns out to be a pretty good deal, I got five rolls of fabric and news about the newest fashions from France! I got the price down to a little less than half of the original. As I walk back to the shop I think about Peggy, she may be good with drama and men but I’m as good maybe even better at business. I know that this isn’t the nicest thought but it helps me get over the fact that I may never marry. And maybe it’s for the better if I’m talented in this I don’t want to have to stop and give everything to a potential husband.
When I get back to the shop Peggy is already fitting another customer, a very rich lady who I tend to think looks like her stays are always too tight and she had just eaten something very sour. Anne is sitting and watching, they don’t need her help yet. As I walk farther into the shop to ask Anne something I see that the lady’s tall wig is crooked. This, her expression, and the odd half-finished dress is so funny that I run into the back room so no one will see me laugh. Anne comes rushing in after me and started to laugh too, we stand there together just giggling and whenever we stop and look at each other we start again. Eventually, when we stop and walk back into the shop the moment has worn off and it isn’t so funny anymore.
That evening we all go a tavern for supper where we have the most delicious meal. We all dance, and clap and have a wonderful time. Somehow I keep ending up dancing with James Anderson, which I don’t mind though I do find a little odd. That night I go over the evening in my head. It was like a holiday: happiness and joy, not one person was left out.
And I think, as I look out of the window a the twinkling stars and deep blue sky, that this night without normal` clothes and my friends and newest friend, James, was better than any fancy party in the world. There isn’t a single thing that I would change that could make it any better.
Name: Olivia Propp
2016
The Big Dress Job
I wake up after my rest from working and I am off to work at the milliner’s shop. When I arrive at the shop I get back to the dress I was working on and start sewing all day. I live in a small/medium sized house in the town of Williamsburg, and share it with my whole family, and one co-worker from my mother’s tavern. She has been working at the tavern since she was 8, and now she is 12. Her parents have passed away when she was younger, so we have taken her into our family and now she is my closest friend. My parents treat her as family, so she is almost like my sister. There are two bedrooms, and one room for dining. I share a bed with the co-worker from my mother’s tavern. Her name is Alina. My mother and father sleep in the other room. We have a little fire place because the weather is quite chilly now. When the fire is on, it warms up the walls and keeps us warm.
I am a dressmaker and I make dresses at the milliner’s shop. My family is in the middling class, but we are able to afford food and things we need to survive. And I make good money making dresses. My father works at the apothecary shop and my mother works at a tavern with Alina. Although we aren’t wealthy enough to buy wigs, we aren’t looked down on because we wear hats and we tie our hair up. I am able to make clothing for my family, so Alina and my mother wear nice dresses. I have a little training in making clothing for my father, so I make him robes to wear at home. But he normally gets clothing from the tailor’s shop to wear during the day. I also decorate hats for my family, and I can make the worn out hats look new again by putting flowers, ribbons, and different fabrics on them. All I do at work is sew and sew, but sometimes I chit chat with coworkers while working and it helps to not be so bored. We do have daily customers, and we made good business. The townspeople rely on us to make clothing for them, so we have a lot of customers.
Exciting things don’t really happen at work, but once in awhile a little surprise can come. One day, for example, I was offered a big job to make 15 dresses for a gentry class woman. She offered me a ton of money and I accepted it. Before I got this job I only lived in a one bedroom house with four people. This offer changed my life!
It was right before I closed the shop. I was putting the materials away and about to walk out the door when a woman with jewels on her dress and a very nice wig came into our shop. “ What a small shop we have here, oh it is so very chilly.” Soon the lady put herself together, trying not to show how cold she was. I could tell she was a gentry woman, but I thought she was supposed to be able to afford a nice winter coat. But by the way she walked in it didn’t show she had a nice coat on. “Good evening. Do you make dresses?” The lady kept on trying to wrap her scarf around herself because she was so cold. “Yes we do, and we are the best in our town,” I said proudly. She needed 15 new dresses for herself because she said that all her other dresses were worn out. She said she needed them by Friday because she had guests coming over, and she was going to show off her closet to them. The day she asked me if I could wear the dresses was Tuesday night. Normally a completed dress would take a day or two to make, so I would have to make at least five or six each day. There were no breaks and all I could focus on was to finish a dress. While I ate dinner I would sew, the first thing I did when I woke up was sew, on my way to the milliners shop I would think about what I had to do next on the dress, and at the milliner’s shop I would keep on sewing.
That Friday I had almost finished 15 dresses, but I fell asleep half way on my 15th dress. I didn’t get in trouble from the lady, but she didn’t pay me for the last dress. She said to make it the best dress out of all of them because she gave me the time to work on it. It took me two days to complete, but she said it was very good. I ended up getting paid for that dress, and she said it was her new favorite dress!
The lady gave me so much money I was able to buy a new house for my family. This job was worth all the times I stayed up all nights, and how exhausted I was during the day. Now our house is a decent size and I get to sleep in a bed every night. Before the job I got from the lady, our family rotated each night of who got to sleep on the bed. If you didn’t sleep on the bed you would end up sleeping on the floor. I am very thankful to the lady and nowadays she stops by the shop and sometimes gives me big jobs to do, or just asks for one dress. But no matter how many dresses she asks me to make I am still very thankful and sometimes she says I say thank you to her too much.
My role in this town is very important in this town and people rely on us. People need clothing to go outside and inside the house too. I can help my family look well off because I can make clothing for them, even though we are not that wealthy. People judge us by the way we look and what we wear so we have to look the best at all times. If all of us work hard, and earn a lot of money maybe mother and Alina could get a better job. Father and I have a good job and we don’t have any thoughts of switching to work somewhere else. Since our family is in the lower/middling class we are always looking forward to our monthly pays so we can restock on food. Sometimes in the winter we can run out of food, a few days before we get our monthly pay. So we always have to conserve our food because we know that we can run out. We are always hoping for a better life, but we are glad that we at least have a home and jobs to keep us alive and healthy.