MONDAY, JANUARY 15. 1951
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE THREE
Sectional System Produces Hundreds Of Sexional Dresses
Bv RITA RONEY
The miracle of the never-ending supply of ready-made dresses which travel through the department stores to our closet hangers is answered when one walks into the factory of a dress manufacturer.
Twelve members of the costume design class at the University will tell you in amazement that it is possible to make 500-dozen dresses a day. How? The Nelly Don way, with 500 women at 500 sewing machines using the "sectional system" method. Each worker performs only one task, such as hemming, making button holes or sewing in zippers.
The field trip to the Nelly Don factory in Kansas City, Mo., proved to be a fascinating experience. A courteous guide led the way through the million-dollar factory, now just four years old. This modern brick structure, covers two city blocks.
It was 34 years ago, that Nell Quinlan Donnelly from Parsons, Kans, created the unheard-of fashionable and fitted house dress for a doarH. As a bride of 17 living in Kansas City, she and her friends for whom she sewed became the envy of dozens of housewives who were tired of the sizeless, Mother Hubbard housedresses of the day.
Showing a couple of her lovely fitted cottons in a downtown department store, she had orders for 18 dozen in a day. With two neighbor women to sew and two second-hand machines, they completed the order in a month. From here the idea grew and grew. Fitting her dresses on living models, Nell Donnelly was able to make the fitted dress to perfection. Today it is a 14-million-dollar-a-year industry.
The drafting of a new pattern by Nelly Don engineers is an exacting job. The pattern has come from a room veiled in secrecy—the design-room. No visitors are allowed here, for a new design may mean boredom, and high style and originality are watchwords of the industry.
The silver-haired Nell Donnelly (widow of the late Sen. James A Reed of Missouri) may almost always be found in the resign room, for she must place her okay on each fetch before it is made and fitted in a model. If it passes after it has been made and modeled, the pattern may then be used.
Pattern drafting, or the laying out of the individual pieces of the pattern, requires much planning. An inch of material wasted by careless layout may mean yards of loss when making a dress in hundred lots.
AKL's Elect New Officers Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity recently elected officers for the spring semester. They are:
William L. Adams, president; Marvin Mog, vice-president; Eddie V. Bales, recording secretary; Gene Campbell, corresponding secretary; Robert Evans, treasurer; and Lyle Jenkins, steward.
Heavy paper patterns laid on long rolls of paper the width of the fabric are photographed, and each piece may be reproduced a dozen times to be spread over 300 thicknesses of cotton pique or wool Jersey lying on a 112-foot long cutting table. Power cutters are skilfully shown by skilled men, can cut out 120 dresses in a few minutes. Other trained persons must grade patterns in sizes from 12 to 20 and 40 to 44.
As a dress which may have been handled by 50 workers is completed, it goes to the pressing room to be steam pressed and hung on a hanger. A conveyor belt carries each dress up to the ceiling and across the hall to the shipping department where they are released and floated down a line to the floor. Long racks of dresses are receiving last minute inspection, with belts inserted and pinned in place. Soon they will be packed in boxes to be shipped to every state in the United States.
Kappa Alpha Theta Elects Officers
Kappa Alpha Theta sorority announces the election of the following officers:
Susanne Springer, president; Deleores Dean, vice-president; Jane Baker, rush captain; Louise Swigart, rush deputy; Nancy Myer, corresponding secretary; Patricia Oliver, treasurer; Sydney Ashton, houseman; Barbara Quinn, scholarship chairman; Sue Ihinger, social chairman; Erma Lutz, son leader; Nancy Anderson, editor and press relations.
Marilyn Ross, intra-murals manager; Jerry Hesse, activities; Margaret Fisher, recording secretary; Elizabeth Bowers, historian; Sue Neff, head marshal; Judith Veatch, Nancy Seaman, and Gretchen Wormhoudt, marshalls; Catharine Challis, parliamentarian; Nancy Neighbor, improvements; Theeres Weighin, fraternity education; Bontina Bowman, archivist; and Elizabeth Swigart, honorary chaplain.
Officers will be installed Monday, Feb. 5.
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Feast Of Lights Service Narrated
Charles Nakoa, medicine senior from Honolulu, Hawaii, and Alfred Yang Ping Sim, College junior from Swatow, China, led members of Canterbury club, Episcopal student organization, in the feast of lights service Sunday.
Nakoa narrated the service commemorating the Epiphany, the manifestation of God to the gentiles by the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and told of the expansion of the Christian church since its founding. Candles were lighted to symbolize the spread of Christianity to the world through the church's missionary efforts.
The service was held at the Trinity Episcopal church, Tenth and Vermont streets.
Miss Taylor Engaged To Edward Haynes
Dr. and Mrs. C. F. Taylor of Norton announce the engagement of their daughter, Margo, to Mr. Edward H. Haynes, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Haynes of Boxford, Mass.
The Misses Patricia Kennedy, Mary Lee Haury, Mary McVay, Connie Peterson, Jeanne Scheer and Anita Phillip, announced the engagement with a skirt at a Corbin hall housemeeting Monday night. Chocolates were passed by the Misses Lura Mae Stouder, Donna Hicks, Joann Eley, and Patricia Lander.
Miss Taylor is a fine arts sophomore,Mr. Haynes is a College senior.
S.A.E's Elect Browne Chapter President
Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity recently elected Eland Browne, engineering senior, president for the 1951 spring semester.
Other officers elected include: Albert Campbell, vice-president; Donald Ellis, treasurer; James Perry, secretary - correspondent; Richard Lance, freshman trainer; Max Whitson and Wilson Liggett, rush chairmen; William Palmer, social chairman; Fred Schmitz, chronicle; Donald McCrath, intra-mural chairman; Marlen Christmann, house manager; Joseph Wolfe, warden; and John Van Keppel, herald.
Suzanne Beringer Engaged To Garnand
Chocolates were passed at the Chi Omega sorority to announce the engagement of Miss Suzanne Beringer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Beringer of Garden City, to Mr. Robert Garnand, son of Mr. and Mrs. Brant Garnand of Garden City.
Miss Beringer is an art education junior. Mr. Garnand is a business junior at Kansas State college and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
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