Modern work clothes must be safe to work in. For women this takes extra planning, for their clothes are not standardized, as men's are. Styles and materials are varied, and generally have frills or extras that make them dangerous around machines. This we became particularly aware of during the war, when unsafe clothes caused many an accident and hampered production. In factories and homes we considered the hazards, and then devised ways of making clothes safe. But an outfit safe enough for one kind of work is not safe for another. Hazards differ. No rules can be set, but in general simple, streamlined styles that cannot catch and cause injury or hamper a worker's movements are found to be best.

Openings and fastenings, which so frequently cause trouble, can be planned so they are safe as well as convenient. For instance, front openings, which are easiest to manage, will not interfere with ordinary work if the fastenings are small, flat, and close enough to allow no gaps. Ties, belts, and sashes can be made to fit closely and fasten out of the way, at the back. And sleeves-why bother with any at all, unless they are needed for warmth or other protection? The looks of a dress, for instance, may be helped by wing extensions or similar devices that serve equally well. These are safer and give more freedom. If long or three-quarter sleeves are needed, they can be shaped for elbow room and made close fitting about the lower arm and wrist.

In work dresses, we found that it pays to watch the skirt length and width. If you must stoop, a long or full skirt drops down about your feet. It may easily catch on your shoe heels, or you may step on it and fall. You are safer in a skirt no longer than calf length, and just wide enough for your natural stride.

Every homemaker wants to save time and work. Often she looks to modern equipment or a new plan of work; too often she forgets that what she wears can save time and effort. Scientifically designed clothes can help her by assisting with the actual performance of a job, by being easy and quick to do up, and by being simple to put on and take off.

Pockets become functional and help in work when their size, shape, opening, and position are planned to suit you and the job. When placed below the waist they serve best if they are large enough so you can put your hand in and take out what you want without strain on pocket corners or the material. And they need to be placed where your hands slide into them naturally. Pockets awkwardly placed force you to stop and see how to get into them, a waste of time and a distraction.

Aprons can be designed to make kneeling jobs easier. One apron we made has a roomy buttoned-up pocket in which one can assemble all the little things needed in doing the work-seed packets, string, markers. On getting down to work you turn the pocket inside out and over the knees; knees and clothes are protected against dampness and soil. There's no discomfort from trying to work in a cramped position and no waste of time trying to hold dress skirts up out of the dirt. The apron saves laundering, too.

Functional work clothes do more than just make work easier. They are planned so that keeping them in order takes a minimum of time and energy. They have to be pleasing to look at. To make this possible, simplicity is the thing. We planned a hot-weather house dress in a straight style, held in at the waist with short sashes that tie in the back, well out of the way. So simple is the dress that it takes only 7 minutes to iron it. No time is wasted in maneuvering fussy little style details over the board to smooth them out. All construction is flat, smooth, and thin, easy to iron neatly and speedily.

A functional work garment is attractive. Otherwise it would not serve its purpose fully. Types and styles of garments are chosen for their suitability and good looks. And color, usually chosen for esthetic value, is found to have practical values as well. For example, a colorful print with a minimum of unbroken white ground will not show wrinkles, soil, and spots as readily as plain materials or a print with much white in it. Color has a psychological value as well. Most women find such colors as blue and green restful, cool, and clean-looking. They give a sense of wellbeing-and that contributes to self-confidence and the peace of mind so essential to good working conditions.

Durability is still another part of functionalism in clothing. Contrary to the opinion that durability depends on material alone, it depends on style and workmanship, too. Certain style features may function, but they may also be too weak to endure everyday wear and cleaning. Such factors have to be weighed as a design is developed, because only strong features and good workmanship can keep a garment functioning all its days.

Research in functional clothing is still in its infancy. We have more to learn about it-but that will come in further experimentation, and cooperation with housewives. It's worth the effort, the attempt to make work clothes mean more than mere coverings and dirt catchers. We have seen how men and women alike have been grateful for the functional clothes designed by the Quartermaster Corps to meet the various needs of men in the different services-comfort, freedom of action, health protection, safety, convenience, and saving of time.

Many of these new-type clothes take more cloth than the kinds we are used to. Production costs and retail prices may have to be higher, but functional clothes that are made for the job serve better and wear longer. In the end they cost less. When the public realizes this and demands scientifically designed work clothes, manufacturers will make them. Meanwhile, homemakers who sew need not wait. For them, cooperating commercial companies have made patterns for designs developed in the course of this research.

THE AUTHOR Clarice L. Scott, a clothing specialist in the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, designed the first functional work garments for women. These garments are credited with having started an entirely new development in the garment and pattern industries. Miss Scott is a graduate of Iowa State College.

Fabrics Without Mildew

by MARGARET S. FURRY MILDEW ON cotton things is caused by micro-organisms, mainly fungi, that flourish wherever it is damp, dark, and warm. They discolor cloth, make it smell, sometimes cause it to rot. They particularly like canvas army tents in the Tropics, shower curtains, draperies in basement rooms, and porch awnings that are rolled up when wet. Losses from mildew used to be enormous-but no longer. Now we have mildew-resistant finishes that will markedly prolong the life of cotton fabrics.

The standards set for the finishes were high. They had to be comparatively easy to apply; they could not weaken the fabrics or cause excessive shrinkage; they had to be odorless and nontoxic to humans, and to be colorless or to dye the cloth a pleasing and usable shade. To be satisfactory for outdoor fabrics, mildew-resistant treatments had to withstand weathering and laundering and, preferably, resist attack by termites.

Research in the laboratories of the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics shows that it can be done. We applied more than 250 treatments to cotton fabric and subjected the treated material to chemical, physical, and biological tests.

The compounds we used were of several types : Chemicals, such as various acetylating mixtures and cuprammonium hydroxide, that change the form of the cellulose itself; resins condensed in the fibers of the material and those applied to the surface of the cloth; quaternary ammonium phosphates and halides; substituted phenolic compounds, such as o-phenylphenol, salicylanilide, tetrabromo-o-cresol, pentachlorophenol, and 2,2'-dihydroxy-5,5'-dichloro-diphenylmethane; mordants and dyes, especially extracts of natural dyes; organic salts of heavy metals, copper and zinc naphthenate, copper oleate, copper resinate, zinc dimethyl-dithiocarbamate, and various mercurial compounds; inorganic salts, used alone or combined with soap, morpholine, or 8-hydroxyquinoline; common antiseptics like chlorothymol, phenyl salicylate, and various borates; and other organic and inorganic compounds recommended as having fungicidal properties.

The treatments were applied to cotton fabric by immersing strips of the material in a solution of the chemical at a specified concentration, temperature, and time. The strips were squeezed between rollers to remove the excess liquid, dried at room temperature, and rinsed twice. Then mildew resistance was determined by measuring the breaking strength of the treated strips after inoculation with mildew-producing organisms and incubation under controlled conditions favorable to their growth.

From the long list of finishes that proved satisfactory in resisting mildew, certain fabric treatments especially suitable for housefurnishing purposes were selected. They were applied to 7-ounce osnaburg cloth. The effectiveness of the protective treatments after exposure to weather and laundering was also determined, and some were tested for their ability to prevent termite damage.

Many methods for determining the mildew resistance of treated fabrics have been devised. They have been studied and compared by various industrial and governmental laboratories and by the Mildewproofing Subcommittee of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists.

The soil-suspension method was used in this study. Samples of treated fabrics were first washed under a gentle flow of running water and then inoculated by immersing them in a suspension of soil. Thus they were subjected to many types of micro-organisms that attack cellulose. Next the test strips were placed in culture bottles and incubated under controlled temperatures and humidity for 14 days. At the end of the incubation period the samples were washed and dried and their breaking strength determined.