A “Shirt factory at Grapevine”: How the WPA Provided Work for Grapevine Women during the Great Depression

Continuing our focus on how Grapevine dealt with the Great Depression, today we look at the Grapevine sewing room and how it developed. Sewing room projects were under the Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration) (WPA), established on November 1, 1935 to provide work to unskilled women and to get them ready for private work, as well as to supply goods to a non-competitive market without purchasing power. Sewing rooms became the backbone of the women’s division of the WPA.

On February 12, 1935, Mayor B. R. Wall “Signed [a] contract with Government for Shirt factory at Grapevine.” Later known as the Grapevine Sewing Room, it was located at 413 S. Main in the north half of the old City Hall, and it served as a means of employment for many Grapevine-area women during its existence. The room was prepared for use by local residents E. L. Jordan, who repaired the service line, and Messrs. Daniel, Hollingsworth, and Austin, who repainted thirty-three globes and installed wiring, and H. C. Yancey who provided insurance coverage on the equipment.

The room became operational in December 1935 under the supervision of Mrs. Vera Baker, who oversaw a crew of twelve women who worked seven hours per day, five days per week. Six sewing machines were borrowed until the allotted six machines were received. Workers made dresses, slips, pajamas, and gowns for children aged six to sixteen. Leftover scraps were used to make quilts and strings of cloth were made into hooked rugs and braided rugs. The first cloth shipment consisted of 1,450 years of percale, 210 yards of broadcloth, to be used for trimming, 833½ yards of outing, and 1,300 yards of sheeting to be made into underwear. Mayor Wall encouraged Grapevine to fully support the room’s work. Localities participating in WPA projects were required to provide a fiscal officer and sponsor’s agent to carry out projects. City Council approved a resolution designating Mayor Wall for these tasks.

The Grapevine Sun featured periodic reports on the sewing room by Mrs. Baker. At the end of February 1936, she reported that the workers were happy with their jobs and the variety of ways of creating new garments. They found much satisfaction in providing for their families and sharing ideas. Each worker was allowed to maker her own smock, which was considered government property and was worn only in the sewing room. Up to that point the women had completed 240 children’s dresses; ninety-six children’s slips; 186 children’s gowns; nineteen pairs pajamas; fifty-nine girls’ bloomers; thirty-three women’s gowns; ninety women’s dresses’ ninety women’s slips; and twenty-four boys’ suits. Thirty-three baby “sacques” were made from scraps and nine sun suits were made from small pieces of prints. Pieces too small to be used for garments were used to make twelve quilts. She also invited local residents to visit the room.

By the beginning of April the sewing room had received 1,003½ yards of bleached muslin, 794 yards of blue denim; 328½ yards checked gingham; ninety-six bolts of bias tape; and twenty gross of buttons. The Singer Sewing Machine Company shipped four new machines that allowed “nicer work” to be done. Several state and local WPA officials visited the room and were impressed with the progress of the sewing project and good average of production. This meant that each worker could continue to be given the tenth day of each pay period, called “Home Problem Day,” to do home sewing. Grapevine High School’s Home Economics II class visited and was especially interested in the making of children’s garments.

On May 18, 1936, the Grapevine City Council voted for the City to allow the Winfrey estate all City taxes on three Winfrey-owned brick buildings as long as those structures were used for federal relief, PAA, CWA, sewing room, storage, or for any other charitable purpose under US government supervision. While Mayor Wall was in San Antonio for the Democratic State Convention at the end of May, he stopped by the Texas WPA headquarters there, and in the interest of Grapevine he presented the officials with photographs of the WPA industries in the city, which were put on display in the general offices. Grapevine’s cannery and sewing room were “at the top of the list in Texas, if not the entire Southwest,” he said, “for working conditions, efficiency, production[,] and management.”

At the beginning of August 1936 the ladies in the sewing room received new uniforms. They were made of white muslin trimmed in blue, while the supervisor’s (Mrs. Baker) was made of blue percale trimmed in white. New screen doors were installed to better ventilate the room and keep insects out. Mrs. Baker reported that from December 5, 1935 to July 1, 1936 4,407 garments, eighteen quilt tops, and three rag rugs had been completed. Rug making had just recently begun because no needles were available for crocheting the rugs and so the workers made their own needles from wood. Several quilts were on display; one consisted of 2,968 pieces set together by hand to form the quilt top, which was 72 X 90 inches in size.

By November 5, 1936 fifteen women were employed in the sewing room. The ladies were also given time to studying home problems such as diet, meal planning, packing school lunches, and home sewing issues. To make the room more like home, three women contributed potted plants and a contribution of goldfish was promised. Someone also donated a cat to keep the room mouse-free. The ladies also sponsored a luncheon at the Sledge Café on November 21 for twenty-five cents; the proceeds, totaling $34.00 went to the sewing room and $18.00 was clear profit. They expected to put those funds toward calsomine for whitewashing the building, a fresh coat of paint for the cutting table, a bulletin board, ice for drinking water on hot days, and other necessities. They were also happily surprised with twenty-two dozen rolls from the Baird Bread Company, fifteen loaves of bread from the Taystee Bread Company, and enough Admiration coffee and Blue Bonnet mayonnaise to serve about 125 lunches.

On January 8, 1937, 2,677 garments for men, women, and children were shipped from the sewing room, as well as several quilts. As of that date, the ladies had completed 8,000 garments. They continued learning more about shortcuts in garment construction, pattern alterations, and garment and pattern cutting. Several workers attended an open house at the sewing room in Fort Worth. Over 1,200 people came to see garments produced by sewing rooms in District 7, a territory including nine counties.

The Grapevine sewing room held its own open house on March 26. By this time the sewing room workers were wearing tan and green uniforms, and workers had produced 9,402 garments. People came from Grapevine, Denton, Fort Worth, and Arlington to see exhibits and workers performing sewing tasks. Garments were arranged in booths according to district, classification, infants’, girls’, boys’, men’s women’, and household. Exhibits were made up from the seventy types of clothing made on the project. The “Home Problems” exhibit garnered the widest interest. It consisted of dresses and panties made from cambric flour bags. and dressed up with touches of hand work. Also present were sun suits made from meal bags and pillow cases made from sugar sacks touched up with pique and ric-rac braid. The outstanding garment was a man-tailored ladies’ suit made from four bleached fertilizer bags.

In June the sewing room was chosen as one in the district from which to make a state production time record test. Six women were chosen to cut, assemble, construct, and finish twenty-one garments each, while being timed. Mrs. Baker emphasized that by making a variety of garments the workers would become highly skilled at home sewing. Those skills included bound and worked button holes, sewing on buttons with and without shank, making set-in and patch pockets, French, flat-felled, and overcast seams, slip-stitching hems, and more. She was proud of the perfect production record of an average of 2⅔ garments per person per day for the seventeen working days in May.

On August 26-27 Mrs. Baker attended a WPA training course at the Fort Worth sewing room for sewing room supervisors consisting of talks and sewing demonstrations. Grapevine was represented by displays of infants’ and children’s garments as well as tailored garments.

The sewing room held a dinner and style show at the Workers of the World Hall on October 5, followed by another open house. About 150 people attended, including those from out of town. Several local ladies acted as models of various garments. The Federal Music Project Orchestra provided entertainment. A total of $72 was made, with a profit of $54.99 from the dinner. Mrs. Baker introduced Mrs. Myrtle Back as the new supervisor, as she was resigning to move to El Paso. In mid-October a second shift of workers and four more sewing machines were added, making a total of forty-four workers and fourteen sewing machines.

In late May 1938 a thirty-car caravan of WPA officials and businessmen made inspection tours of various federal government work projects throughout Tarrant County. They visited the sewing room and cannery at Grapevine, where Mayor Wall spoke to the group. County officials inspected in early January 1939 after a luncheon at the Grapevine Lions Club. At that time over sixty women worked in the sewing room.

In September 1939 twenty-five sewing machines and thirty-six women made clothing for school children. A total of 824 garments were sent to headquarters in Fort Worth to be distributed to needy Tarrant County families. Workers put in 130 hours per month and were paid from $46.80 to $61.10 per month. The Grapevine Sun noted that Grapevine “is indeed fortunate to possess one of the two WPA Sewing Rooms in Tarrant County, to  say nothing of the money it releases in our midst every month.”

The number of workers and hours of the sewing room fluctuated depending on funding. By April 1940 its workforce had been cut from fifty-three to thirty-four but the project brought $1,700 to $2,500 into Grapevine each month. Mrs. Ira Ball, who supervised the Fort Worth sewing room became the new project superintendent for the Grapevine room. From May 20-25 the sewing room observed National Professional and Service Week of WPA. Money earned by the workers was spent with local merchants sponsoring the project. Open house was held every day of that week, and one night was set aside for the merchants. The opening program included music, addresses by Mayor Wall and two others, a fashion show, and a school lunch skit. Mann Lucas was master of ceremonies.

On May 29, 1940 the WPA district director in Fort Worth announced a fifteen-percent reduction in WPA rolls for June, resulting in closure of many projects. The subsequent survey determined that several small sewing rooms would close, and on June 5 Mayor Wall noted in his diary that the Grapevine Sewing Room was shutting down. In July 1941 the Grapevine branch of the Tarrant County Free Library moved into the former sewing room, and in April 1942 the Red Cross took over sewing room operations.

The WPA ceased all operations on March 31, 1943 because of low unemployment during World War II.