A study of teaching effectiveness of a cotton fabric selection unit with ninth grade homemaking students

One of the requirements of the first year homemaking course planned by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is a unit based on the construction of a cotton dress. The requirements of the unit as given in the Guide to the Teaching of Homemaking in North Carolina Schools.1 emphasize certain factors pertaining to the selection of cotton fabrics. Many of these factors deal with the aesthetic properties of the fabric. Little opportunity is given for instruction in the physical characteristics of the fabric that will make it a good or a poor purchase. Practically every high school girl buying a dress fabric is aware that the fabric should be decoratively suitable for the style of garment selected and for the occasion for which the garment will be worn. Few students acquire any appreciation of the factors that will contribute to the serviceability of the fabric and thus influence the satisfaction they will receive from the garment