IMPORTANT TO THE LADIES 
 
 SHIFTS IN SHIFT -MAKING! 
 
 From « The Merchants Ware-home Laid Open; or. The Plain-Dealing 
 Lmnen-Draper;’—by J. F., l2mo., London, 1696. 
 
 , „ . because Shifts begin with the Letter S- 1 
 
 Shall here give you such Instructions, which if well observed and followed 
 you may thereby know how to Cut out a Shift out of two Ells of Holland’ 
 as most People shall do out of two Ells and a quarter, and shall be both as 
 long and ^ Jarge, for example ; If you will Cut out but one Shift Ell 1 long, 
 take two Ells of Holland, and slit it through the middle; let it be Ell wide 
 as the bigness of your body requires, and when it 
 IS split through the middle, instead of taking one half bredth, and iust the 
 same length of the other half bredth for the Body, cut l-8th of an Ell olf 
 clone of the half bredths, and just the same length off of the other half 
 bredth, which take for the body of your Shifts, then take the remainder of 
 one of the half bredths and double it, then lay it across, and cut it for your 
 (joars, then take the other remainder of the bredth, and double it, and cut 
 It in ^e middle, which makes just a pair of Sleeves, then you wantonly for 
 '^•11 ont of the hollowing of the Neck of your 
 Shin, which Itule you may observe in cutting out two, four, or six Shifts, 
 for whM you cut out two, take a body of one of the half bredths, and a 
 body off of the other, and when you cut four, take two Bodies off of one of 
 t e half bredths, and two Bodies off of the other, and when you cut six, 
 take three off of one of the half bredths, and three off of the other, and by 
 that means you may cut them what length in reason you please ; whereas if 
 Bodies all of one piece, you can make them but two Ells long, 
 cu-ft ^ T ® quarter of an Ell in the Cutting out of each 
 
 Shitt. J could give you other Instructions for Cutting out half-Ell Cloth, 
 that you might Cut a Shift as large out of a Cloth half-Ell, as others should 
 do out ot a Cloth three quarters wide, but I shall be forced to omit this, by 
 reason it would make me out-run the limits of my Book, and for that I 
 shall treat of it in my next Edition.” — Page 38. 
 
 Great Totham: Printed at Charles Clark's Private Press,