Overcasting is used merely to secure the edges of thin and loose fabrics from “ravelling out.” In using it, the edges of the cloth, whether it be woollen, linen, or cotton, are first trimmed clear of the loose threads; the needle is then passed through the cloth in a forward direction, at about the distance of one-eighth part of an inch from the edge of the cloth, and when drawn out it is carried (from the left to the right, and not, as in other stitches, from the right to the left) about a quarter of an inch; it is then again put through, and on being drawn out it is made to pass over the thread leading from the preceding stitch, so as to form a kind of loop on the edge; which loop secures the edge from becoming too much frayed, or ravelled. All the tools that the apprentice or even the journeyman requires may be bought for a few shillings. A yard of linen for a _lap-cloth_; two pairs of _scissors_, one pair moderately large, for common use, and the other small, for button-holes; a _thimble_; a small piece of _bees-wax_; and threepennyworth of _needles_, are all that he will have occasion to buy so long as he is not a master, or a journeyman working at home, when he must procure a _sleeve-board_ and an _iron_. The more expensive part of even these few implements, viz. the scissors, will, with tolerable care, last for a number of years with only the trifling expense of being occasionally sharpened by the cutler. All the implements used by the Tailor are so well known as to need no particular description; the _sleeve-board_ is used to place in the sleeve of a coat while the seams are pressed with the heated _iron_ or the _goose_. In the _measure book_ the dimensions are written when measurement of a customer is made, and the _French chalk_ marks the direction in which the cloth is cut to the pattern of the various shapes, which are afterwards sewn together to make complete garments. THE TANNER. [Illustration: THE PITS.] Leather is a substance universally used amongst civilized and very generally amongst barbarous nations; it is made from the skins of animals, which are tanned, or prepared with some substance, having the power of converting the perishable skin, that decays readily when wet or moist, into a lasting and comparatively imperishable leather. The preparation of skins by tanning or other similar processes has been practised from the earliest times; and although it has engaged the attention of several scientific men, and has been the subject of many curious experiments, it has received less alteration from recent improvements in chemical science than many other manufacturing processes. Several plans, which have been suggested with a view to expediting the process, which on the old system is a very tedious one, have been found to injure the quality of the leather, and have therefore been wholly or partially abandoned; and others, which appear to be more successful, are as yet adopted by a few manufacturers only.