Suzi Clarke wrote:
At 03:06 05/10/2007, you wrote:
Six years!?! It would have been out of style. At least, that's what I
would
have claimed! :-)
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Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 4:06 PM
To: Historical Costume
Subject: [h-cost] Re: "repurposed" fabric...repurposing in the 1940s
Still the best book in my collection of sewing and fashion books is the
1940s home dressmakers' book by Pocket Books. This little dynamo of
100-odd
pages from a time when a Pocket Book would still fit in a pocket shows a
dozen different stitches, odd techniques, clever cheats, and gives
descriptions that are superior to any I have read elsewhere.
The highlight of the book, really, is how to make new things from old
such
as the chapter on how to turn your husband's old suit into a stylish new
outfit for you.
It demonstrates how to dis-assemble the suit and lay a new pattern
over the
old pieces and really is a very clever thing.
My only qualm would be the kind of sentence that must have rung out
across
the world in 1946:
"Darling, I am home from 6 long years in the military and I just
cannot wait
to get out of this uniform and into my good old..."
My mother remade my Dad's Royal Air Force uniforms into shorts and
shirts for my brother in the late 40's or early 50's. and my Dad was
still in the Air Force.
Thing was, he got promoted to an officer, and all his uniforms had to
be replaced. So there was all this lovely Air Force blue wool going to
waste...............................
I collect the odd sewing book, and have a lovely wartime book on how
to make do and mend clothes that have moth holes, have shrunk etc. And
I remember wool knit jumpers being unravelled, the wool washed, and
new things made.
Suzi
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Possibly my earliest memory is of unravelling a red wool jumper while
watching Princess Anne's (first) wedding on television. I think I would
have been about three years old. I remember the red wool - I don't
remember anything about the wedding!
Jean
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