Make Do and Mend - From the 1940s

The coming of clothes rationing was a shock for many middle class people who had comfortable lives and could afford to buy new clothes when they needed or wanted them. Remember, though, Britain, like much of the developed world, had experienced the depression of the 1930s and many people lived in abject poverty.

These people lived in unsanitary slums with no baths and only outdoor toilets, sometimes even these were shared with other families. They lived hand to mouth, often going hungry and very few working class people had the money for new clothes. They already knew about making do and mending. Clothes were worn until they were rags. Everything that could be reused was used again. Many of these people were experts at frugal living.

For those more fortunate people, the government ran classes on make do and mend as well as published leaflets giving people hints on ways to remake and reuse whatever they already had.

Picture above: A shopkeeper cancels the coupons in a British housewife's ration book - from Wikipedia

In wartime Britain, new fabrics and yarns of any kind were hard to obtain.

When knitted garments were outgrown or wore out in places, the knitting was unraveled and the yarn wound into balls, then it was knitted into a new garment. Women, who were keen knitters before the war, went through their stock of leftover yarn and used it to knit multi coloured garments, perhaps along the lines of Dolly Parton's coat of many colours.

Bed sheets that had worn thin in the middle were cut in half and then the former outer sides were sewn together to make a stronger sheet with the worn patches on the edges and so tucked under the mattress. A seam down the middle of a sheet might not be great but probably better than no sheet at all.

Old curtains and blankets were recycled to make into new skirts and jackets. Sewing patterns were published that used the least fabric possible to make a new garment. Skirts were shorter and slimline. Fabric couldn't be wasted on a full skirt or pleats.

Fabric was cut from the tail of men's shirts to cover frayed collars. Shirt cuffs were made slight shorter so the frayed edge could be folded up onto the inside. The opposite was done with men's trousers (pants) that had turn-ups on the bottom at the time. The turn-up was folded so that the frayed part was on the inside even though it made them slightly longer in the leg.

Women could no longer buy silk stockings so they used a mixture of gravy browning and water to paint their legs. They then drew a line up the back of their legs to look like the seam that all stockings had at the time.

Shoe polish wasn't available so people were advised to cut a potato in half and use that to bring a shine to their shoes.

These were just a few of the ingenious ways that people made do and mended during World War II.