Make do and Mend
During the Second World War clothing and fabric were rationed. Women became expert at mending, altering garments and making their own clothes. “Make do and Mend” became the byword of the day. Pillowcases were made into baby clothes, father’s old trousers might become a skirt for his daughter, and old parachute silk was much prized as material to make blouses and nightdresses.
Coupons were issued to buy clothes and at first everyone was given 66 coupons a year. This was later reduced as the shortages intensified. For example a man’s jacket required 26 coupons, a woman’s blouse was 12 coupons, a pair of men’s shoes 5 coupons. Clothing rationing was introduced in June 1941 and continued until March 1949.
"Well, I’ve knitted cardigans, I weren’t much good as a knitter. I didn’t do any knitting much before the war, though I do remember knitting a cardigan and I never finished it. My mum made a dress for me and you just wore and wore it, it wasn’t for a short time, it came out two or three years until it wore out. You had coupons, I forget how many it was, it was rationed according to how much material you had. So you had to make things last, you had to darn." Betty
"We were never very flush with clothes I know that sort of thing and when we came home I know Mum would un-pick jumpers and wash all the wool and redo it all up again that sort of thing." Joan
"I was 17 in the photo. I knitted the sweater I am wearing and I did it in a Fairisle style using darning wool because wool was hard to come by. You bought it in short skeins and it had to be knotted to knit the full garment. It was a bit of a mess on the other side." Dorothea.
"All my underclothes were parachute silk. We were only saying the other day how lovely they were. I wish you could get some now because it was beautiful. I used to get point heel stockings, used to get them down Berwick Street Market cause I worked in the West End and we used to get them, one and six a pair. Silk stockings. Well if you laddered your stockings and you couldn’t get any more for that week then you did paint a line down but it wasn’t always straight." Edith
"I had to beg, borrow and steal as you might say, we didn’t steal of course but begged them, borrowed them, bought them, coupons for my wedding dress." May.
"I mean recycling is nothing to us today because we’ve recycled all our life. In those days it was make do and mend. Today it’s recycling. You went round and you collected all sorts of things like jam pots and papers and anything that could be used for something else you collected. I mean if your clothes wore out you darned them or you tried to patch them to make them last a bit longer because you hadn’t got the coupons to get anymore with so that’s the thing. If things wore out at home you did the best with them until you could get some more. Because you couldn’t get household things and that sort of thing so you made do with what you’d got so hence, ‘make do and mend’. everything was on coupons. You had the utility mark on them which was sort of two little arrows following one another. Oh yes everything was rationed as far as that was concerned, you needed your coupons if you wanted clothes." Lena
"I made a nightdress out of a parachute and I wore that under my wedding dress when I got married in 1954." Mary