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More 1920 embroidery designs

Recycling

Recycling is so very 'now'.  But recycling has been going on for ever.  Then again, recycling can mean something quite different depending on the era.

This book was published in 1915. 

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WW1 was raging and recycling was a necessity for most people, so, it was often a topic of interest, especially for women trying to make ends meet.  I find the difference in how we 'express' ourselves in different eras interesting.  Back in 1915 we 'explained' what we meant with a lot more words.

A good example was the 'Preface'.

War is a hard, stern teacher, and its lessons are bitter in the learning; yet some of its teaching we badly needed - and not the least important of its main lessons is the one it inculcated on the criminality of waste.

To so many of us "waste" was a word with a comparative meaning. What was waste in one woman was not necessarily waste in another, we argued.  It was wrong for the factory girl to let her skirts drop off her for lack of mending: but not wrong for the better-off women to discard their clothes directly they showed the least sign of wear, because they could afford to buy more, we said; and besides, it made it good for trade - that was a favourite argument used by the extravagent to excuse their wanton waste.

Harsh words indeed.

On reading this book I had no idea that you could use old crockery for beads.  It seems like a lot of work.  We can purchase beads at a very cheap price today, maybe this is something that will change over the next 100 years?

What I was looking for was drawings, rather like those of Margaret Clarke, to use in my 1920's quilt.  The only thing I found was these illustrations in advertisements.

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Screen Shot 2023-04-08 at 1.26.29 pmI might use the faces of the girls looking over the wall and the flowers on the cover could translate into an applique.  Or maybe these?

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What I can't see myself doing is turning the collars of my husbands shirts.  If he wants that he can do it himself!

Comments

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Queenie Patch

One thing that has changed is people's attitudes. In the past, a hole HAD to be mended, it was SHAMEFUL to have your underwear, e.g. your slip, showing, and colours should not clash. Now new jeans are worn out and torn in the factory and people actually buy them, fashion dictates that bra straps and knicker tops should be seen and as for colours today - anything goes.
Recycling may also be a fashion, it will be interesting to see if and when the trend changes. Until then I will darn my socks and not mind my fraying collar.

Rachel

I can remember my mother replacing the collars of my father's shirts in the 1970s. But in those days it was very hard to find 100% cotton shirts, and he found the synthetic ones deeply uncomfortable; anything to keep his cotton shirts going was a good thing!

Carolyn Foley


Yes, my grandmother showed me how to do this but it is not for me.

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