Of course, women had been re-making clothes long before the First World War, and would continue to do so after the Second. However in peacetime this kind of economy was slightly embarrassing: it didn't make its way into the fashion magazines or the glossy women's service magazines. In wartime it became both fashionable and patriotic—a matter for pride!
"At last the rumors are out, and by next autumn they say we shall be allotted just so many years of material to make our dresses with, and there will be no big, roomy pockets, no fascinating dangling girdles and no plaits hidden away to consume extra yards. How to make a smart and warm dress with a minimum amount of woolen fabric will require a maximum amount of skillful planning, and here is a whole page of pretty ideas which will help you begin your early training in economizing right now."
"There are all sorts of ways to save wool, but the smartest way is to eke it out with soft silk. One must have a least one warm dress for the crisp spring days, and the combination of silk and wool, which Paris has been so quick to sanction, provides an economical as well as attractive method of using an old silk dress which nearly everyone has , with a few yards of woolen material, which is all one can afford to buy in these days. This smart little frock (no. 1507) made such clever use of the old beige crêpe de Chine dress on the left for its chemisette and the back and front of the side-opening skirt... A remnant of navy blue jersey cloth made the blouse and skirt yoke..."
"Below is a black satin skirt which gave itself up unreservedly for the blue serge coat dress (no. 1494). Even though you may not have a black satin skirt exactly like the one below to use as a foundation, don't despair, as almost any old two or three gored pattern may be narrowed down to the straight lines of the new silhouette..."
"To keep up with the times this four-year-old charmeuse made no protest at being transformed into a graceful tunic blouse. Very few new materials are being produced at the present time, in consequence of which the French designers are showing their ingenuity in using old materials in new ways and combinations. The lovely blouse shown here (No. 1497) was copied from a French design, and it is one of the war-necessity blouses, being made for ease at the armholes and comfort of fit, so that one can slip into easily and work unrestricted whether at sewing, bandage making or knitting. It is deeply pocketed, too, for unexpected overflow contributions."
"Have you an old broadcloth evening wrap like this one... too good to discard and yet too dowdy to wear? If you have, this good-looking topper coat ... (No. 1493) is one of the things you can make it over into. It is not always possible in making over to use two old garments for this purpose, and a yard or two of new material of matching or contrasting color in a different weave will often cover deficiencies which the old material may have. In this coat... a bolivia with its twilled weave made a pleasing contrast with the smooth surface of the broadcloth."
"There are more ways than one of making an old coat-suit into a one-piece dress than you dreamed of in your philosophy. One of the newest ways is illustrated just below in the good-looking street dress (No. 1487), and a glimpse of what it used to be before this great change took place in its life is shown in the little sketch on the left below. Almost any type of coat which is not cut away at the front may be adapted to this design, and the ubiquitous black satin, which goes so smartly with everything will make the foundation skirt, collar and sash ends... In remodeling a coat into a dress, the sleeves usually must be taken in at the seam and the coat at the underarm to give the slimness essential to a one-piece dress if you wish it to be smart."
It was fortunate that the fashions of 1915-17 were so ample: it gave the dressmakers of 1918 who wanted to remake their old clothes into new ones plenty of material to work with!
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