My mother was a thrifty woman. She had to be. She was
widowed with three little kids . . .
I had an older sister so of course I inherited most of her clothes
to wear: hand-me-downs. But I didn’t really mind that. There was
one bathing suit of hers that was great—-white with little blue stars
all over and ruffles at the hips. Sensational!!
One year Mom bought me a beautiful new blue wool coat.
She got it a little large so it would “last” a couple of years.
Some might say the sleeves were too long:
I wore it with a wide-brimmed felt navy hat. I
loved that outfit.
Years later I was still wearing that coat . . . looks
like it might be Christmastime in this photo–it’s
probably about three years later–or more!–and my
mother had attached a row of fur at the bottom of
the coat to make it fit a while longer!
I’ll bet I’m wearing those red rubber boots that we all wore. And I remember that clever hat that was a combination hat and scarf. It was cold in upstate New York! (Sorry the photo isn’t too clear—-can you see the fur at the bottom?)
What “make-do” stories do you have to tell?
What a wonderful memory! Since I grew up in southern California we didn’t have to worry about coats and hats and what not. We had jackets for the chillier days and my mom would usually buy those a little bigger so they’d last longer. Since I was the oldest it was my sister getting the handmedowns. Also my mom sewed most of our clothes herself. Since she was very good at it the clothes were nice except she liked to make matchy things for me and my sister which was definitely not ok but we got no say in the matter 🙂
Thanks for great comment, Stefanie–loved reading your
clothes memories. My mom sewed a lot, too–and I’ll write
about that sometime, too. And YOU were the older sister–!