Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

dreaming

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

It's funny as I was talking to my friend about this last night. He is almost 50 and he was saying he remembers his grandmother always wearing hats with a matching type of outfit and i said I remember one of my grandmothers dressing the same way.

When I think about it now she dressed like that when I was a kid and she must have only been about 45 years old, so near to my age now!:rotfl:

I had 2 aunties (sisters) - one was very thin and the other was plumper. Although both married they did a lot together and always wore very similar clothes but in slightly different colours. One would have a pale blue mac (similar to those in the picture) and one would have pale lilac for instance. I used to worry that the hat pin actually went right through their heads!

Primrose

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

Sort of getting us back to war time recipes - has anybody got a good green tomato chutney recipe :rotfl: I would sooner trust you ladies & gentlemen than the internet;)

Getting back to stories - does everybody remember lay away? In her early 20’s my dear mum used to go into the dress shop & pay half a crown (I think) each week for several months to buy the most glorious sleeveless, knee length red dress with a sculpted jacket (fine corduroy if I remember correctly). Only picked it up when the last payment was made & wore it that same night It was so beautiful & in the way of things she kept it for years :T To my great joy before I started to fill out too much & got too tall, I got to wear it for a couple of years. I have absolutely no idea what happened to it - not that I would have a cat in hell’s chance of fitting into it :rotfl:
I really wish I could sew from scratch or cut from a pattern because I would love to recreate it but what is that saying “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride” :rotfl:

I will love & leave you.

More stories please

MrsSD

I don,t remember this but I do recall those various easy cut-out kits for ladies Dresses or skirts supplied by magazines like Woman's Own magazine. They would supply the material, already cut out for your specific size and all you had to do was sew it together.

I recall my mum ordering a cut out navy & white polka dress cut out for both of us and my mum sewing them up. I,ve not worn a navy & white polka dress outfit for years since then until comparatively recently and that really bought the memory of it flooding back and my mum trying to teach an very unenthusiastic teenager how to sew !

Siebrie

My Mum was 4 when the war broke out, and she well remembers the cold! Her Mum was a widow with 3 daughters and owned (ran?) a greengrocery; there was always something to eat (fruit and veg that couldn't be sold anymore), but hardly enough fuel to cook it. Mum remembers taking a little pan with potatoes and veg over to the neighbours, so it could go on their stove.


Mum also remembers having 2 rabbits in a small cot behind the house (the greengrocer's was the front part of the house, they lived at the back and over). She played with the rabbits and cuddled them, and knew they ultimately they would be slaughtered. There were no emotions regarding this, she just knew and accepted. She very much enjoyed the muff that was made from the rabbit skin!

luvchocolate

Primrose wrote: »

I don,t remember this but I do recall those various easy cut-out kits for ladies Dresses or skirts supplied by magazines like Woman's Own magazine. They would supply the material, already cut out for your specific size and all you had to do was sew it together.

I recall my mum ordering a cut out navy & white polka dress cut out for both of us and my mum sewing them up. I,ve not worn a navy & white polka dress outfit for years since then until comparatively recently and that really bought the memory of it flooding back and my mum trying to teach an very unenthusiastic teenager how to sew !

Oh my goodness this reminded me of getting a purple flowered trouser suit to make up from Jackie magazine in the 60's

Eenymeeny

This thread is bringing back lots of memories! I remember having to choose a dress pattern that we would be making in sewing class at school.
It had an inverted pleat at the front and a fake tab front with buttons on it. I was told to take it home as 'it would be too complicated for me' My mother was disgusted and commented that 'she mustn't be much of a teacher!' I was shown how to make it at home and was made to wear it at the next 'no uniform' event at school!
I can remember spending all term on an envelope-type thing to hold our as yet, unmade work. Then the next term we had to embroider our names and form number on them. My mother thought this was a waste of time and materials when we could have been darning socks or sewing buttons on! I suppose there must have been other girls in the class who hadn't any experience of sewing at all. (Boys did woodwork!)

dreaming

luvchocolate wrote: »

Oh my goodness this reminded me of getting a purple flowered trouser suit to make up from Jackie magazine in the 60's

And this reminds me of my needlework O level (goodness knows why I did it as I wasn't very good). I chose to make a trouser suit with yellow floral trousers and a yellow jacket with the floral material as lapels and pockets (the height of fashion at the time). We were supposed to make it over the year in our double lessons and it would be assessed in May. However I wanted it to wear it in February to my friend's 16th so I finished it at home and wore it. I wasn't allowed to continue that O level and had to work on my other subjects in the library instead.

ancientmum

My Mum used to make me the cut out and sew dresses from Woman. She said the cutting out bit was too fiddly. She knitted all my brothers' school jumpers. I remember having to do smocking on an apron in sewing classes - never finished. The only thing I did manage was a traycloth with Hardanger embroidery.

Shropshirelass

I'm enjoying these stories so much!

In top class at Primary school we girls made the most horrible cotton knickers. Can't imagine why, I'm sure no-one ever wore them. When my children where babies, I started sewing again and made lots, especially for my daughter. The last dress I made for her was a dark red brocade suit for her Prom. I rather over worked and over stressed on it, and didn't touch the sewing machine for years afterwards.

I do remember my grandma buying me a dress when I was about 7, so must have been 1954ish. It was imported from America, beautiful blue material with little white clouds floating over it, and a border of rabbits wearing dresses and carrying posters for "rabbit soap". I don't think there were a lot of children's clothes available before then, as I had a lot (beautifully) made from cut-down adult clothes. Or perhaps grandma didn't believe in paying for what you could make better yourself

elsiepac

Just wanted to pop in and say I clicked on this thread thinking it would be interesting but didn't expect to have just finished reading the whole thing 45 minutes later (I googled some things as I went along, like the liberty bodices!) - I am full up with a lovely warm feeling inside - I've so loved reading everyone's stories!
This isn't really OT but had to throw it in - my mum was born in 61 and when she was in her teens (so presumably early to mid 70s) Levi's jeans were THE thing to have! My mum is one of six and they weren't a well off family - the 3 girls shared a room as did the 3 boys, with a triple bunk in each! I digress... there was no way her parents would have been able to afford Levi's so in order to buy them herself she spent the whole summer working in... the pickled onion factory! Her job was... peeling the onions! Her eyes were raw all summer she said, But she got her jeans. She told me how the trend was to wear them as tight as possible, so you would soak them in the bath and then her two sisters would help her tug them on, then they all did the same for each other!
She also adores bananas, and it turned out that was because they were very very rare apparently when they were growing up - I'm not sure if generally not available or due to family finances - so a banana was one of the best treats going.
And another one she told me was when she was very little so would firmly have been in the 60s, and they had a babysitter, and the babysitter walked them all down to the shops and gave them a whole sixpence each to buy sweeties! My mums favourite thing in the world was strawberry laces, and they were 6 for a penny. She spent her whole sixpence on them, ate all 36 laces on the walk back home, was very sick and hasn't been able to look at one since!

My nan, her mum, is 83 now, but I remember a few things from going to stay with her in the school holidays - a brick type hot water bottle in the bed as the back bedroom that any of us grandkids used when we stayed (that used to be the boys room!) didn't have heating and only single glazing... she would bring us 3 biscuits wrapped in a piece of kitchen roll with a cup of tea to wake us up in the morning before breakfast (which was cereal and eggs and toast).. lunch (dinner) was always a full cooked meal, invariably served around 1130, usually meat, potatoes and veg, and always a piece of white bread available to soak up the gravy afterwards (my favourite bit!), tea was around 4 and would be maybe a piece of cake and something else (I don't really remember tea) and supper was around 6-7 and would be something that she'd found in KwikSave on offer - I remember the whole 2 weeks once every day we had noodles for supper - the SuperNoodle types with the little sachet of powder. and there would always have been a cooked pudding at lunch (sorry, dinner) as well - my favouritest one ever was Apple Charlotte - Very very sweet stewed apples topped with white breadcrumbs win what seemed a 50/50 ratio with sugar and baked... it was so light and crunchy and sweet, oh but how unhealthy!!
I've always been a big eater whereas my sister used to have to be forced, so me it was heaven but hell for my sister! Mum said I used to come back visibly fatter!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Siebrie wrote: »

My Mum was 4 when the war broke out, and she well remembers the cold! Her Mum was a widow with 3 daughters and owned (ran?) a greengrocery; there was always something to eat (fruit and veg that couldn't be sold anymore), but hardly enough fuel to cook it. Mum remembers taking a little pan with potatoes and veg over to the neighbours, so it could go on their stove.


Mum also remembers having 2 rabbits in a small cot behind the house (the greengrocer's was the front part of the house, they lived at the back and over). She played with the rabbits and cuddled them, and knew they ultimately they would be slaughtered. There were no emotions regarding this, she just knew and accepted. She very much enjoyed the muff that was made from the rabbit skin!

Everyone seems to have pulled together back then unlike now - I am not sure if the world is a more hateful place now or just that everything gets reported now from everywhere
My mum was living in London during the bombings in 1944 (6 years old) - she only ever told us one rather grim story - but never mentioned being cold although did mention being hungry She did make sure that we never went hungry though - even when money was very tight in the 60’s.
I remember in the late 70’s we had chickens & ducks - only for eggs though :rotfl: they ended up being pets rather than food :rotfl: Mum did grow runner beans & DSis & I still love them to this day - even if we did have to eat them with practically every meal :rotfl:

More stories please

MrsSD