As a child my dearest wish was to have a sticky out dress. In other words a dress with a full skirt and numerous net petticoats stiffened with a sugar solution. I also wanted to be able to jive.
Life is ever full of disappointments and by the time I was old enough to buy my own clothes sticky out dresses were a thing of the past. I also have two left feet so I was never able to jive.
Even without the above mentioned dresses I still made some eclectic fashion choices. I started work at 15, mini skirts were all the rage, I wore them briefly but soon realised they didn't suit me.
Living alone in a bedsit from the age of 16 meant very little money for clothes but even then I owned a sewing machine. I was give unwanted clothes by friends and workmates and I would alter things to fit me or even to make something completely different. My favourite item was a purple silk jacket embroidered with gold dragons, I made a pair of black flares to wear with it.
I bought curtain fabric and made caftans that I sold to my workmates, they wore them to parties, I wore them daily.
Scrimping and saving, ranting and raving. Past retirement age.
10 comments:
I loved kaftans and flared bottomed jeans and bare feet.
What a useful talent to have. I had a sewing machine at one time but only used it to make curtains or bed spreads - easy stuff.
Just a few words can take you back 60 years to the days of sticky out skirts and mum getting cross because I had used her sugar on my paper nylon petticoats hanging on the line covered in bees.
You sound as if you have had a very interesting life.
I'm older than you and did have a sticky out skirt and did a lot of jiving at the local dance when I was 16 ish.. but also when I was 50 and divorced and went on Singles holidays. I still loved the dancing and put up with one fella who was a great dancer but pretty boring, but I never saw him after that weekend.
I never had your talent with a sewing machine, I remember growing up wearing hand-me-downs from one of my Mum's work colleagues daughters. What I did have was imagination and wore the things my own way. A shiny satiny dress that was too short for lanky me was worn instead as a top under a two-tone skirt that came in the bundle with it. A little red short sleeve jumper had my white school shirt worn under it with the sleeves rolled up to make 'cuffs' at the edge of the short sleeves. The coat I was given I hated, and it was simply rolled up and hidden in my school bag the minute I was out of sight of the house, and I froze on the 3 mile walk to school instead.
I remember walking to school in small-town Vermont and having the older teen-aged girls walk past me in pairs with their dresses taking up the the whole sidewalk, brushing against my short little cheeks with their petticoats. I had petticoats too but not so big. At Christmastime my mother would sew little colored jingle bells on to them, and she'd take them off at New Years, which kept them special. When she was a child there was no money, time or inclination in her home in Fife to do such things for her. By the time I was a teenager, it was miniskirts all the way.
I was too young for the "sticky out" dresses but I do remember the older girls wearing them and being very jealous.
Flash forward many years and I had taken my 5 year old niece for a new dress for Easter. She was at the stage where she wanted "privacy" so I let her go into the change room by herself. Finally a little head popped out behind the curtain as she needed help. The dress came with a separate crinoline (I had thought it was attached) and she didn't know if it went under or over the dress itself. Once it got sorted she was delighted with her "swishy" dress that moved all around her.
You certainly have been a clever survivor and learned how to make your own way in the world. I admire that! I always wanted to be a great seamstress but never seemed to make much that didn't look "homemade". I do enjoy crafts, tho, and am hand-quilting right now. I especially enjoy crafts that I can do in front of the TV now that I am retired!
I remember soaking my petticoat in sugar and water in the bath to make it stiff and stick out under the skirt of my dress. We wore them under our school uniform dresses until the headmistress, Miss Chorley, banned the petticoats. My mother showed me how to sew when I was very young and we were also were taught to sew at senior school. I used to use my mother's Singer treddle sewing machine and bought my own sewing machine in 1971 to make an evening dress for a dinner I was going to with my fiance. I only sent the dress to a charity shop about three years ago when I decided to have a clear out.
I just recently bought a repro circle skirt via Isabel's Retro & Vintage (an indie shop based here in Newbury but they have a website for online orders too) and although I don't have the net petticoats to make it stick out I just adore the way it swishes and spreads out if I spin around!
When I first got it I spent ages spinning and swishing like a little girl :)
To make it extra lovable...it has pockets...to me the holy grail when it comes to a skirt or dress.
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