Did your mother make you wear a Liberty bodice?

Yes I wore one, you brought back happy memories of all the layers of clothes we had to put on, I’d quite forgotten about the rubber buttons too ... might be why I still love a vest now!

Bella Di Notte are my favourites.

I'd never heard of the liberty bodice until I moved to the big city to train as a nurse. Came across many strange things if truth be told.

I was "lucky" to wear the normal vest until moving on to a bra, and also missed out on suspenders and stockings as tights came along just as I got too old for wearing socks.
I do remember my mother wearing her suspender belt with the aforementioned new-fangled tights as she didn't trust them not to fall down!!!

Thank you, Marydoll. Bit of an anticlimax, really. I think I prefer the curtains.

This thread is bringing up memories, not all of them pleasant. I’m thinking of the horrors of starting to wear nylon stockings and a suspender belt! I had very long skinny legs and the stockings never seemed to be quite long enough. The bloody things used to ping off the suspenders. I hated wearing them as a shy awkward teenager and the advent of tights was a godsend. Even though they were slightly too short for my legs and slipped down.

Snap Kalu, I think we may be long lost twins!
Liberty bodices, what memories! Those rubber buttons always perished and cracked with going through the wringer. I remember my mother hanging mine out on the washing line, in a Glasgow winter they would come back in so stiff with frost they could stand up unaided on the kitchen table! Then when hung on the kitchen pulley, they’d drip as they thawed out. But washing always had to be hung outside come what may, whatever the weather!

Camphorated oil and goose fat was in plentiful supply in our house for chest infections and coughs. It was a wonder that we didn't self combust! My liberty bodices also had rubber buttons and were very fiddly to do up. They used to hang on the clothes horse in front of the fire to completely dry. One afternoon I recall my Mum opening a few sheets of newspaper and holding them in front of the grate to create the draught needed to encourage the fire to draw properly up the chimney. This was often a bit hit and miss and you needed to be careful that the newspaper didn't catch light! The Firemen were very kind to me as they tramped through our kitchen in their big boots to put out the chimney fire which ensued!!!!! I was about 4 and have never forgotten the incident.

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Liberty Bodice and Interlock ( whatever that meant ) knickers!

nickvoz

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Reported. Totally devalues genuine qualifications.

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Crossed posts Marydoll. I’ve also reported. Is there something peculiar about a Friday night on here??

I think the name Liberty came from the shop which did a line in modern hygienic underclothing. Neither modern nor particularly hygienic by the time I am remembering (the terrible winter of 1947) but plainly lots of us were trussed up like oven-ready chickens. No modern grandchild has any inkling of just how cold homes were before central heating became the norm. Not until the mid-1970s in our age!

I wore a liberty bodice, plus vest and navy blue school knickers. The knickers might have been later though, I think I’d stopped wearing the liberty bodice by the time I was wearing navy blue school knickers. What was a liberty bodice supposed to do? Was it just an extra layer?

I think that's right Maddyone we needed the extra layers then. I also remember an old lady being brought into the hospital where I worked and she had been sewn into her clothes for the winter. Not unusual for the older, poorer generation at that time..

I vividly remember my first pair of stockings, my mother forgot to buy the suspender belt and made me some garters to wear. There was no elasticity in stockings then so they wrinkled round my knees, the shame !!

Yes and a woolly vest in the winter and long socks with garters that cut into my leg. But bare knees that went bright red in the cold.

Gymslips - grey ours were - with grey knickers. White blouse and grey sweater.

Garberdine Mac with a hood and lace up shoes and satchel

Liberty bodice was essential in the 1940s in the north of England. Vest, liberty bodice, flannel petticoat, jumper and pinafore dress. Took me ages to undress for PE.
My father said they had their chests rubbed with goose fat and stitched into a flannel binder for the winter, he was born in 1910.

Ladybird pyjamas.

When I was at boarding school we d to wear 2 pairs of knickers! White underneath blue ones. WHY?

If we had a fire drill we had to climb out of the dormitory windows by a rope ladder. Matron would stand at the bottom and woe betide any of us who didn’t have her navy blues on?

PamelaJ1

Ladybird pyjamas.

When I was at boarding school we d to wear 2 pairs of knickers! White underneath blue ones. WHY?

If we had a fire drill we had to climb out of the dormitory windows by a rope ladder. Matron would stand at the bottom and woe betide any of us who didn’t have her navy blues on?

I was going to see if you were at the same one as me but our knickers weren’t navy as I remember. It was the fire drill thing that rang a bell.

By the sound of it I’m glad I didn’t go to boarding school. The idea of climbing down a rope ladder in the dark is enough to strike terror into my heart. Myself and heights have never been firm friends.

Yes, I remember it well, being brought up in Scotland, much needed. with my vyella shirt and woollen gymslip, then a woollen cardi on top. I was covered in eczema, which of course was an allergy to wool!! Mum made my vyella shirts, they had round collars which I hated, so I chewed the collar until it was pointed!!

I was born in the early fifties and remember wearing a liberty bodice, and drinking the thick 'government orange juice' at the welfare centre. I have a horrible memory of being put a potty there, in a large room full of people.
Also memories of the third of a pint school milk bottles; one kind teacher used to make it up into hot cocoa for us when it was really cold. The chilblains were awful though - you don't often hear about them now, with central heating.

A friend of mine had to wear the two pairs of knickers, I can remember my mum and hers chatting - apparently the white pair was to stop the dye from the navy pair from ...er... staining...!

Lucca I was in the northwest, near Lancaster.
Boarding school- great training for the Marines!

The white knickers were called linings at my boarding school.

I wore a rubber buttoned liberty bodice through the late 1940's. Stopped when I went to Secondary school. Also, remember that we wore very baggy navy knickers, and my Mum always insisted that I wore a pair of white ones underneath,. Those baggy knickers were great for tucking in our skirts so we could go tree climbing, turn upside down in the playground. Seem to remember that for PE we just stripped down to vests and those baggy navy pants.

One of my Uncles was a tailor and he made me what we call today a Trouser Suit to help to keep me warm during 1948. My Mum thought it would be a good idea for me to wear this to school, only girl there ever to wear trousers. Mind you, school was not all that warm, far too large, ancient Victorian building, and our only toilets were in blocks the other side of the playground to the school building. No heating at all in them.