Should I apologise ?

I remember sitting in the bath on the morning of our wedding, hair still in curlers which I had kept in overnight and putting the finishing touches to my Biba style hat which I had designed to match my dress. Didn't have a Hen's night, not my thing anyway but certainly not a week in Ibizia as is the done thing now.

1975 - I was lucky that Chelsea Girl and Laura Ashley were making smock type dresses /pinafores then and these were suitable for maternity wear.

Galen there's posh!

Oh I had one beautiful new maternity dress which DH bought for me (I was not even with him) We were going to a January wedding and I had been feeling sorry for myself having to wear one of my 2 pairs of elasticated cord trousers and a home made red smock! The dress was an expensive Xmas present! My 9lb 3oz DD1 was born 10 weeks later!

I made my own maternity smocks and dresses. Surely all of us could sew in those day...?

Yes but you had to be able to afford the material

Well, I could, just about, from the local market. I also altered and adapted clothes I already had - never bought maternity trousers/jeans for example.

When we did sewing in Domestic Science at school I was too embarrassed to tell the teacher we hadn't got a sewing machine at home so I never learned how to use one [electric ones still scare me]. I always assumed that everything was because we were poor; never dawned on me that some of the other girls may not have had sewing machines either because they were rich enough to buy clothes.

Yep we were the same - didn't seem to matter though.

Oh AnaI would have had to sew two pairs of trousers together to fit into them when I was pregnant! I made the tops.. fabric from the Monday market was cheap! My Noana was a seamstress and my mum made all her clothes and mine . I thought that was what everyone did until we came back to live in UK and I discovered C&A!

During my first pregnancy I worked in an office next to a crimplene factory. They had a shop selling remnants so I had a wardrobe of rather dreadful crimplene maternity clothes in very 70's colours. I did buy a very beautiful black and white maternity dress from Biba, but it was so very stylish that I rarely had the nerve to wear it.

I wouldn't have had time to make mine. I was a full time GP (ie nights and home visits) until 2/52 before DD was born

When I was heavily pregnant I wore a turquoise, crimplene maternity dress. I also wore a pair of DH's Y fronts for comfort.

I was pregnant for part of 79/80 and 81/82. I was lucky to have two Laura Ashley smocks bought for me as Christmas presents, the rest of my maternity wardrobe was borrowed or made by myself with fabric bought off market stalls.

Tegan I used an old treadle machine.

Me too, Aka - I inherited mine from my granny and still can't get on with electric ones so well.

Coincidence Ana mine was inherited from my granny-in-law. I wish I still had it as it was much more controllable than these electric ones that run away with you.

Oh I'd love a treadle sewing machine. I've got a very old hand one that lives on the piano. I haven't got a clue how to use it but I find it a thing of beauty [and awe]. Like old typewriters. I do have a dress in the wardrobe that I made years ago and I still can't believe that I actually made it; it's quite exquisite. In fact I'm going to have a look at it now. If I saw it for sale as a retro garment I'd probably buy it. I may try to slim back into it although, with it being my handiwork I'd worry about it bursting at the seams if I sat down. I wish I knew how to put photos on here; honestly, you'd all swoon .

Sounds like my ankle-length slinky number in heavy black crepe, Tegan. It was that rare thing, a garment that goes together right first time, and it fitted perfectly. The skirt skimmed the high waist from a fitted V-necked sleeveless empire bodice and then flared out. It was fully lined with nylon jersey and hung beautifully.

I wore it with only a soft bra underneath - no knickers to avoid vpl. It looked a knockout.

Those were the days!

Our first home together, I do remember other friends were the same, carpet for the living room and after this anywhere else when we could afford it with our bedroom last. Lots of highly patterned swirls too. I wish I could re-capture the innocence I felt at the time. I don't think I had a cynical bone in my body. Unlike now.

I have a lovely old microscope, circa 1920 that was my fathers at medical school. It's a lovely old brass and black thing in a polished wooden case.
I'd love to have it on display like your old sewing machines! But,
I'm worried about my clumsy cleaner. I should think its worth some thing, but what?
Father bought it second hand.
Three generations of this family have used it to date!

The thrill when ny monthly pay slip showed £100!! We scrounged cast-offs from family for all our furniture, except for our bed which we bought with a wedding present cheque from DH's god father and bought cheap sisal carpetting squares to sit in the middle of our attic bedsit + kitchen floors with the lino round the edge. However, to be fair, I dont think any of our DDs are profligate as they are very canny and would rather wait for the right thing (they have better taste than I ever did) instead of "making do" as we did. Autres temps, autres moeurs!

This thread reminds me of a TV sketch which started "when we were young we were so poor....." and ended with "you had a cardboard box to live in? we had a hole in the ground".

Your microscope sounds like a great thing to hand on to a scientifically minded grandchild one day galen

As children we lived in the back of beyond in Scotland. We didn't have a car, telephone, central heating, electricity (had gas lamps inside and the lamplighter came round at dusk to light the outside lamp) or carpets. And if course no TV, washing machines, etc.
As young marrieds we didn't have our own house, disposable nappies, disposable incomes, holidays abroad. We had one old banger we shared between us (now mainly 2-car families) and we started off with a bed bought by my in-laws and furniture lent by family.

Our generation is the new 'whipping boy' encouraged by remarks made by politicians and the press. I'm wondering where this is all leading. At least NICE have made a stand against the latest bid to brush us under the carpet or usher us through the pearly gates before we drain the economy any more.

merlot, when I was heavily pregnant I also had a turquoise Crimplene dress, which I made for attending a christening as a godmother. It showed the outline of my belly button, so I stuck on a sticking plaster to flatten it!
I used to buy patterned and plain crimplene offcuts at the cattle market, which I made into all the clothes for my 2 daughters, born in '70 and '71. They remember loving the patchwork pinafore tops worn over trousers with coloured inserts in the flare. I was very proud of them. I do to think of the matching dresses I made for the 3 of us, and tie for hubby, made from a bargain length of fabric.
We had a dream of joint earnings of £1,000, which meant we could afford a £4,000 house. Our first house cost £1,400, on which we spent £1,000, which was furnished with hand-outs from family, and deck chairs. We didn't worry about it, it was fairly normal within our circle of friends.
I didn't have a washing machine until the girls were out of nappies, so used to boil up the Baby Burco every day, and hand scrub everything else at the sink.
The current generation expect to have it all from the start!