Did you make anything at school ?

I made an apron with a bib top, and a circular skirt. The apron in particular taught me a lot about dressmaking, which I found useful in later years. The circular skirt was a nightmare to hem.

Oh yes! And I knitted some little pink baby mittens, which I used for both of my two daughters. Still got them somewhere.

The mittens were made in junior school. So I kept them a long time.

We used to have to do embroidery type stitches on squares of canvas sacking. Can't remember what we did with them.

I bet your teacher would have been proud of you jings putting those mittens to use! I wish I'd kept the beautiful hand sewn dress I'd made as my GCE project. It was a classic design, waisted with a full skirt and inset tie sash. The front bodice was hand smocked and it had puff sleeves and a Peter Pan collar. At 16 I thought it horribly old fashioned and threw it away. When my DD was 5 I remembered it and sorely wished I still had it

Jing we had to do similar, but the bib had pin tucks and there was a matching cap. Bit like maids in period plays.
We also had to embroider in 2" high satin stitch our first and second names across the top.
Mine consisted of 16 letters.
I STILL HATE SEWING

At junior school I made one of those samplers with embroidery stitches, a needle case in the shape of a crinoline lady (still lurking around somewhere in my needlework box) and a quite nice (or so I thought at the time) dark blue flowered skirt with ric-rac around the hem, all handstitched, which I wore that summer. I must have been about 9.

At High School I made a revolting pink seersucker nightdress, it took two terms, and I can't remember cookery lessons at all.
I was so relieved to do Latin instead of Domestic Science after the first year.
However, the Latin wasn't much use after 'O' Level and I have done lots of machine sewing and other crafts since. And cooking

baubles sock knitting is very popular again now - a friend does it and gave me some bright stripey ones for my DGD, but I haven't tried it myself

Made loads of stuff at school- sewing, knitting, woodwork, etc.

For cookery, that was a whole morning, theory and discussing the menu and how it was balanced, then we were sent out with the list and money to do the shopping and then account back- and then cook the 3 courses, and then washing up! Glasses first, then cutlery, then plates, then pots- and always rinse properly!!!

I remember making, in the first year of seniors, an apron and cap for domestic science. Later, a yellow gingham skirt with pleats (hideous - never wore it), and a pair of lined slacks with a zip at the side, which caused me more trouble than anything before or since. We had an Austrian sewing teacher with a thick accent who said to me once "you are sewing zer seams like zer blind cow is valking!!" I liked her too ! I hated, and still hate, needlework. I envied the boys their woodwork lessons - I would have been good at that!
I still have, and use, a spectacle case that DD made in a needlework class, and a wooden stand for putting your watch on that DS made at school.

I made some fairly inedible food in my domestic science lessons including disgusting neck of mutton stew with eyes of grease floating on the top and ginger nuts which were so hard my dad's pigeons couldn't eat them.
At the end of every lesson the saucepans had to be presented to the DS teacher who ran her finger round the inside corner to check for food remains, then the ovens had to be cleaned before we were allowed to leave.
I have been to cookery classes in local schools recently and have been shocked at the state of the ovens which were even worse than mine at home.

which were even worse than mine at home.
*oldgoat lol

What my education lacked in English grammar (something that I've only overcome through studying foreign languages), it certainly made up for in creative / practical skills - I remember making too many things to list, in both primary and secondary school.

To this day, I love making things, whether by sewing, knitting, cooking etc. and don't recall a single 'practical' lesson at school that I considered a waste of time. Frome domestic science lessons, there are recipes that I use to this day (albeit adapted over time in the case of some of them), and in sewing, I learned all the skills that I needed to follow a pattern, and we were allowed to make whatever we wanted by the time we were half-way through secondary school.

Many thanks to Meltham C of E and Holmfirth High School on this score

When I was in the primary school we were taught basic embroidery stitches doing them on a sort of fine canvas - herring bone, satin,chain etc. the high point was a sort of canvas chair back which was embroidered - looked Ok but very uncomfortable to put your head against.
At Grammar school the first term was spent making an apron and cap - all done by using herring bone or similar stitches to hold the seams etc. - as I had continued to do embroidery at home I was fairly quick and those of us who had finished were given the task of cleaning the cottage we had our lessons in - instruction about cleaning doors from the bottom So the water runs didn't make marks you couldn't get off. - oven cleaning involved a pink paste called Chemico. Then we went into cooking - one week a demonstration and the next we made the dish. There was one time we had to make a jam roly poly! My mother was a good cook so much of what we made at school didn't pass my test of being an OK thing to eat! This happened to the poor roly poly - once the suet stuff was jammed and rolled it was cooked in a large cloth with flour sprinkled on it and then boiled in a pan of water!!!! The flour sort of turned into a glue! That evening this monstrosity was sitting rejected on the side when my Dad spoke to me - he needed to slightly alter the run of water from the sink to the drain and said would be mind if he cut up bits of the said cooking and use that - it worked very successfully as he got the flow right and did the pipe work. His friend was horrified when he saw what he was doing but I didn't mind at all and found it funny. Till the day he died he always referred to it as 'plum duff' and from time to time when doing a job would ask if I had any!!

I started a dress aged 14, by the end of term it was still at the halfway stage, it went into a drawer and never saw the light of day again! That was the full extent of my sewing skills. Oh, in the infants we made Red Indian wigwams by folding stiff paper into cone shapes then sewingup the sides, slightly more successful.

I think I made the usual things in needlework and cookery, but they weren't very inspiring.
Much better was a craft class in the 6th form, where I screen-printed some fabric and covered a small armchair with it.

Welshwife
jam roly poly is on the best menus these days!

Well I hope it is cooked in a basin in a steamer and doesn't have the horrible glutinous coating!!

I made a skirt, including making the pattern for it to fit me when I was twelve. The teacher showed us how.

The next year I made a dress in the first term, so I then made a dressing-gown during the remainder of the year. I wore it for fifteen years and then I made another using the same pattern.

But then sewing was my thing. I had friends who had the same teacher but who never finished anything. In one or two cases I finished their garments for them.

What we cooked in class went home and was eaten for tea by my brothers amd sister and parents: shortbread, raspberry buns, swiss roll, meat and potato pie... those are the ones I remember.

The cookery apron and cap must have been compulsory in all schools - mine was blue and white striped with my name embroidered on the cap. I also made a nightdress case with pompom people on it which is in a cupboard upstairs as my mum kept it. Thinking back we made loads of things but as I was too impatient having to wait until the next week to continue I used to take them home and finish them. I still had the quilted dressing gown when I got married and did a lot of dressmaking in the early years of our marriage then went on to cross stitch work and have always enjoyed crafts. Our domestic science block in secondary school had a 'bedroom' where we were taught to do hospital corners with sheets and general cleaning. I loved cookery and as my parents had a hotel went on to catering college with the intention of going into the family business - once there where we had to do mass cooking for the college restaurant I realised how much I hated it on that scale and much preferred the typing classes! Just as well as I ended up working in accounts!

We started off by embroidering a hymn book cover and then made an apron for cookery lessons which came in the following year. Then it was a blouse which had to have a collar. My piece de resistance was a gathered cotton skirt 'with placket' and a matching cropped top.

I can't sew for toffee and remember with a grimace having to make a complicated smock when I was about 14. It was bright yellow and had complicated gathers. I hated it, but my thrifty mum expected me to get a lot of wear out of it too - oh the indignity!

I have kept and always bring out some Christmas decs my children made (some now 25 years old!!) and actually repeated the ideas of ones I cherish with my own classes.

It is a such a pleasure to help a child to make something for Mothers Day and know it is likely to be cherished.

Knitted balaclavas and mittens plus socks knitted on 4 needles when I was at school AND they had to be neat and sewn up properly.
Between 1940 and 1944 it was all knitted goods to keep our servicemen warm.When I left school at the age of 14 I did not touch knitting again until I was pregnant with my son in 1950 and I am still knitting today although I cant do the fancy patterns I could many years ago. Clothes were on coupons way back then and wool was scarce so to knit a few cardigans for my baby I had to unravel some old jumpers.

I made a gym slip and an empire line dress, both of which I wore as they were not bad. I made some lovely doughnuts in cookery only to ruin them by covering them in salt which I mistook for caster sugar. Disaster darling.

At primary school in the 1950's I became proficient at sewing and embroidery, including smocking. Luckily I enjoyed it. Did sewing to O'level and A'level textiles. I always list needlecrafts among my hobbies. When my boys were small I knitted all their jumpers and made all their trousers. Everything was co-ordinated in the way that bought clothes for girls were. Not available for boys though. I used to enjoy hanging out the washing and admiring all my handiwork!!