Did you make anything at school ?

We knitted hairbands, pot holders, scarves, hats, mittens, and socks in primary school. The first six to finish their socks in P. 7 got to make blouses, the others made lap bags! I was a lap bag.

In secondary it was cookery, and I remember potato soup and baked apples, but nothing else.

We had to make a pair of truly baggy drawers, by hand, including French seams. Did I ever wear them? What do you think? Then there was the blouse - the sewing teacher measured us over our blazers, so the blouses were enormous and shapeless. And I don't remember wearing that either. Thank goodness the stream I was in had to do sewing and cooking for just two years so that we could concentrate on more 'academic' subjects. However, my mum allowed me to use her sewing machine and I made myself some perfectly usable dresses.

DGs have just had to thread a needle and sew on a button as one of their primary school 'challenges'. Perhaps they'll teach their Mum how to do it now....

I was one of those who couldn't get to grips with needlework and spent terms on one item while others galloped ahead making blouses, dresses, etc.
However, I did learn basic embroidery stitches at primary school and still have my 'needlework bag' from that time! And I know how to thread a bobbin, make hems , tack, and sew buttons, all skills learned at school as Mum didn't ever pick up a needle (Dad was the one to sew buttons, and mend things in our house!) These are skills my own children were not taught at school as the grammar schools didn't bother with such trivial subjects as Domestic Science, shame on them.

A pillow case and dress with smocking for baby sister and knitted gloves

My very greatest achievement in cookery was jam turn overs , only girl who didn't have jam trickled down the pastry case - the jam was still in the jar

I too made a Flannelette nightdress in junior school, all hand sewn and with French seams Chloe. Never wore it.
Also an embroidered needle case which my mum used until she died when I rescued it and now use it myself. It's horribly tatty but as its now 65 years old it deserves to be kept. It's in the shape of a round book with flannel pages for the needles. The cover was made in cardboard covered in embroidered cotton so it's never been washed!
Other things, gloves on four needles, cap and apron for DS. Can't remember the rest.
Why did DS teachers always have us making rock cakes? A complete abomination that nobody would eat. Does anybody make rock cakes today?

We had to make these horrible baby dresses in either blue, red or yellow checked gingham ( mine was blue) and then smock them. My sewing skills were extremely limited and when I took the dress home each week, my grandmother used to unpick it and resew it properly.
In cookery, we made macaroni cheese which was so disgusting that nobody wanted to take it home. We also had to watch whilst the teacher demonstrated roasting a joint of meat.
Fortunately, as it was a very academic school, I only had to take both cookery and needlework for a year!

I remember practising knitting in primary school using balls of string to make garter stitch squares, which were unraveled at the end of each lesson so that the string could be re-used. Then we were allowed to make a pair of slippers using wool squares with ribbon ties for the uppers. For the soles we had to bring in a piece of felt. In the 1940's most kids brought in pre-used felt. In my case, an old felt hat donated by my Grandma. I was so proud of the finished article and wore them until they were outgrown.
At grammar school, I spent the whole of the first year's ds lessons making a hideous 'four-gored' (?) skirt in royal blue fabric. It was still unfinished as the end of the year was approaching, so I was allowed to take it home to finish, on the understanding that I brought the completed item back for inspection. My Aunt was an excellent dressmaker and hemmed the wretched thing for me. Unfortunately, the hemming stitch didn't meet with the teacher's approval and I had to sit under her eagle eye and unpick the stitches.
The skirt never did get finished. As we were allowed to pay weekly for the material which the school had supplied, I was made by my parents to pay from money which I earned from doing odd jobs.
Thankfully, I dropped ds lessons in the second year in favour of German. I continued to enjoy knitting and have made all kinds of things over the years. Never been a fan of dressmaking, although used to make dresses for dds when living in Africa in the 1960's/70's. Sadly, they always looked home-made.

In 'sewing' at primary school I made Binca embroidered strips and bookmarks and in secondary school the fierce and terrifying Mr MacWilliam (Mackie) made us make an apron and cap (such as housemaids wore!) for domestic science, a blouse and a 'garment of our own choice' though I can't remember what I chose to make. At another school under a kinder sewing teacher I was allowed to make a rag doll which turned out really well and revealed to me that I actually could sew.

Mackie also taught us cooking and we made:-
sponge cake, ginger cake, Victoria sandwich, fruit cake, bakewell tart, Christmas cake (with marzipan and Royal Icing), scones, rock buns, brown stew, white stew (whatever that is), roux sauce, bechamel sauce, short pastry, rough puff pastry, flaky pastry, choux pastry, white bread, brown bread and fruit loaf. And these are just the things I particularly remember as there were others. I recall making Viennese fingers and choux buns at another school.

At the time I hated and feared Mackie. On my first day in her classroom she smacked my hand for looking out of the window! However, were I to meet her today I would give her the heartiest thanks for the incredible training, experience and confidence she gave me in the kitchen and with the sewing machine.

My mother was a time served tailoress but I still managed to make a poor job of my high school cookery apron! It was very different and awkward sewing at school compared with Mum's lessons. We also made pyjamas in the first year at high school but they were ruined one night when my period overflowed . I never wore them again.

Needlework and cookery classes were more enjoyable as I got older but my mum taught me so much more, as I'm sure yours did.

I made a little smocked dress for the daughter of my DM's friend, when I was in the top year of junior school. I loved doing it and it was all by hand. Later on she grew up to be one of my bridesmaids. When at grammar school, we had first to make aprons for domestic science. October was Christmas cake time, and I remember making hungarian goulash, and having to get it home on the back of my bike during the bus strike. Loved domestic science and think that the teacher was a great influence.

Primary knitted a very miniature skirt, for my Sindy doll I think. Also a tiny pottery pot and a needle case! Secondary school in domestic science endless bread, cakes and pastry. Once a fish pie but can never remember cooking meat. Our domestic science teacher did teach a few of us volunteers to make pillow bobbin lace out of school time. I really enjoyed it and my dad, a centre lathe turner engineer, made me some bobbins. I still have them but don't know how much lace making I would remember. Not a lot.

Isn't it funny that as many people were hooked for life by 'Domestic Science' type lessons as were repelled?

I remember being incandescent with rage and despair on learning that my children were to be taught pizza box design in 'Food Technology', rather than actual cooking with a view to learning to feed themselves! I felt that if they ever actually got a job designing pizza boxes, their boss would have an opinion on how they should be done. But when they went home at night - how would they know how to cook?

The third year of Junior school we made a desk cover, a large hemmed square of fabric with a pocket in the middle. It was to put on the desk when making subsequent things. It folded up and tied with strings with our work in it when put away. Can't remember the subsequent things though! Made an apron for cookery in secondary school. I still have both these things.

Too many cookery items to list, but very happy memories of the cookery sessions, not always totally successful , with our group of about a dozen and a very nice teacher

I found all the skills I was taught in needlework and cookery came in very useful after I left.

Wow! Reading what some of you made really makes me envious and feel old!

We were not allowed to do any Domestic Science, no male teachers, all so old fashioned, as she was the same head that my mother's age would have had, grey haired done up in a bun!

However, on Sunday she would read to us under an oak tree, while we did our embroidery.

Can anyone remember doing this?

I made a smocked apron which I still have and a needle case in gingham with cross-stitch on it which my mum (age 85) still has in her sewing box after over 50 years. Can also remember making a peg bag and a duchess set (??) My overriding memory of sewing at school is the time we spent queueing up at the teacher's desk waiting for her to get us out of trouble. No wonder it took so long to finish anything!

Ouch!!!

granmaz I machined my index finger too, while making myself a maternity dress with two other children playing around my feet (this wasn't at school, by the way). Off to A&E where a doctor who looked about 12 dug about with tweezers for the broken bit. It didn't half hurt.

I pointed out that if he turned the finger over he would see the sharp end of the needle just under the skin, and if he pushed on that the tip of the other end would come up far enough for him to grip it and pull instead of digging. He did so, and removed it with no more bother. Now why didn't that occur to him, instead of trying to grip the slippery end that was buried in my flesh?

Yes indeed and I am looking at it as I type! In needlework we had to make a tablecloth - I chose blue and white checked gingham and embroidered three lines of X's around the edge - two red rows with a white one row in the middle! I use it as a cloth for a small side table now and imagine that it will probably outlast me! It is 55 years old and looks almost like new! Of all the things I made I have a real fondness for it!

Seem to recollect that I made the de rigeur PE bag, cookery apron etc. In my early teens I made a good few of my clothes, from an orange and lime green tent dress, to a psychedelic multicoloured trouser suit!! (well it was the middle of the '60's!!) I continued to make clothes into my early married life but gave up when I accidentally machined through my index finger whilst making a dress for a barn dance - the machine didn't come out after that...which on reflection, is rather a shame!

I made a sun dress at grammar school and we had to sew all seams by hand. I have a photo of me wearing it on a beach in Angelsy. We learned to cook as well. Baking was difficult because we never had enough fat to make decent pastry.
I went on to make more dresses out of gingham which was the summer uniform material, but only because my mother was hopeless at sewing.

I'm still making clothes for myself and my granddaughters.

Jinglebells - thoroughly approve of making the teachers cross! Oh no now a load of teachers jumping on me. Not a fan of that race. Only a few are truly gifted and for those I have massive respect for - given the horrendous time I had with my DS who was definitely a Problem, some teachers totally rescued both of us. And one of my DGD's headmasters. Oh I digress but a couple of glasses of local white plonk does that and don't get me going on teachers.

Getting back to sewing - you either can or you can't, unlike cooking. I teach sewing now and for the most part I can get them going but one or two really just can't get their head around it. Best current student is a retired Nato colonel (male) really, really good.

And again I say Dom Sci subjects are really a waste of time at school. Learn at mother's/grandmother's knee, adult education, dedicated college for fashion or catering and books.

Embroidered needlecase cover at primary school (think the kids did as well in their turns) and then pinny and a full-length slip (nasty thing) in the 2 years of secondary school lessons. I loved sewing and made no end of my own clothes as a teenager. Used to stand and look at the fashions in the shop windows and then go home to mock-up my own patterns before making the clothes. Those were the days! made my own wedding dress and the bridesmaid dress too plus 2 'going-away' outfits. Gave up sewing for the children after number one as it was cheaper by then to buy. GC's got from the charity shops! Nowadays I do the running repairs requested by DD2 (actually it'e the GC's who say 'Nana can mend this can't she?') but very little of anything else. I did teach GD1 to use the sewing machine one Easter to make herself a blouse (think she was 10) . Bought new spotty cotton (as requested) , very expensive, and duly completed the item which has hung in her wardrobe, unworn, ever since. She's now 15.
Learned to knit from my grandmother and could do quite complex stitches at one time. Have tried to teach all the local GC's to knit but they lost interest very quickly and my heart wasn't really in it. All that unpicking!
School cookery classes only repeated the type of things I was doing at home with my grandmother so not a lot of use. The main thing I took from them was the belief that I couldn't peel potatoes with a peeler as I had only ever used a knife. Teacher didn't like it but I was adamant - NO peeler. Guess what I use now? The design has changed and this lefty can now, 50 years after those classes, cope with a gadget.

At 15 I managed to spin out the whole of the Spring term by quietly stitching a hanky . Our teacher didn't cotton on, (excuse the pun) till too late The following term I was told I must make a skirt.

I made the straight skirt from "brushed cotton". Anyone remember
that fabric?

We only had two terms of sewing lessons, as mock GCE's took their place.

Oldgoat that sounds so funny and reminded me of the first sanitary towels my mother gave me - we sold them in our shop so she didn't have to go far - they had loops on each end like a hammock and were totally useless!

Here is something we were taught in DS which I never felt the urge to make. It was in the 1960s and our class of 13 year olds were being shown how to skim stock using copious quantities of gauze. "Now girls, let me show you something else you can do with gauze" and to our horror she proceeded to knock up a huge sanitary towel. I can feel myself blushing even now.