Can you remember the clothes that you wore when you were young?

My dad was the sewer in our house. He made us reversible bikinis one year, and capes to wear instead of coats another year.
I loved to sit and pin or tack for him, and that’s how my sewing began. We were 4 daughters, and mum and dad gave each of us a sewing machine for our 21st birthdays.

I was the youngest of the 4 and often inherited my next sister’s clothes from her. Mum also had a friend who donated clothes for me too. I remember a tweed coat with a fur collar which I loved, even though it’s lining was worn out!

I was the only girl, with 3 older brothers, so never had hand-me-downs. My mum didn't make any clothes, but my eldest brother's wife did, and she made me several nice dresses. I was actually really trendy. In the early 70s, I had a Crombie coat - anyone else have one?, Levi's Stay-Prest 2-tone skirt, and then when I was about 16, I had platform shoes and was always "falling off them" and twisting my ankle.

I remember some of my clothes. My mom made a felt circular skirt for me when I was in fifth grade. It was like a poodle skirt, but had a prancing pony instead. I wore saddle shoes. A couple years later, I had a pair of woolen blue pants that I loved. I fell down and tore a hole in the knee. I was so disappointed, but my mom did a pretty good job of earning the hole. I haven't thought of those clothing items in years!

"darning" the hole.

I had a lot of hand me down clothes from a girl who lived in our street. She was an only child and went to a posh school, her clothes were beautiful so I felt very lucky to receive them.

Oh absolutely.
As a child, my mum would make me a summer dress each year and in winter it was usually a pinafore dress with a hand knitted jumper underneath .
Some of the summer dresses were really quite inventive and pretty, mum isn’t always use a pattern either - a favourite I remember well was in pink gingham with a row of broderie anglaise peeping out beneath the hem
Loved that dress!

“Didn’t always use “

my mother made everything for all seven children. I fondly remember pretty little boleros over shirred dresses, gorgeous. Later in life, Mary Quant dresses, by then I was making my own clothes and later again, white crochet mini dress

HowVeryDareYou

I was the only girl, with 3 older brothers, so never had hand-me-downs. My mum didn't make any clothes, but my eldest brother's wife did, and she made me several nice dresses. I was actually really trendy. In the early 70s, I had a Crombie coat - anyone else have one?, Levi's Stay-Prest 2-tone skirt, and then when I was about 16, I had platform shoes and was always "falling off them" and twisting my ankle.

I also had a Crombie Harrington jacket and stay press trousers and a stay press suit
We as young teenagers used to hire rowing boats on the river managed to fall in Crombie did not survive lucky I was a very strong swimmer. Also brogue shoes with blackeys
As for the platforms worked all day in Woolies in a very high pair lol

Not a lot of money in our house growing up and I remember my mum taking me with her to jumble sales, and me trying to hide in the queues waiting to get in. I hated having to wear jumble sale buys so when Mum bought us new stuff I remember it well.
Particular memories stick of purple flared trousers with a purple satin overshirt . They were for a Christmas dance at school. And matching floral undies once.
When I could go shopping myself with my own holiday job money. I remember buying knee length brown suede boots but telling Mum they only cost £5 when they had cost £12. I felt like the bees knees in those boots with the brown waistcoat suit to match. Happy days.

Maywalk, I remember that black-and-white CC41 label.
Because of clothes rationing we had a clothing exchange in our town where outgrown clothes were taken in exchange for bigger sizes although the choice was not always good. My mother did all our knitting, usually very simple patterns. She also made me a circular skirt which was great for spinning around in. Today I have too many clothes and badly need to do a cull.

Virtually all the clothes I had as a child were either made by my mother, or more often were hand-me-downs from an elder sister and two cousins - who were ‘larger’. I particularly remember a coat, probably expensive - they were much better off - that I disliked because it looked ‘fat’.

Jumpers were all hand-knitted. Funny to think that it was cheaper back then to dressmake/knit than buy new.

I do remember a summer dress when I was maybe 10, because IIRC it was virtually the only one I ever had* that was actually new, from a shop.

*Until I started buying my own with Christmas/ birthday/ babysitting money.

My Mum made a lot of my clothes when I was a toddler and Nan knitted for me, but when my parents split up and Nan died, within a twelvemonth of one another, most of my clothes were shop-bought as Mum had to go out to work to keep me and didn't have the time to make my clothes.

When I was a young teenager in the late 1960's Mum resurrected her old Singer treadle sewing machine and ,made a lot of my summer shift dresses, some of which I still wore until the 1970's when mimi-skirts went out of fashion.

After I had my daughter in 1991 I tried to knit her cardigans and jumpers but was asked to stop knitting for her when she was 7 because hand-knits were old-fashioned aparrently. I've never, since I was at school, sewed a garment for either myself or my daughter - didn't have the time or the inclination - but felt that to knit for a baby was something you 'ought' to do.

my computer set- up starts with a 'wallpaper' in sepia of my school photo when we were all 10 or 11. I can remember the exact colours of all the girls' different summer dresses. The more popular boys wore grey pullovers, white shirts, grey shorts with a belt with a S buckle at the front.

Does anyone remember “Windsor Woolies” little knitted skirt and jumper sets? They defined my childhood… and to a certain extent my daughters too, gran’ma saw to that!

My mother wasn't keen on dressmaking or knitting, although loved doing tapestry, but we had a woman nearby who had a little business hand knitting so she knitted our jumpers. I had lovely viyella checked dresses with hand smocking as a small child and, as I got older, my winter coats were always tweed from a local tweed factory in Fermanagh ( Lisbellaw). The only clothes I didn't like were the ones occasionally sent over from London by my aunt who was a nanny with an aristocratic family. She was sometimes given clothes outgrown by their daughter for her nieces in Ireland. What suited the lifestyle of an aristocratic child in London wasn't always appropriate for a farmer's daughter in Fermanagh!! I remember going to a birthday party in a horrible pink creation and feeling embarrassed. Even as a small child I knew it was old fashioned and too fussy. Awful.

My mother made a lot of my clothes but she wasn’t a great seamstress. In my early teens at the beginning of the 60s I started to make my own “Carnaby St” style clothes and got reasonably good at it. I could copy designer stuff for a fraction of the price. I started sewing again during lockdown but fabric is so pricey now that it’s cheaper to buy ready made!

I was the same Henetha! My family weren’t at all well off, my mum didn’t have a sewing machine. She was given an old one by a kind neighbour but never understood how to use it as she’d not got the hang of sewing at school or home. She used to hand sew things for us. I remember a green velvet shift dress she made from a cut out and ready to sew package she’d bought in a magazine. I thought it was beautiful! She also made school dresses for myself and my sister sometimes as it was cheaper. We had a lot of second hand clothes from my cousin when we saw her which wasn’t often as my parents had moved to the other side of the country away from family so contact was very limited in those days. We also got hand me downs from my parents friend’s children and went to a little second hand shop in town. We weren’t overly concerned about clothes although I do remember feeling bad when some things didn’t fit well as I was a chubby child! I remember a tweed coat that barely buttoned and whose sleeves were too short with particular embarrassment! Things improved when I was thirteen and was allowed to go flower picking. With my first wages I bought myself orange cord jeans (?!), a blue top and my sister a white shift dress with blue braiding. So many clothes over the years (something of a clothesaholic!) but will always remember those!

My mum always made dresses for me and my two sisters all matching she would sit up until the middle of the night to finish our dresses for Easter/Christmas all identical she would then get the pinking scissors out and cut us ribbons in the same material,I always felt sorry for my youngest sister as she would have the pass me downs for the next few years.
Mum also knitted us matching aran cardigans which seemed to grow with us and lasted years.

I remember wearing identical dresses and cardigans as my sister, who was 3 years older than me. My mum also made all our dresses, & knitted cardigans. I think it stopped as we neared senior school age, so about 11.
It’s only later in life I realized how much love my mum had for us in making these clothes. I can still vividly remember one or two of these dresses, and of course looking back through photos, black & white photos, by seeing these can remember the colours.

My Mother loved Shirley Temple. Say no more.

My Mum and my Nana made all my clothes (except undies - and I had liberty bodices with rubber buttons) and my Mum says once when asked what I wanted for my birthday I replied that I would love a dress with no pins, as in shop bought!
I do remember lots of the things that they made me and the love and care that went into them. They both taught me how to sew and I was making my own stuff from about 13. We didn't have much money so I used to buy things at Jumble sales and use the fabric, zips, buttons etc.

Grammar school uniform was mostly second hand from the sale the school had at the beginning of the school year. If it had to be new it was always too big - plenty of growing room! If I sound ungrateful it's probably cos I was mortified.

I used to love my summer dresses with a matching bolero. Made me feel quite grown up!

My Mum & Nan were expert knitters & my sister & I often had dresses made by a seamstress up the road, I always remember trips to her sewing room where you stood ankle deep in threads & fabric scraps. Dad's sister lived in Canada & sent us a parcel of beautiful clothes every Christmas, we loved our "skorts". Mum tried to make me wear a hideous flared blue satin dress to a grammar school party when I was 12, I wanted a sheath dress like the other 1960s girls...never did go to that party but pretended I did. Spent several hours hiding in the Waiting Room at the railway station instead.

My favourites were hand me downs from a friend in school. I loved the bag that would arrive! my other favourites were a pinafore denim dress from a jumble sale and I lived in white trainers from Woolworths. My mum worked in Lennards shoe shop in the late 70s early 80s and I sometimes got shoes in the sale.I had a dress made of polyester that I hated as it was itchy and my parents smoked and I always thought I would catch fire from their ciggies as it said " flammable" in the label.