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

I particularly remember my sister and I having dresses made for us, when we were quite young, which were peacock blue wool fabric. My mother washed them, brought them in from the washing line and stood them on the kitchen table. They had both frozen, and we were both highly amused!

Memories of what I wore as a child are dominated by wearing school uniform (and a liberty bodice). When I got into my grammar school tennis team I had to have a white tennis dress for matches. My mother asked a friend to make one for me as we couldn't afford to buy one. It was hideous - in heavy slightly off-white material and like a wrap-around pinafore. I was embarrassed having to wear this when others were wearing dainty pristine white shop-bought tennis dresses.

Dinhamo. .Many will remember what they wore as children, IF ,like myself, they had a mother like mine who and not unusual as mum's do, claimed (knew best. )
I couldn't wait to start work to be able to buy my own choice not always {hmm}with my mothers approval.

My mum was a great dressmaker but clothes for school had to be bought at Henry Barrie’s in Manchester. Mum even made me a bikini in 1965! She bought bra and panties from M&S then cut fabric to cover them. I loved it!!

I loved clothes from very young, and would actually have a wish list ready when it was time for something new! We didn't have much money but Mum would do what she could, although some of my clothes came from second hand shops , which I remember as having a horrible musty smell.
When I got a new dress I would hang it so it was the first thing I saw when I woke up!
We sent away for sewing kits from one of those girl's magazines, a duster coat (remember those?) and a party dress in a shiny blue material. Mum struggled a bit with sewing together , but I was thrilled with my new clothes.
I also remember a pair of red 3/4 length trousers that I wore with fluorescent pink socks and thought I was the bees knees! Actually I do remember so many things I wore from childhood through teenage that I could go on and on.
And then there's another new era, what about Biba, hippy clothes etc etc. Those things I wish I'd kept.

My granny taught me to sew on her Singer treadle when I was about 10. She also taught me to crochet. The first thing I ever made was a pram blanket for my “wee twin brothers” - they’ve just turned 50. My mum made me lovely frocks when I was a teenager, then I started sewing myself. Over the years I’ve made wedding dresses, theatre costumes, the lot. I started knitting wee things during lockdown, after believing I was a rubbish knitter! Folk seem to genuinely love hand made gifts, I think it’s a dying art. I’m grateful to my mum and gran for having the patience to teach me.

I've always felt bitter about the fact that I inherited none of my mother's sewing/embroidery skills whatsoever.

I still have two voile dresses with beautifully smocked bodices that she made for me when I was young, and have photos of my eldest daughter wearing one of them for a party. Sadly I now only have grandsons and I don't think they could be persuaded to keep up the tradition!!

The only clothes I ever made for my daughters were from Clothkits ( does anyone remember them?) I was very proud of the results, as no way could I have made them from scratch !!

Andm being pretty ancient, I suspect that some readers may have to google 'smocking' !

HowVeryDareYou I had a crombie, a deep plum colour, my brother had a black one and my auntie, who is the same age as me, had a dark green one .... we loved them. Growing up mum made a lot of my dresses, skirts, jackets and coats, I still remember many of the beautiful dresses she made for me. She was also a good knitter although most of jumpers and cardigans were knit by my aunt (mum's sister) who amazed me with the speed of of her knitting. I too enjoyed sewing and made a lot of outfits for my daughters as they were growing up.

I had an older sister from whom I received hand me downs, even after she left home when I was 15. Mum was a good knitter but didn’t sew and I struggled with needlework in school so was very happy to drop it in favour of Music at ‘O’ level.

Our grammar school specified that uniform had to be bought from a particular (expensive!) shop. Money was tight and the initial outlay considerable so Mum borrowed money from my Post Office savings, which she later repaid. Having spent my teenage years wearing navy blue at school and for guide meetings, I have rarely worn the colour blue until recently.

Like many posters, a Saturday job enabled me to buy the clothes I wanted, some of which lasted for several years, especially as I was quite adept at hemming up dresses to follow the the miniskirt craze! Happy memories!

My mum made me a beautiful white satin dress when I was a flower girl at the village Gala day. She made me many clothes. I remember standing for the measurements and to check the length. They were always a bit long if I remember correctly. Made in anticipation of me growing. I'm still only 5 ft so never grew much. She also altered clothes to fit myself and my 2 older sisters. I also had a lot of altered hand me down clothes. Yes clothing and everything was under rationing until I was about 12.

My mum was a knitter and kept everyone kitted out in knitted garments. Our neighbour could sew and she made me a lovely dress when I was eleven. When I was getting married my cousin made the bridesmaid dresses. When I was pregnant my aunt made me a summer maternity dress. Everything that was made for me has stayed in my memory because I loved them all.

Mum knitted for me. There were some summer dresses which were bought with the fabric "cut out and ready to sew" from her women's magazines, but not that many. They were always sleeveless because she always reckoned that she couldn't do sleeves. Our elderly next door neighbour earned money as a dressmaker so she would help if Mum got stuck. I remember being older and mum actually getting clothes made for me by another dressmaker (the neighbour had died by then). Not sure if it was much cheaper than buying.

My cousin was two years older than me, and every summer I would be given a suitcase full of clothes she had grown out of. They were beautiful, very well made, and I could hardly wait for the 'delivery'! I had my own clothes too, but they were much more ordinary. I can remember in the summer going to primary school in a cotton dress, knickers, and Clark's sandals. The freedom! Sadly, senior school required a hot, tailored uniform.

Oh, how I remember liberty bodices. Warm, but not comfortable!! And all those impossible rubber buttons! Then there were the summer shoes with the buttons as well which needed a button hook to get them to fasten, followed by the winter lace-up brown clodhoppers. These went with the obligatory coat with the velvet collar - dark brown, in my case. My mother did lovely smocking, and made my sisters and I matching pink smocked dresses which I still have a photo of.
Money post war was tight, but we had wealthy cousins, so usually ended up with their cast-offs. But in post-war Britain, everyone was in the same boat, so no-one felt mortified about wearing second hand clothes - until we reached teenage years, that is. So in the 1960s I was wearing seriously old-fashioned clothes while my friends had new modern ones. I was also doomed to wear the free NHS wire-rimmed glasses, and was the focus of many an unkind joke from my peers. When I was 15 I was actually allowed to have a non-NHS pair which were in a sale, and I ended up looking like Dame Edna!
When I reached the 6th form, we were allowed to choose our uniform as long as it was basically blue, and then I learned the delights of dressmaking as the fabric and dress pattern were our year's choice. And yes, I did wear it after I left school. I loved that dress until the embarassing moment when I left to go out on a casual date, got in the car, and one of the seams gave way!! I had to exit as gracefully as possible and go back and change.
I still have a lot of fabric scraps from my dressmaking days which lasted a fair time until clothes shops caught on to the fact that a lot of women were approaching 6 ft tall and some more! So now I am making a very scrappy patchwork memory quilt.
Like many others who have posted here, I salute my mother who was a beautiful knitter and who had many sewing skills

My Auntie was a dressmaker for royalty
She would bring all the sample made evening gowns home So we had a wonderful dressing up box. Spoilt me for ever as I still love special clothes
Don’t get much chance to wear swishy evening dresses these days tho.
In my 20’s I was given some beautiful dresses from a famous ladies wardrobe which I wore whenever possible Amazing labels Mary Quant etc Should have kept them but I gave them all to a theatre company when I moved to Australia. Different lifestyle here

Growing up in a pit village we didn't have a lot but we're happy. I remember my main clothes were a pair of denim dungarees, I think I did actually have 2 pairs for when o e wa sin wash but they were both the same barring a pocket on one. I would wear them day in day out normally with one strap unbuttoned and I'd walk around sucking the loose end or fidgeting with it. Always my right side strap that wasn't fastened and in summer despite being a girl I was so tomboyish and flat sheared until I was about 12 I'd often go out without anything under my dungarees, in winter I'd put a t-shirt or long sleeved top on I barely wore a cost although I know I had one.

My nan made a lot of my clothes when I was at home but when I went to college I made my own even though when we did sewing at school I was absolutely useless

My Mum was a wonderful seamstress She made all my smocked dresses & clothes & knitted too. I remember a ruched swimsuit that went transparent when wet ! So embarrassing
As a teenager she made me skirts with lots of net petticoats in blue pink & yellow
They had to make the skirt stand out so we soaked them in sugar water do they were stiff when dry Laddered my nylons though as the edges were sharp
She & my Auntie Jane made my wedding dress & sweetpea bridesmaid dresses Material bought from John Lewis in Oxford St. My ‘posh’ grammar school uniform came from Daniel Neale Straw boater for summer She smocked all my dresses when I was small As an only child I was very spoiled & grew into a precocious young lady Married at 19
Mum bought me my Ist sewing machine a Frister Rosman German built I still have it 50 yrs later It works a treat. I made my own twins clothes on it & love sewing. However I can’t knit like my Mum She could knit animals onto fronts of jumpers & fairlisle patterns for her Grandkids. She gifted me the joy of sewing I’m so grateful xxx

My parents bought me a beautiful dress for my 9th birthday. It was a really bright yellow with red and blue flowers. I loved it. We went to see Grandma and I wore it. When Grandma saw it she said "That dress does not suit her, she's too pale for that bright colour." I was thoroughly deflated and never liked the dress after that.

My Dad often made dresses for me and Mum. They always looked like long shirts but we didn't like to tell him that.

Unfortunately my parents couldn't afford my green school dress and we had to buy it from the school second hand cupboard. My dress had been washed multiple times and was very light compared to all the other girls with their new dresses.

It seems that everybody on Gransnet had second hand clothes! Those were the days...

knitting, not knotting !

Any chance I got, I was in trousers/shorts and a t-shirt. Pretty much like now but no shorts. I remember the dreaded liberty bodice and hiding it under the mattress.

My mother made all my clothes too, apart from school uniform and hand-me-downs In the summer she made me and my sister two dresses each - easy dressing - pants on dress on - dressed. Later on I made my own clothes, even in my twenties since as a student I did not have much money. I made a beautiful suit to wear for a special occasion I attended My mother made a lot of her clothes too, including a dress and hat to wear to her sister's wedding. I had a handed down dress for that. My mother was very clever and made us toys too including a punch and judy with a booth to perform in and characters with papier mashe heads. Much later she went to woodwork classes and made a coffee table and needlework cabinet. We all knitted - my grandmothers, my mother and my sister who did the most beautiful even knitting, and me. One of my sons has even done knotting and he made his own bed. My husband made three of our bookcases - beautifully done. I have rather got off home-made clothes - sorry

Hand me down clothes and cardigans my mum knit. I remember I had a lovely bubble gum pink dungarees I wore with a white high neck jumper. I was about 7 years old and thought I was lovely, it clashed terribly with my red hair. I had two Sunday best dresses that I would alternate to wear to church and Sunday school.
In the 80s, my teenage years, it was frilly blouses, ra-ra skirts and oversized t shirts with skinny tube skirts. I was like an ironing board in those days, straight up and down, not a wide hip to be seen. Those were the days....

Maywalk

I wonder how many of the members reading this were rationed with clothing coupons to purchase their clothes with.
Each garment had to have the CC41 tag sewn in it before being sold.
It was a make do and mend time and having to unravel old woolen garments to re-use for children's knitted swimsuits, vests and knickers plus other small garments but we survived.

My clothes had the ration mark for a number of years in the early 50s. Even the dreaded liberty bodices especially the ones with rubber buttons.
I seem to remember that some of our furniture had as well.

I remember the jeans we had to get into the bath to shrink and the subsequent blue legs! My first pair of drainpipes after wearing flappy flares. The matching dresses we had as sisters; I always wanted the red one but had to have the blue because my Mum said red suited my sister better. I had loads of jumpers (and toys) knitted by my Nan which I wish I had been able to make for my kids but didn't have the patience.
Now my daughter looks at the photos with the clothes I dressed her in, she is horrified at the fashion. At the time she loved them and I'll never forget the beautiful green striped dungarees which were really expensive for me to buy as a single parent. The first time she wore them, she knelt on a panel that had wet plastic cement on it and that was the end of that. I was gutted.