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

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 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 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!!

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.

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.

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!

My Mum made clothes for me and my sister, as she did her dressmaking City and Guilds. She loved sewing and wished that she had made a career from it. She made our brown and white gingham school summer dresses. Invariably my sister and I had the same style of dresses, hers in one colour and mine in another colour. I couldn't bear having the same clothes as anyone else, and was even repeatedly told off for customising my school uniform!

Had a friends mum that made my Bay City Rollers outfit. The white trousers with tartan strip down the sides. Had a knitted jumper identical to the lead singer Les, as he was my favorite. …

I can’t remember being embarrassed or ashamed of the cotton summer dresses or winter skirts and jumpers I wore as a child. The bane of my childhood were the Clarks sandals my mum insisted on buying, they were ox blood colour with white soles which made my big feet look even more humongous. I spent hours jumping in muddy puddles to lessen the impact and my dad spent an equal amount of time scrubbing and polishing them back to pristine condition

Yes I remember some of my clothes that were made by my mum, one that were made from a pre-cut pattern that all she had to do was sew the pieces together, it was a brown corduroy pinnafore style. She also made me hot pants with a matching button through skirt which I loved. She wasn't a knitter so I didn't get knitted jumpers etc. Unfortunately I am not as good at sewing as she was so my daughter never got to wear home made clothes.

I remember a twin set and kilt in "Anderson" tartan which was very similar to what the Royal daughters wore. I also had a double breasted tweed coat with matching jodhpurs(!), velvet collar and 'Poke' bonnet!! My hair was in 'pigtails', looped and caught above my ears by enormous ribbons. The only hand made garment was a woolen jumper made by my mum's French friend. She wouldn't let me wear it as it was chunky rather than fine wool so didn't suit me apparently...! I did have a passport photo when I was about 5 and wearing the tweed coat etc, but sadly, it has gone missing.

I remember a lot of the clothes I wore as a child as not only did we have to make them last but my sister was a year older than me and I had her hand me downs. I've got school photos of me at Junior school 3 years running in what appears to be the same dress, Mum of course made all our clothes until we took over and made our own from about the age of 12.

Yes I had hand knitted cardigans and boleros. Most clothes were second hand from markets. I remember being at a wedding and I wore my school uniform.
I was sent to private school and that was where the small income was spent.
It was a very happy time. I recall growing out of my gingham summer uniform. I had 2 dresses I think and Mummy made them into curtains for our kitchen.
Nothing was wasted and has stood me in good stead. Soapy water from the washing was used to clean the steps. Wool from jumpers was re wound into balls and reused.
The oven was never used for one item, it was filled to capacity. We only boiled enough water in the kettle. No waste in our home. Even old underwear was used for dusters or cleaning cloths. (Still do this) Vegetable scraps were used for soup and to bulk out mince, a spoon of porridge oats.
Clothes were passed on and were greatly appreciated. There was never any scrimping on shoes. 1 winter pair of school shoes and one pair of sandals in the summer. There was a pair of black wellies that seemed to last for ever.

My sister use to make all my dresses. She was 18 years older than me She made my 4 bridesmaids dresses as well. She moved to another city so stop making my clothes so much. Mum used to say she saved her a fortune. She once made me a crocheted dress in the 70tis. I wore it till it was thread bare

When I was 11 I made a Christmas list which included a tapestry skirt and a pair of Louis heel shoes. Now I have no idea how I knew about such things because I had Girl comic which didn't really do fashion.

When I was 13 I needed some new shoes and wanted some with a heel. My parents wouldn't let me and chose a pair which wouldn't look out of place now. I cried, I shouted (in the shop) but they didn't give in.

Once I started a Saturday job I saved up and bought a pair of granny shoes - brown suede and leather with a stacked heel. They cost me 69/11 shillings and I also bought a matching suede shoulder bag. I was lucky because I often did holiday cover during the school holidays so sometimes received a week's wage.

I have a friend who knot a lot - even socks for herself and her OH. She uses multi coloured wool and her washing line is a sight to behold - just as decorative as bunting.

My mum made most of my clothes and I can remember many of them. She was quite creative with the cutting out of fabric and therefore she would often have to tweak the pattern slightly to fit onto the available fabric (shorter sleeves, false hems on dresses etc). My favourite dress was one she made from a kit and sent for from Woman’s Realm or similar. But I longed for shop bought dresses! She even made me some pants (knickers) but one keg hole bigger than the other, so not that comfortable. She also knitted our cardigans and I can remember one grey school cardigan having one sleeve in a slightly different grey as she didn’t have enough to finish it all in the same shade. Bless her, she did her best, but I was sometimes a bit embarrassed in my homemade clobber, especially when I got to 13 or 14, but by then I was making some of my own clothes as we were thought needlework in school and my mum gave me tips too.

I remember most of my childhood clothes. My mum was very skilled and made them all for both myself and my brother.I remember her buying odd pieces of material from clothes factory’s. She would make patterns herself and would always somehow manage to make me a dress from the offcuts so we had identical dresses but never wore them on the same day. When I grew too big for this she would buy material just for me and make a matching hat for the summer. She made coats and ponchos as well and when they no longer fitted she would donate them to the school jumble sale. Later I was told by a friend who had a sister in a younger year her mum would dig deep in the pile of clothes hunting for things she had seen me wear. I loved the clothes she made she would always use the softest material. It was a total shock when she brought items from the store for me they were always so much more uncomfortable. She also knitted all my school jumpers as well. It does make me feel slightly sad though, my aunt told me my mum was the only person to win a scholarship in her school. My grandmother wouldn’t pay for the uniform though and took her out of school and into a clothing factory as a machinist at a very young age. She was making heavy trench coats for servicemen and learnt her skills there. I regret never learning from her but she was adamant I wouldn’t follow her footsteps.

Leg hole not keg hole!! And taught needlework, not thought. Blasted predictive text/fat finger syndrome. Aaaagh!

My maternal grandmother embroidered the most marvellous dresses and blouses for us right up to when she died when I was 13. She also knitted cardies, jumpers, mittens and hats for us and for our dolls.

Unfortunately, both my grandmothers knitted horrible scratchy bright pink pure wool vests for us - which they and my mother insisted we wore next to our skin with a cotton vest on top. We would have itched and scratched far less if we had been allowed to reverse the order of those two garments!
Fortunately, neither lady knitted pants for us, only for our dolls, who never complained about scratchy wool! They had, I think, knitted nappy pants for me, but plastic had arrived by the time my sister came along.
Our lives were made hideous by the knitted woollen swimsuits, but living in the west of Scotland miles from the sea, we only used them once or twice a summer.

I particularly remember with love a light blue knitted pixie-hood in moss-stitch and a Oxford blue mohair cardie with yellow ducklings all round the hem - they were cuddly mohair too. I also had a brown knitted skirt with bib and straps when I was four.

My paternal grandmother sewed dresses, I particularly remember one of dark green corduroy with elbow length sleeves and a full skirt, made for me when I was five. My other grandmother sewed blue or white dresses for me, as I was a red-head then, so the green dress came as a blessed relief.

Later on, I was seven, I had a pale white or blue t-shirt with red polka dots - exciting as I had never seen polka dots before, and because it was shop-bought. Unfortunately, a friend's mother let me go into the sea wearing it, and the red dye ran. My mother was furious, and not feeling she could complain to my friend's mother took it out on me all the way home.

My mother sewed summer dresses for us - rather slap-dash and usually of some horrible remnant from one of the few remaining cloth-mills in Paisley. The only good thing was she was a wizard at making circular skirts that were completely round and the hems never "dripped."

I too remember my first "costume": skirt and jacket bought in the C&A in Sauciehall St - an adventure in itself, and an emerald green dress bought at the same time for "best" winter wear.

I remember all too clearly both my confirmation dress and the disappointment it caused me, bought shop-soiled in a sale and too big. It fit where it hit and had to be taken in, which certainly did not improve the line of it.

From my adult life, I clearly remember my first pair of Levi's corduroy jeans (which even age 19) I did not dare let my mother see, as they had a fly front (Oh! the Indecency of it!)
A mini-dress in unbleached cotton stamped with a pattern of Rococco cherubs in green, worn with tights with a pattern all the way up the outer leg - remember them? (1972) and high heels - again something I concealed from my mother as I was away at college. Until I left home at 16, mini-skirts were totally forbidden "No daughter of mine is going anywhere in a skirt that stops half-way to her knees." Anyone else remember that paternal dictum?

My wedding dress - I got my own back there, as I found the pattern and the dress-maker skilled enough to sew it for me in pure silk. Long sleeves, V-shaped neckline, silk covered buttons all the way down the back and a two yard long train.
It exemplified the costumier's pronouncement "a wedding dress is the only gown designed to be seen from the back."
How I wished I had lived at the time when a newly married woman wore her wedding dress at dinner parties for the first half-year of her marriage!

I remember wearing kilts my Mum had made. I also remember her tacking the pleats into place before she washed them. I would have been about seven when the coronation took place, and Mum made dresses for my two sisters and me. The fabric for mine was white with a border of coaches round the hem, and other coronation paraphernalia dotted all over. My sisters’ dresses were the same fabric, but one was pink and one blue. They were lovely.

Remember the liberty bodice in the big freeze of 1963 . Awful things. And as a young girl dislike it intensely but just wore it . Maybe it wasn’t in vogue much after that !

I had a red dress with Alice in Wonderland figures on it which I adored. And a chiffon party dress with a fantastic sash. In fact I don’t think I have ever really got over these treasures and still use every special occasion to resort to the ‘dressing up box’.

My dear mum was a seamstress by trade and could make absolutely anything, even Coats.
I'm filled with great shame and regret that I absolutely hated wearing anything home made/knitted and longed for shop bought clothes.
Mun died 3 years ago after a long battle with Alzheimers. What I wouldn't give to sit with her now and willingly let her show me how to make my own clothes.
I was a very selfish self centred young person of whom I'm am thoroughly ashamed when I look back.

My mother made all my dresses pre grammar school. I was the bast dressed kid in the street. How I longed for a shop bought dress. I earned one by baby sitting my younger brother when my mother worked the housewives shift in the evening.
At Grammar School we had to make our Gym dresses in 1st year needlework classes. The design was based on a greek short tunic. 2 oblongs with a slit up the side.
Our summer uniform could be made at home and the art teacher designed the fabric. Blue background to represent the sea and dotted all over was sea gulls, sea shells, music notes and Blackpool towers.

My mother didn’t make my clothes, but I remember liberty bodices ! And crocheted pillowcases !
I ALWAYS hated sewing and at grammar school was often bullied during compulsory sewing lessons , but was FORCED to make a revolting ‘ box pleated ‘ skirt, which I’d then take home, my mum would unpick and I’d take back to school for the next lesson, pretending that I’d made some progress on it !!