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

My mother would make a lot of my clothes and the ones that stick in my mind are the kilts complete with pleats and the big pin on the bottom of the apron part. I have no idea how she got the pleats to stay in but they did. No idea of the tartans either and we weren't from Scotland nor had relatives from there.

She would pair it with the twin sets or jumpers [usually red or yellow] which she would knit for me.

She made a lovely cotton dress for me to wear at a wedding when I was 10, it was white, covered with small pink and red rosebuds. I loved that.

When I got married she made all 3 bridesmaids dresses in blue satin. She was very clever. Sewing [or knitting/crochet] on the scale it was in the 50's is now no longer the case of course, which is a shame.

But any chance I got I was in shorts or trousers [trews they were called then, and often 3/4 length]...which annoyed my mother. I wasn't a feminine child at all.

Yes, I remember many of them, and like you, most of mine were made by by mum, a few by my auntie, and from the age of 11, by me!
I am also struck that you had to travel from Dorset to Ealing to buy your uniform! At my grammar school, most of the girls wore home made gym slips and blouses. We had to buy the correct fabric, stocked by one posh local shop, and, at the Co-op as well.

I remember many of my clothes from when I was really little, I had a blue plaid Viyella dress when I was about four, which I disliked because it flopped about, being a loose smock style without a belt. Then when I was about ten I had a red and white seersucker dress I was very fond of. On Coronation day when I was 13 I wore a dark green needlecord dress with short puffed sleeves. It was June, but it was cold.

One time I remember feeling very strongly that I was wearing the wrong clothes. I found myself unexpectedly on the stage presenting a bouquet to a well known ballet dancer. I was wearing a dark red corduroy pinafore dress with a white embroidered blouse. It sounds all right, but I had grown out of the dress and the blouse was creased and battered. I felt a mess.. I was 11 at the time.

My mother made most of my clothes, but school uniform, winter or summer, had to be bought at a particular shop. The summer dresses were awful - floppy checked rayon. The black pinafore dress was all right, but I hated the blue Aertex shirts we wore for games. They were like boys’ clothes, so what could be worse?

I could go on for ever, so I’d better stop!

I think my memories of dresses as a child are really as a result of photographs, though I do remember a series of winter coats with velvet collars. Teenage clothes I remember from events that I wore them at, rather than the clothes themselves. I was well supplied with knitted items as everyone in the family knitted constantly. They ranged from angora boleros as a small child to chunky sweaters as a teenager.

Our school uniform was bought from the school tailor, who visited the school to measure you up, but until the sixth form you could buy the material for school dresses and use whatever pattern you wanted. At this stage this privilege was still afforded to the sixth form but the rest of the school had to choose from patterns selected by the school. I believe this privilege was to allow you to have a dress that you could wear after you left school. I can honestly say that I never saw anyone doing so!

Yes I remember lots of clothes from my childhood. Most were hand made, my mum was very good at dressmaking & made most of our outfits, including pretty summer dresses & in the winter pinafore dresses and flannelette nighties, she even made me a trouser suit for me when I was about 11. My Nanna was brilliant at knitting & crochet so knitted beautiful coordinating cardigans & jumpers. She crocheted me a lovely poncho when they were in fashion in the 70’s. My other Grandma would take us to choose a new coat & a dressing gown at Christmas (never brought us toys). Overall this meant we had a selection of lovely things in our wardrobe. I love looking at old photos of myself wearing these clothes.
My younger cousin was only saying the other day how she loved getting a big bag of my hand me downs. Not many children would be too chuffed with that now

I think I was cool. Huh!

My mother made all my dresses and knitted cardigans and jumpers too. Quite often she made my sister and I the same style of dress but in different colours. I longed for a ‘bought’ dress. My best friend at Primary School always wore bought dresses.

Yes, I remember wearing hand-knitted jumpers and cardigans and some home-made summer dresses, a blue checked pinafore and pleated skirts.

In the last year of junior school we made dirndl skirts, mine had a white background with red daisies - I can see it now, in fact I might have a very small scrap of the fabric somewhere. We had to hand sew the hem with tiny stitches which only went through one or two threads and it wasn't easy to do this to the teacher's satisfaction.

At infant/junior school there was a fashion in girls' head wear - a machine knitted hat with an Alice band arrangement and a hole at the back through which you were meant to pull your pony tail. As mum wouldn't let us have long hair it would have been pointless anyway but how we longed for them. I think it also had a tassel at the back.

As twins I had to wear identical clothes to my non-identical sister 'as it was easier' but hated this. We are very different characters. Few people would suspect us of being twins now.

My sister and I had a ‘costume’ for best, I think that was what it was called. A tweedy pleated skirt with a matching jacket with a velvet collar. We wore it for a wedding and Sunday School Anniversary days, things like that.

We must have looked a bit like the Queen and Princess Margaret as children when we were together!

I can remember many of my clothes; my mother made most of them until I was a teenager. Most of my summer dresses were green so that I could 'wear them out' at primary school, but as a treat I was allowed one shop bought dress a year. Secondary school was very strict and most of the uniform items had to be bought. I loved my machine knitted navy blue pullover, my blazer and the school shirts, a very fine blue striped cotton.

My mother did all the knitting and a lady at the end of the street did the sewing. Mum went to her sewing classes and came back modelling a pinafore dress she had made. My dad told her it looked like a barrage balloon and that was the end of her sewing. She had an old treadle machine and made curtains for all the family and when I was about 12 got an electric machine.
We got knitted jumpers or cardigans from Gran for Christmas which we had seen her knitting so no surprise there unless Santa sent her orders.
The school uniform was from the expensive uniform shop or the Co op which you got laughed at because it was considered downmarket. My one claim to fame was my school PE knickers which were from the same shop as the late Margaret Forster the authoress.

All my clothes were either home made or second hand. We were quite poor. Mum knitted a lot, with mixed results. The jumpers were usually nice but the vests were so itchy! The knitted bathing suit was deeply embarrassing. Affording the school uniform was really difficult. I can remember certain individual items, like a pink angora jumper, so fluffy and pretty. In my teens I had a Saturday morning job and started to buy some new clothes, - heaven!

lovebeigecardigans1955 As twins I had to wear identical clothes to my non-identical sister 'as it was easier' but hated this. We are very different characters. Few people would suspect us of being twins now. I just had to comment on this, you'd obviously approve of my son and DIL. Identical twin girls due later this year, they are adamant they will not be dressed alike. Many people telling them twins are 'meant' to be dressed exactly the same to look cute. Some family are miffed because they've already bought matching outfits. The girls will each wear them just not at the same time

My mother would sew me 3 or 4 new summer dresses each year and I can remember lots of them, but especially the one that had carousel horses dancing around the bottom of the skirt. I actually cried when it no longer fitted and she couldn't get the fabric again. She also knitted beautiful summer cardigans and boleros, which I especially loved. Once I was a teenager I made many of my own clothes. Loved making a new dress or skirt for Saturday night dancing.

Thank you all for a lovely response. Our mothers were truly amazing since I suspect that they were making clothes for more than one child.

I don't remember wearing a woolen swim suit but did have one of those ruched ones.

Oh I had one of those too Dinahmo. I'd forgotten about it but now remember my cousin was very jealous as she had a woollen swimsuit that reached her knees when she came out of the sea!

As the second child, I had a lot of hand me downs from my sister, so anything made or bought just for me made me happy.
I particularly remember a beautiful plaid coat with a brown velvet collar, and a 'peasant' style dress with puffy sleeves and purple mixed prints. This was in the 70's

Oh, and we went from Canada to Jersey in 1974 we all had new outfits, mine included bell bottomed jeans and a red vinyl biker-style jacket. I felt like I was very cool. Oh, and my first bikini! It was orange, and I was just barely 12 with no breasts to fill it!

My mother made most of my clothes when I was a child and I remember a lot of them. I had a best dress made from material called Peaches and Cream. I have a photo of a younger friend wearing it. Clothes tended to be handed on in those days. I also have a photo of my Royal Stewart kilt. Twin sets were also knitted by my mother and later I helped her knit my DB's school jumpers.
By the time I was at secondary school I was desperate for shop bought clothes.
My mother also made the wedding and bridesmaids dresses for my friend when I was bridesmaid and then only a few months later did the same again for me as bride.

I had the dreaded mustard sweater too Dinahmo you reminded me, with a knitted hat in the same wool!

I spent my first 10 years in NZ which really was the back of beyond in those days in the nicest possible way
Everyone's clothes were homemade and some families would get a bolt of khaki cloth and everyone would get shorts, boys or girls.
The first excitement about clothes was when a present arrived from the USA with a set of polka dot shirt and red shorts, with polka dot trim! my sister and I had one set each.

One of my Great Aunts was a nanny to a landed family and for the first few years of my life, boxes of cast offs were sent to my mum, so photographs of me were of beautifully smocked dresses, however, this stopped and from then on my mum made a lot of my clothes right into my teens, so one day I was in home made another in Biba. I think she must have got used to the hand me downs as she loved second hand clothes shops and I do remember a pale yellow coat for church and a heavy tweed coat for school. Nowadays I still have a rather split personality over clothes as it's charity shops one minute and John Lewis the next.

My Gran did wonderful smocking on all my doll's clothes. But she never made clothes to fit me.
She was a great upholstery seamstress and even made cinema curtains.
I am afraid I haven't inherited any of her talents in the sewing department

My family didn’t sew, but they did knit, my gran made some very complicated patterns, when we grew out of them, she would unpick them, and put a contrast stripe in the sleeves and hem, so that they would fit again.

I never had shorts or trousers, two skirts worn alternate weeks, and a dress for Sunday school, always layers of net, and prettily embroidered, but hot and scratchy.

I remember being the only girl at guide camp without shorts, I don’t know why they were banned.

I remember with great affection a wine coloured winter coat with a white fur collar, a matching hat and a muff

Also had a couple of dresses from a club book once which were lovely.
I can remember lots of things, some a source of joy, but many a source of horror!

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 sister is two years older than me and we were dressed the same. I think we must have been wearing the same size, as in photos the dresses were too long for me and too tight as she was slimmer than me.