SALVAGING A WORN-OUT FROCK, FROM THE DAILY MIRROR, April 4, 1940

The original dress had a four-gored skirt and long sleeves. The bodice had been draped slightly. The neckline was high and trimmed with some tired gold braid. The material was perfectly good.

Every woman has a dress something like it in her wardrobe.

For the fifirst renovation we unpicked the trimming and put in some strong arm stuffff at the ironingboard. We cut the sleeves to just below the elbow and added a taffeta apron tied at the back in a crisp bow. The edge of the apron was trimmed with a ruffled frill.

Print was the secret of our next effort. We fixed the narrow ends of two strips of material at yoke height.

Then we twisted the ends at the bustline and brought them round the waist to tie at the back…”

LEFT With silk stockings becoming extremely expensive, laddered stockings were no longer thrown away. Instead, women had them repaired. At Selfridges, 20 full-time staff were kept busy doing just that. The woman on the table is modelling their handiwork with a pair of before-and-after stockings. January 1941