Did you know that during World War II American mothers made children’s clothing out of discarded car upholstery?
The Waterbury Evening Democrat published an article on June 27, 1942 explaining the need for such clothes and highlighting the wartime effort to meet the demand.
Of course, mothers used more than just car upholstery. Many made clothing out of shower curtains, drapes and just about any piece of fabric they could find.
Below is the article transcript in full:
Gone are the days when happy-go-lucky American housewives throw away their old shower curtains, window drapes, hats, portieres, furniture slip covers.
They’re all being used these wartime days to make dresses, coats, raincoats, new hats and practically everything else in regular wearing apparel.
The ingenuity of the American woman, paralleling the efficiency of Uncle Sam’s war industries was demonstrated in New York the other day when the National Salvage Fair was sponsored by Bundles for America at the request of the War Production Board.
The above photos show some of the 300 smart-looking outfits that were sent in from all sections of the country by women who fashioned them smartly out of all sorts of odds and ends, including shower curtains, drapes and — upholstery from seats of junked autos.
The clothes are being collected for the nation’s needy families, including 5,000,000 migrant workers following the trail of wartime construction, and other workers who have dislocated temporarily by industries swinging over into war production.
Mrs. Wales Latham, national president of the Bundles for America, predicted 20,000 women volunteers will be needed to contribute re-made clothes as plans are made to shove the program into high gear.
Women can use almost any old piece of cloth they were planning to throw away. One woman made a little boy’s suit from two sugar sacks at a cost of 12.5 cents.
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