Make Do and Mend: Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations

By: Jill Norman

Facsimiles of official British government WWII leaflets cover repairing, refurbishing, and recycling, and provide a fascinating insight into how propaganda promoted national unity With wartime... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1843172658
• ISBN13: 9781843172659
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Making Do

This is an interesting (British) book to encourage the reuse and care of clothing and household products during the war when material and leather good were rationed. Practical information on altering and reusing clothing...however the materials available then were different that we have now so some of the reuse might not work so well on poly/blend fabrics that are so prevailent today.

Conservation and consideration

This book will be a real eye-opener for many people. The idea of not being able to replace worn-out things is unheard of today, and the idea of doing one's own mending may be shocking in this day and age, when manual skills are no longer being taught to young people. Did you know that in the state of California, many public kindergartens spend their time drilling the children for standardized testing instead of teaching very basic skills, such as using scissors? I am not even kidding--I head that from several different teachers. I worked in a Living History program once, and had to actually define what sewing was to a bunch of third graders. Also, in many California schools, woodshop is one of the first things to go when the districts make cuts. That's not good, folks. I don't mean to get up on a soapbox here, but if anything, besides being a valuable firsthand peek at wartime Britain, "Make Do and Mend" ought to be a manual for those times when the digital stuff doesn't work and we have to rely on good old-fashioned elbow grease. It makes me wonder if we have progressed as a race, or are we so dependent on government programs and computerized everything that we forget how to function and innovate on our own. Something to think about, isn't it?

Thrifty

We may not want to do it these days but this book if full of ideas on how to clothe the family when there are no new clothes available. How to cut down worn adults clothes for children. How to make adults clothes wear that bit longer. A good investment if you think the recession will go on or if you are already feeling the pinch from having reduced income. It brings you up with a jolt when you think how much waste we now accept as normal.