Make Do and Mend alteration ideas

How to turn an old coat into a two-piece dress and jacket, and how to change the style of a summer coat, using fabric from an old dress or blouse. Two useful and thrifty alteration ideas from a WW2 Make Do and Mend leaflet:

"With light summer coats, a changeover can often be done by unpicking the facings and reverse, adjusting the neckline and seaming the coat up the centre front. The sleeves will probably need taking in a little.

You may have an edge-to-edge summer coat which will not quite join down the front. A narrow panel down the centre front will solve the problem. You may have a frock which has become too worn to be of any use as it is, or a blouse worn under the arms. You will probably be able to get enough material out of this to make the panel.

An old coat that is on the long side can be made into a useful two-piece dress and jacket, providing a fairly long blouse or jumper is available to make a top for the dress. Cut the coat round at hip level, and remove facings from the lower part. Join up the centre front seam and sew this new skirt on to lower edge of the blouse.

Then face lower edge of jacket. The original coat must be cut to correspond with the length of the blouse used, so that the jacket and matching part of the skirt just overlap."

How to darn holes

Official UK government advice on darning, issue by the Board of Trade in the 1940s. Wish today's government would spend tax-payer's money on useful leaflets like this, rather than bailing out banks, and bringing Western-style democracy to the Middle East.

Do not wait for holes to develop. It is better to darn as soon as garments wear thin. Imitate, as well as possible, the texture of the fabric being darned. When darning a big hole, tack a piece of net at the back and darn across it, and this will give extra support for the stitches. A tear should be tacked round on to a piece of paper, to hold the edges in position.

Darning a hole:

First clear the loops of fluff and broken ends of threads from knitted garments or clip away ragged edges from machine knit fabrics. Always use a darning ball under large holes.

1. Make the darn the shape of the hole.
2. Darn up and down the hole first; work on the wrong side.
3. Choose mending as fine as the material of the garment.
4. Begin a good distance away from the hole in order to reinforce the thin parts round the hole.
5. Space the rows of darning the width of a strand of mending apart.
6. Pick up the backs of the loops only unless the material is very fine.
7. Leave loops at the ends of each row and darn so that stitches alternate with spaces between stitches in the previous rows.
8. Pick up the edge of the hole in one row then go over the edge of the hole in the next row. If you have cleared the edges of the hole you will find this will be easy and will make a neater mend on the right side of the garment.
9. Continue the darn over the thin place beyond the hole.


Darning over the first rows of darning:

1. Darn over the hole only and about two stitches of darning beyond.
2. Leave loops at the end of each row, and only pick up on the needle the darning stitches.
3. Pick up the alternate strands of mending in first row.
4. In alternate rows, pick up the strands of mending you passed over in the previous row.