Warming up the Home Front, 1943

From Good Housekeeping magazine, 1943 - "some simple home recipes that add warmth and variety to a wilting wardrobe".

"Take a dated glamour-jacket of long-haired fur and bring to a high standard of usefulness with a few pieces of firmly-woven fabric. Add deep cuffs to the three-quarter or seven-eighths sleeves, drawn into a buttoned band, stitch a scarf-length to the collarless neck and gather the lower edge into a snug waistband, buttoning at front."

Hate fur, love the shape of this jacket. I wonder if it could be done with a modern three-quarter length faux fur jacket? It would have to have huge padded shoulders, though. That is so key to the shape: boxy shoulders, nipped in waist.

Pimp my hide

Now let me make this quite clear, I hate fur coats. Unless they're on an animal, obviously. I would rather eat glass than wear one myself, savvy? I'm just interested in this ad from The Portsmouth News, 1970, from a thrift point of view.

These days, I can't imagine the Co-Op, or any other major clothing retailer offering the services of an expert who can remake and remodel your items of clothing to save you having to buy new ones from the shop.

Mr Victor Segall was offering "re-styling to modern fashion requirements", "cleaning and repairing, including replacing worn parts", the re-dying of faded furs, and, "fox furs and stoles made into cape stoles."

Wouldn't it be wonderful to offer this service today, not necessarily with furs, but with any item of clothing that no longer fits, or has worn out in places, but you still love the fabric and would like to see it transformed into something else? Wouldn't it be marvellous to have a Mr Victor Segall who could scoop your old coat up in his arms, suggest a few creative ideas, and return, say, a few weeks later, with a beautiful skirt and matching handbag made out of your cast-off?

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."