Making do and mending in the 50s

LL-De: When I was a child, my mother sometimes complained that I was never satisfied with what I had. It wasn’t about toys, but mostly it had to do with my clothes. I was fed up and complained bitterly when I had to wear the old washed-out clothes or jumpers I inherited from my big sister or cousins once again. Of course, this fate is still shared by the youngest members of the family today, but back then, when sewing or buying clothes, long-term or multiple use was already planned.

Old skills and a new Zeitgeist

Commonly there was a long hem on the skirt, which became narrower and narrower as I grew. Side seams were also lavish so an adjustment to the width was also easy.

But I looked sceptically at this practice. I preferred to be dressed as neatly as my school friend Lizzy. She was the only girl in the family and always very nicely dressed, with nice new dresses over her petticoats, new stockings and matching shoes.

Me, readily dressed for kindergarten. Please note the knees, always with signs of sporty competition.

Next to her, I felt like a clodhopper. My clothes, even when I put them on clean, were dirty or even ruined in no time. It was probably because I was a tomboy playing in the street with my friends and definitely didn’t give a thought to my new stockings. I wanted to win the race on my roller skates, not look pretty and come second. In the heat of the moment, I regularly fell to my knees and my stockings had big holes in them. Anyway, my knees were used to being scraped. But the sad thing was that instead of getting a pair of new stockings, as Lizzy’s mother would certainly have done, my mother painstakingly darned the stockings to make them fit for the rest of the season. There were no new ones, like at my girlfriend’s. But, there again, she never fell or skated.

My mother explained my dissatisfaction not only with being the youngest of four children but also with the era I was born into. While my older brothers and sisters (who were apparently more content – although I remember my brothers complaining about their itchy knitwear) grew up in the post-war period (between 1946 and 1951) when nobody had any money, I was born in 1953. This was the time when the so-called economic miracle began in Germany. At that time most people were still poor and experienced only a very slowly progressing economic miracle. Others were wealthier than we perhaps because they had a business or a shop; they owned a car, went on holidays or could afford to buy new clothes for their children, like Lizzy’s parents. So, I grew up looking at better-off neighbours, comparing myself to their children and became dissatisfied.

The priorities of parents were different

My parents, especially my mother, were modest people and were less influenced by the view over the garden fence. They made the best of everything.

I remember once when I got a new blue coat with a small fur collar. I was very proud and wore it to church on Sunday mornings. Finally, I had a brand-new coat and just for me! Little did I know that my mother and my cousin had made this coat from the old coat of one of my aunts. They turned the fabric over and sewed a nice little coat for me. Sewing was cheaper than buying, and the old fabrics of that time were still good enough to make new clothes out of. It was all a question of quality.

My mother mending an old pullover

Why throw away a nice jumper just because it had a hole at the elbow or had become thinner? No problem! With a piece of fabric or leather, the clothes were repaired and given a new life. A hole could be artfully repaired with needle and thread so that the jumper could be worn for at least another 5 years. And even then, the jumper was most likely ripped up and socks, gloves or scarves were knitted from the recovered wool.

Make the best of what you’ve got

The economic miracle was of course also evident to our family. We were able to buy a house as part of a programme by the Catholic Church to support families with many children. We were now homeowners, but that did not mean that we could afford a car or go on holiday.

My father continued to cycle to work every day on his old bicycle and returned home for lunch, then cycled back to work. Every day he went to the office dressed in a nicely starched, ironed shirt and his favourite leather trousers, as he had done for decades. He was satisfied with this and always felt appropriately dressed.

However, economic development also affected social norms about what to wear and what not to wear at work. My father was very offended when his boss called him one day and asked him to wear a suit instead of his leather trousers in the office in future. This request was not the only reason for crossing swords, but soon afterwards, my father left this company to work in a different environment.

Later, when my father no longer fit into these leather trousers, my mum cut his much-loved Lederhosen into pieces and made leather soles which she sewed onto knitted socks to make nice warm slippers for us all.