Historic Booklet

1 total work

Make Do and Mend

Published February 1997

Prepared for the Board of Trade by the Ministry of Information in 1943, this publication gives the hints and tips needed to make clothing last longer at a time when rationing and severe shortages meant that the average household were unable to replenish their worn out wardrobe. The 'Make Do & Mend' campaign was intended to help get the last possible ounce of wear from clothing and household items and the hints in this book were tested and approved by the Board of Trade Make Do and Mend Advisory Panel, a body of practical people, mostly women. The book aimed to help you: to keep clothes looking trim as long as they had to last; to renovate children's outgrown clothes so cleverly that none is ever wasted; to turn every scrap of good material possessed to advantage; to keep household linen in good repair; and, to make do with things you already had instead of buying new.