I’ve talked before about how women found creative solutions to problems caused by war shortages. (You can find one post here.) With factories producing war implements, fabric and new clothing often were hard to come by. Here is an article from the March 1943 issue of Woman’s Day showing a war-era woman how to transform a man’s suit into something stylish of her own. Honestly, I’m tempted to try this for myself. I think this could be worn today.
I wish I could find an example of this being done outside of the magazine. How many women actually followed this pattern or did something similar? I know that women were reusing clothing to make new items, but it is difficult to know how much influence a magazine had on exactly how those old garments were refashioned. It is definitely on my research list.
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History in the Kitchen 