“Make happy use of every last thread of the things you possess.”

Recently I was given a booklet, published by Singer at the height of World War II. In it are instructions for darning, patching, mending, and altering—but what I find most interesting are the creative ideas for repurposing worn or outmoded items.

I grew up with parents who lived through the Great Depression and WWII. My mother, a 22-year-old in 1942, was particularly creative in mending and fixing, reusing, and every frugal skill she’d learned as a young person. She could have written this booklet.

There were many times in my youth when I really wished my mother was not so creative, like when I wanted to have new store-bought clothes but she insisted on making all my clothes. Guess what though? I owe a lot to my mother’s frugality and creativity. I would never have raided my parents’ closets for vintage clothes to wear, and found ways to style them, if I’d had all the latest stuff from the mall. I learned to sew, crochet, applique, tie-dye… I made homemade pants look a bit cooler by sewing patches all over them, I painted plain used t-shirts with band logos. I made a dress out of flowered sheets (got in trouble for that one—the sheets weren’t worn out!).

Back to the booklet. I don’t believe this publication uses the word frugal. Instead, it uses the words ingenious, imaginative, and happy. Above all, it emphasizes the patriotism in using what you already have.

I love the creative projects being called Victory Styles. In 1942, we had our goals set almost impossibly high.

Here is the booklet in its entirety. I especially love the restoring of sweaters on page 4, the rescuing of a shrunken dress on page 10, combining two dresses, pages 12-13, making a woman’s suit out of a man’s suit, page 18, and all the buttons, bags, hats and “lapel gadgets” on the last several pages.