Handmade patchwork housecoat, designed and made by Edith Fletcher, 1940s, using textiles dating 1919-1941.

Full length patchwork house coat, hand-made from pieces of cotton, silk and synthetic fabric. Irregularly shaped fragments of fabric are pieced together and embellished with herringbone embroidery stitches where the patches join or overlap.

Given by Sue Prichard

Given to the Museum in 2015 [2014/611]

Edith Fletcher (1896-1983) was born in Derbyshire and trained as a milliner as a young woman. She married a sergeant in the Army, who died during military service in WWII.

At the outbreak of WWII, the British Government initiated a strict rationing programme to ensure raw materials and resources were directed towards the war effort. Clothes rationing was introduced in June 1941 and was controlled on a points system, whereby individuals were allocated coupons, initially sixty six, which progressively were reduced as war progressed and shortages became critical. To supplement the clothing ration, women made their own clothes, recycling material from old clothes, curtains, furnishing fabrics and domestic materials. Clothing was also patched, whilst children’s clothing was handed down to siblings or neighbouring children. This initiative was supported by a concerted Government-led campaign specifically aimed at women under the title ‘Make do and Mend’.

The Make Do and Mend Pamphlet issued by the British Ministry of Information provided housewives with useful tips on how to be both frugal and stylish in times of austerity. Readers were advised to create colourful ‘decorative patches’ to cover holes in worn garments and adapt men’s apparel into into women’s’ wear, as well as darn, alter and prevent moth damage. This renewed emphasis on the importance of home craft skills was actively promoted by Government agencies as a form of patriotism in the face of adversity.

T.127-2015