Thursday, May 30, 2013

Make Do and Build Your Own, 1935

“The Woman’s Touch,” by Jane S. McKimmon, Carolina Co-operator, May 1935

Making Over the Hand-Me-Downs
Hold on to all the old suits which your men folks are wont to give away and see if you can’t be as ingenious as a Richmond County woman who says, “My oldest brother, who is away from home, sent several old suits to our younger brother thinking he might get some use out of them in his work on the farm. One suit was a nice brown mixed material and in fairly good condition. He had two pairs of pants and I decided I would try to make a suit for myself out of them. I cleaned the suit, turned the pants upside down and with a four gore pattern cut a nice skirt for myself, using both pairs of pants. I made a few changes in the coat and behold! I had a lovely suit.

“I have received so many compliments on the costume and it has given me such good service that I feel I will never let any old suits go for farm work until I have looked them over and decided whether anything worthwhile can be made from them.”

Man’s Suit from Feed Sacks
Last summer at the Style Show held during Farm and Home Week, State College, the son of Mrs. P.G. Sturges, Franklin County, modeled a white suit which his mother made for him from heavy cotton feed sacks. The slacks has been bleached and looked like linen.

Farm Women Enjoy Their Club Houses
Sixty-five Home Demonstration Club Houses have been built in rural communities of North Carolina which were equipped by interested farm women of the neighborhood and are serving as meeting places for all kinds of community activities.

If you are passing through Lee County, stop and see the Dignus Community Club House, and observe another one in a beautiful setting among pines and dogwood which is now under construction. It is just opposite the attractive home on the hill of Mr. K.E. Seymour, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, who gave the land and building.

In addition to the new club houses, home demonstration women have furnished 70 club rooms in buildings where space was offered, and there are 117 new applications for club buildings from 21 counties.

Some houses are built of brick or stone, but usually they are fashioned of logs or lumber. The club house costs little in actual cash. Interested farmers in the community usually furnish the logs and stone for side walls and chimney; and the county ERA office has cooperated in furnishing men to do much of the construction.

The main room is long and narrow, sometimes 50 by 25 feet, and the logs furnish both an inside and outside wall of artistic appearance. There is a kitchen in the rear planned for the convenience of those who prepare and serve refreshments for community get-togethers, and practically all communities have planted or are planning to plant the grounds to give the house a proper setting.

Members of the North River Club in Carteret County have been promised logs for their club house and are baking bread or cakes to raise funds for other expenses.

At Waterlily an old house boat on Currituck Sound has been anchored, furnished, and made into a cool and attractive club house for the Waterlily community.

Rural women have taken great interest in making curtains, rugs, and cushions for their club houses and are doing over or painting old furniture which has been contributed.


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