Stitches through time trivia

There are lots of different types of presser feet you can use these days on a sewing machine such as special feet for inserting zippers, buttons and working with multiple layers of fabric.

Yes - When a pattern is cut on the bias (cut at a 45 degree angle to the grain of the fabric), you end up requiring a lot more fabric. While this method wastes a lot of fabric the result is a garment that hang beautifully, especially when used for skirts and dresses.

By putting the right sides together, you ensure that the messy seams are hidden on the inside of the garment.

Until the mid-20th century Reckitt’s blue-bags were commonly used in the final rise of washing to whiten the whites. The product had various names: Reckitt's Blue, Bag Blue, Paris Blue, Crown Blue, Laundry Blue, Dolly Bags. Bluo was another household laundry brand used for the same purpose.

Can you think of another common use for ‘Blue bags’? They were also handy as a remedy for bee stings.

All of these tools can be used for mending socks and stocking. Darning mushrooms and darning eggs are carved wooden tools, shapes as their names suggest. Whereas a darning gourd is a hollow dried gourd with a pronounced neck. The sock can be stretched over the full end of the gourd and held in place around the neck for darning.

Often some items of clothing such as linen doilies, school uniforms and shirt collars would be starched before ironing to help them stay crisp and smooth. Silver Star Starch was a popular brand in Australia.

Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. It is named after Fair Isle, one of the Shetland islands. A purl stitch is an inverted knit stitch. When you insert your needle from the top of a loop and pull a new loop up and through the first stitch, you are purling. Rib stitch is a textured vertical stripe stitch pattern and is created by alternating knit and purl stitches in the same row, then knitting the same stitch in the next row. This forms columns of knit and purl stitches and is often used for cuffs or brims.

English model Jean Shrimpton was flown out to Melbourne to judge the newly-created 'Fashions on the Field' competition at the 1965 Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse. She arrived wearing a white shift dress, 10 centimetres above the knee, with no stockings, gloves or a hat. Her outfit caused such a stir that it kicked the winning horse off the front pages of the newspapers the following day with headlines reading ‘the legs that stopped a nation’.

In 1947 Christian Dior released their famous ‘New Look’ collection featuring dresses with tiny waists, billowing skirts and prominent bust lines. The New Look was in many ways a reaction to the austerity of the 1930s and the war years. Cynically, it was also an attempt to make women look “womanly” again, and to put them back into restrictive clothing that could limit their now-broadened economic role. The emphasis on silhouette and form created by the ‘New Look’ was very dependent on foundation garments and women often wore bullet bras, corsets, waist-cinchers, girdles and layers of petticoats to complete the desired look.