Mend and Make Do as practised by The Porter Women
Miss Porter's House Museum
People who lived through the Depression years of the 1930s and the Second World War learnt to reuse and recycle, often continuing through life. The Porter women made their own clothes, remodelled older clothes, and mended tears and rips. They knitted, crocheted and sewed, made baskets, embroidered pillowslips and stencilled tablecloths. Whatever could be repaired, was repaired. Sustainability was practised.
Children can explore the workings of household equipment from the early to mid 1900s - the soap saver, a butter cooler, a darning egg and see how flour bags, that once contained flour, were reused.
Ella and Hazel Porter were not rich, their father, Herbert, died in 1919 when they were young children and they were brought up by their mother Florence. After leaving school, they worked as secretaries, typists and shop assistants, supporting themselves and their widowed mother. Their careful lifestyle was a necessity.
So come and see the evidence of a sustainable lifestyle at Miss Porter's House during Make Do and Mend month.
