About the re-use of clothes, all four of my grandparents were born in log cabins in the hollers of Appalachia, and when an item of clothing was no longer repairable it was cut up and used to make quilts.
I've seen my grandmother make many a quilt out of these scraps.
Somewhat different is the case of a large extended Irish-American family in my area.
The wedding dress the woman who immigrated brought from Ireland in the 1840s was modified and used as a wedding dress for her daughters and granddaughters.
When it could no longer be so used, it was cut down and made into a First Communion dress which was worn by generations of the family's girls.
It's still in the family and the family's girls continue to wear it.
Older yet, I piped at a wedding where the bride's veil had been worn by every bride in the family for over two centuries.
The family told me it had originally been part of a dress worn at George Washington's Inaugural Ball in 1789, but then was made into a veil.
Last edited by OC Richard; 17th August 25 at 10:02 AM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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