Look after your corsets! a 1945 suggestion from Mrs. Sew and Sew.

'8 Ways to make Corsets wear longer!'  This little leaflet  was issued by the Board of Trade in 1945  which was just after the 2nd World War  when everything had to be looked after, cared for, and made to last. The Board of Trade dreamed up Mrs. Sew and Sew, and she fronted a series of useful leaflets suggesting ways one could look after and make our clothes last.    She looks more like a peg doll, rather unreal, but she tackles:  'Children's underwear', 'Easy to make slippers', 'How to patch sheets and blankets', 'How to patch a shirt', 'Your Household linen has got to last', 'Every Woman her own clothes Doctor', 'How to reinforce for Extra wear', 'Deft Darns', 'Repairing Men's and boy's clothes...Smarten up your man!', 'How to darn holes...', 'How to patch elbows and trousers', 'How to patch an overall' etc,  In this way the women of 1945 made sure their and their families' clothes lasted. These days cheaply made clothes made from cheaply made artificial  fabrics don't even have the time to get worn before they are binned and replaced with other worthless items!          And we think we are poor!?

Potatoes - Monsanto, and a follow on - now avoid the new GM variety - Fortuna!

This is a wonderful waxy organic potato, Pink Fir Apple.

The 'Blue Arran Victory' organically grown potato.

The above varieties of organic potatoes are very good to eat! -  Pink Fir Apple,  Blue Arrow Victory, and a seed potato - Milva.  A small selection of the many organic varieties  available in Berwick-upon-Tweed at our Green Shop, and grown locally.                  See: The keiser Report  - " Monsanto and the seeds of evil "   for more related information. Also my previous blogs on Monsanto in 2011.

Potatoes - Solanum tuberosum, an 8000 year old food goes GM, but not in Europe!

These wonderful potatoes are called Cara. They are organic, grown locally, and are sold in our local 'green' shop. The GM potato is called Amflora, try and avoid it!  Fortunately,  in January 2012  BASF  (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory)  a German science based business  relocated the main part of  its  business to Raleigh,  North Carolina,  and has stopped growing the Amflora potato in Europe. This was due to lack of public acceptance!

1899, French fashionable corsets! Plus ca change!

A fascinating 19th century French mail order catalogue depicting corsets. The line engraved illustrations show corsets for every occasion, also hip and bust enhancers, corsets that considerably reduce the waist size, corsets for nursing mothers with special openings, corsets for marriage, and a guide for measuring  all these.  

Illustrations of corsets of 1899. Plus ca change! 

A wonderful large common toad.

A large common toad. I don't know if it's  male or  female. It lives by my back door  under the stones, in the wall where it's safe and dark and damp.