Weekly Challenge #180 - MacDee - Back to School in the '50s

When I was in grade school, the ultimate harbinger of Back-to-School was a new plaid item of clothing.  Store windows and catalogs were full of cotton woven plaid dresses, wool pleated skirts and jumpers, and trim little plaid coats with matching wool leggings for the coldest weather.  Those got slipped off and hung on a hook in the cloak room with our coats. The dress was either tucked inside the leggings if they had straps or they were just worn underneath.  Girls were never allowed to wear pants to school, and tights weren't even invented. We wore skirts with anklets or knee socks. 

My grandmother made all my school clothes with the skill of a designer seamstress, although back then, I just wished I could have clothes from Sears Roebuck or JC Penney like all the other kids.  Little did I know the value of a custom-made wardrobe!  Every summer, starting in about July, I would be called in from play to try on the latest article under construction.  Who wants to come inside and stand there sweatily suffering the pinning of pleats on a wool skirt or the length of a long sleeve with white pique cuff on a brown plaid dress?  I was such an ungrateful wretch!  But come the Monday after Labor Day, my new wardrobe was ready and I couldn't wait to wear it.  No matter that it was still in the 90's and dripping humid  and stuffy in our non-air conditioned school.  Waaaaahhh!  I want the new dress!



Those are not pants under that coat, they are leggings with straps that have her dress tucked inside!

That plaid jumper could have been wool or possibly a heavy twill.