Everyone gets a bit excited around our house when we start a new study. These studies are good for us in many ways and it keeps us from getting stale like old bread.
I have decided that I will do another peek week this week as I did the beginning of last year. I will do my best to post each day this week to help get us on track for this new study.
This is Monday July 1 when I am posting this article and talking about what we will be doing today on our first day of the study of 1940.
July 1940
Today I will be removing all clothing from the closet and chest of drawers as well as Charles Chifforobe.
This chore will cause another chore later because I must go through, donate or store the other clothing so this will be moved to the guest room to work on throughout the week. I will put back what we are going to use into the drawers, closet and chifforobe. These studies help to keep our house clean and in order but sometimes we have to make a mess to get it clean and organized.
I have written out the list of clothing items that Charles and I will need to keep for the study. To find the list of clothing items for the year 1940 I will include the link to the Vintagedancer website. They have capsule wardrobe information for some of the years long ago. Charles and I will be going by the combined lists of the average, business and farmers clothing because Charles is still working and needs dress clothing, I only need more of a farmers wife clothing and Charles needs some farmers clothing for his outdoor work.
For this study, Charles gets an added item to his wardrobe, a summer union suit. A union suit is a one piece underclothing, Charles has winter but not summer. I ordered him one and if it fits I will order a second as suggested in the list of clothing items. We chose cotton sleeveless union suit, there are pictures in the link of what that looks like on their website. I will say that it "could" be a bit challenging for older men but if they have farmed or worn overalls they know what it takes so to speak. I can say that any man that has a problem with when he works on things that he has to kneel down and his shirt comes up and his butt parts show, they need a union suit! A union suit was part of 1940s wardrobe.
Charles and I decided that we will continue on into 1941 next year so we are basically setting our house to be like the 1940's here on out. It helps to keep our household bills low and our grocery bill down so that is a good thing. It helps to keep us young minded and imaginative which I feel is good for us. Our bodies are slowing down but to challenge ourselves as we do with these studies we keep moving.
Studying the 1940's era is good for all ages because if you are younger you can try out the beautiful hair styles of the 40's and the pretty clothing. Use some of the newer colors of the 1940s.
I have mentioned the vintage dancer site on another study before so you may have already been there. Scroll down on the vintage dancer site (link below) and you will get to the ladies items and then men's items of how many ladies dresses or undies, mens shirts etc. To keep in your wardrobe.
Sometimes it is difficult to get our clothing items down to the suggested low inventory of the 1940's. I will pick a house dress or two but most days I wear a skirt and top with an apron over that. For the garden pants under a dress or overalls as I often do to keep the bugs off.
Also today I will be trying to find my number 7 crochet hook for I can find all of them but number 7 which is the one I need. I will start working on the grocery list for Thursdays grocery shopping day, and hopefully complete my laundry washing and drying the clothing I started this morning.
I am trying to work out a work schedule for a couple of hours for blog time and research will be done during evening reading time since we do not have a television. There are the normal chores of washing dishes and cleaning the home.
Just a note that my blog works best by reading on a computer because you can find a search bar on the right hand side to put in key words that you might want to look up such as One Room Proper and things like that.
Here is the link to the Vintage Dancer website where they have all kinds of wonderful information about vintage clothing but most helpful is how many clothes to keep in drawers and closets. Don't forget you can go to the forum to chat if you would like to do so.
The link below for vintage dancer I am posting is for 1940's.
https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-capsule-wardrobe-what-clothing-cost/
Have fun, Grandma Donna
