Brittleness and the collar cracks

I’m looking at my little book of ‘Home Hints’, collated by dear Ruth Drew in the last months of her life in 1960. Ruth was a writer, journalist, broadcaster. I only came across Ruth a few years ago when a friend very kindly gave me another book by her. Her tips for ‘the housewife’ as she manages her household offer a fascinating insight into homes in the past and how everyday tasks were accomplished without all the devices and products we have today, and the modern fabrics and materials our clothes and furnishings are made from. Ruth sounds such a lively and funny person, so jolly and enthusiastic, which is why I always think of her as ‘dear Ruth’

Many of the ‘hints’ she shares although redundant are now fascinating from a historical point of view. Ruth wrote humorously,  for example, ‘As I said earlier, man-made fibres must have constant washing. Once they have been allowed to get dingy with accumulated dirt they lose their first pearly freshness.’ Reading her suggestions and hints, I just enjoy the way she writes, and if I’m ever writing anything set in the past but post-war, then i shall look to her!

Starching Soft Collars. You occasionally run across people who are under the impression that you can make a soft collar stiff if you starch it hard enough, but this is by no means the case. When a manufacturer turns out a collar which is going to be stiffened, he makes it in three layers. The middle layer absorbs the starch and binds the two outer layers to itself, so you get a triple thickness. This is stiff but is still nice and bendable. But when a soft collar is made, this middle layer is not necessary. This means when you starch it, the starch stays on the outside of the fabric. This makes for brittleness and the collar cracks when you try to fold it. If you make a practice of starching like this you will shorten the life of the collar considerably.

I don’t know if Ruth means detachable collars which were fixed to the shirt with a collar stud, I presume she was. Another thought which has just struck me, in those days many if not most people would only wash themselves using a flannel, and probably would have only bathed a couple of times a week or even only once bath a week, hardly any home showers then! Clothes would not have been changed and washed as frequently as we change and wash ours, and detachable collars and cuffs on shirts could be more easily cleaned. The air would have been dirtier and more polluted from coal fires, soaps wouldn’t be the same as our soaps, and during the war, from February 1942, soap was rationed. People received four coupons for four weeks, and with one coupon could get one, just one of the following:  4 oz. household soap, or 3 oz. toilet soap, or 3 oz. soap flakes or chips, or 6 oz. soap powder #1, or 12 oz. of soap powder #2, or 6 oz. of soft soap. Soap rationing ended in September 1950, but I’m sure many people continued to be careful in their usage.