Stiched in ?
 

Chatting to a friend tonight, we were discussing rather nasty body 'things', etc., that would have been difficult to deal with in years gone by and what we take for granted now (won't mention some .. family site like .. but did open with 'the curse' lol), but she mentioned that she remembered children in her years being stitched into their undergarments for the winter... :confused: Bear in mind she is more than 10 years younger than me.

I had never heard of it, and certainly don't remember any of my contemporaries having this practice inflicted on them.

Did it mean that they would never be able to have a bath ? Confused.

Re: Stiched in ?
 

Me neither, bet it stops thee undies fallin down tho :D

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Have heard of it, but not supposed to happen in, so called, modern times.

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No, never heard of children being stitched into their underwear.

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Pretty certain I can give you a few years Kate, and all the secondary schools in Accrington in my time had a session in the swimming baths in Scaitliffe St every week - besides would never have had the fun that I did if all the girls were stitched up:-)))

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Ignore this Kates only bragging she got a friend.:D

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Never mind the bath, what about bog, she's taking the wee wee.
I'm owder than both of you, never heard of it.

Retlaw.

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Oh Margaret ... was relying on you too .. ask Ma.

Did lie a bit .. had sorta' heard of it in some Victorian History book but, as Less said ... not in our lifetime.

My friend (Cashy ... :p) did name a particular poor family from Ossy.

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From Ossy:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

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Kate.....I asked Ma...and while she doesn't go back to the Victorian era.......she has never heard of it either.

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I think perhaps it may be some form of urban myth, but it's not one I've heard about, perhaps you misheard your friends comment & she actually said that "Their names were stitched into their undergarments" ? A common enough occurrence even today, as you certainly wouldn't want to be putting on Mucky Magrews Kex by mistake now would you ? :eek: :)

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I know that camphor blocks were 'stitched in' to vests and liberty bodices in winter, as an attempt to avert colds.

Bathing became more frequent in Tudor times when Queen Elizabeth I set the trend by bathing once a month.

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What!!!! in Tudor times?:D:D:D

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The camphor blocks were in use in our lifetimes (we have a mutual friend who was subjected to it;))

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I've heard people talk about kids being stitched into their underwear but don't know anybody it happened to so it could be an urban myth.

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Wasn't referring to camphor blocks, but the bathing bit.:D;)

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In ye olde days they used to stitch in the boyfriend if he came round to stay - to prevent any hanky panky.

Nowdays people just get stitched up instead.

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My mum used to insist I wore a liberty bodice when I was young to protect my chest, some bloody use they were:rolleyes:

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I used to bite bits off the rubber buttons on my liberty bodices.......so much so that the buttons never stayed closed.
My Ma put paid to that by changing them for those horrid metal buttons covered in white cotton cloth.......I couldn't bite lumps off those!

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:rofl38::rofl38:

This is why we all love your Ma.

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Aaaaaawwww! Thanks Kate, I will tell her you said that....i just know it will make her smile. I bet she has forgotten how she used to find bits of grey rubber button under my bed......I wasn't so daft as to actually eat the rubber....I just bit them to bits and chucked the bitten bits under the bed.
The other thing about the cotton covered metal buttons was, they used to get spoiled if you forgot to position the garment porperly when you were putting them through the mangle.....once mangled, well they were no good as buttons anymore.

See, now everyone knows I had a rubber fetish.

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My wife reckons that children were stitched into their underwear for the winter and that they had button flaps at the back so they could go to the toilet. Seems more trouble than it's worth to me.

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Wouldn't want to be sat next to a kid like that:D

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Just found this, it explains about stitching children into their underwear. Yuk

THE WAY WE WERE

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Well all that must have been a blooming long time ago because neither I, nor my Ma(who is a well travelled lady of 83...don't tell her I said that) have no knowledge of anything like that...in fact both my mother and her mother were very very particular about personal hygiene....however cold it was, you were encouraged to strip off and wash all those intricate little places every day!

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Ya I used to wash my ears and back of mi neck everyday too Margaret:D