While I am on the topic of 1950s home dressmaking, I can pass on a tip to help avoid those embarrassing revelations whipped up by the wind.
Frocks are back in fashion & frocks mean full skirts – reminiscent of those of the New Look, jazzed up in the age of jive& gingham by voluminous net petticoats. One dressed demurely in those days – not much flesh on display, & certainly not underwear, which was supposed to remain a part of the mystery of woman.
I am trying desperately to remember the English phrase that a schoolmate (or even a kindly stranger, discreetly, on the street) would use to warn you that your petticoat was dipping below the hem of your skirt; the French version was ‘tu cherches une belle-mere’
And even Marilyn Monroe did not want her skirt to blow right up to reveal petticoat, stocking tops & suspenders.
The dressmaker’s trick to avoid this was – lead in the hem.
You could buy special lead pellets in the haberdashery department. Of course it was a tremendous fiddly chore to sew them all the way round, but better than getting yourself a reputation.
I don’t suppose you would be allowed to use lead these days*.
But I expect that the Queen, who has had 60 years of avoiding this problem, was able to pass on some grandmotherly professional advice to Mrs Obama when the two of them stayed behind in Buckingham Palace for a cosy cup of tea after the ceremony in the garden.
You are - at least for use in the hems of curtains
