Handmade to Ready-made: A Shift in Canadian Women’s Sewing and Consumer Education (1950-1975)

Abstract

When did sewing become a niche hobby in Canada? How did the practice of sewing go from a common skill to all but disappearing in the average Canadian home? This thesis seeks to explore the shift from handmaking clothing to buying primarily ready-made fashion in Canada from 1950-1975. This project will address these questions through an examination of sewing and consumer education in different versions of the Ontario Home Economics curriculum, and Canadian consumer consciousness through advice from Chatelaine, a popular Canadian women’s magazine. Discourses around quality both in terms of consuming and in terms of appearance and character help understand changes in attitudes towards sewing and purchasing clothing. This project examines the strong gendered norms and stereotypes associated with Home Economics, sewing, and reading Chatelaine. The impact of the women’s movement and the 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada will be studied in terms of their effect on sewing, consumer education, and the breakdown of Home Economics as a field. This thesis situates the decline of sewing skills in the context of weakening of Home Economics education, the increase of mass consumption in Canada and a decline in overall quality in clothing. This project reveals the consumer advice from the 1950-1975, centred around consuming slowly and thoughtfully, has modern relevance in the context of fast fashion and climate change.