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Kōrero: Unpaid domestic work

Kitchen-floor dressmaking

Image
Kitchen-floor dressmaking

Mrs Holmes and her neighbour cut out a dress on her kitchen floor in the Hutt Valley in 1944. Making their own clothes using paper patterns and fabric from drapery shops and department stores enabled women to keep up with the fashions while saving money. It could also be an enjoyable creative outlet for some women.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, John Dobrée Pascoe Collection (PAColl-0783)

Reference: 1/4-001174; F

by John Dobrée Pascoe

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Matt Morris, Unpaid domestic work – Making clothes and preserving food, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/23327/kitchen-floor-dressmaking (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Matt Morris, i tāngia i te 4 March 2010.