War is a hard, stern teacher, and its lessons are bitter in the learning; yet some of its teaching we badly needed—and not the least important of its many lessons is the one it inculcated on the criminality of waste.

To so many of us “waste” was a word with a comparative meaning. What was waste in one woman was not necessarily waste in another, we argued. It was wrong for the factory girl to let her skirts drop off her for lack of mending; but not wrong for better-off women to discard their clothes directly they showed the least sign of wear, because they could afford to buy more, we said; and, besides, it made it good for trade—that was a favourite argument used by the extravagant to excuse their wanton waste.

But we have all learnt the value of economy of recent years: and we have seen how the saving and thrift of individuals may mean the salvation of the State. It will be a long time before we can ever return to that condition of easy-going plenty that we knew before the war. In any case the cost of all commodities will remain higher in price. The woman who can utilize oddments and make things with her own hands is the woman who will be making money, as she will be supplying one of the most expensive items of modern times—personal labour. The hints in this book are intended as suggestions, which can be developed in many new directions.