SHORTER SHIRTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 20, 23 February 1942, Page 8

SHORTER SHIRTS

OLD ONES BEING "REBUILT" Millions ol' yards of cloth may be saved for Britain's war purposes by a new idea for repairing old shirts. Instead of putting a patch over the worn or frayed part, "which, apart from the difficulty of matching, would use up valuable material, the whole shirt is taken to pieces and rebuilt as new, except that it may be an inch or two shorter. Not an inch of extra material is used, and the retail charges range from Is 9d for a new neckband to 4s for a new front. A Czech and an Austrian, both ftnti-Nazis, have made this useful contribution to Britain's war effort. They started work a few months ago in a single room back r street workshop Avith only two sewing machines. Laundries, men's Avear shops and drapers Avere quick to see the value of the idea and in seven Aveeks the partners had .12 machines turning out 1000 rebuilt shirts a -week, so saving the country ;>3OO yards of material right :sway. Now they haA*e moA'ed to larger premises, and the authorities, realising lioaa- much shipping space and labour can be saved by renoA'ating old shirts instead of making new ones, Jnrve alloAved the concern to purchase 12 more machines. The inventor of the system is a Czech shirt manufacturer Avho introduced to Britain a process of shirt-making which increased the rate of production six-fold. He joined forces AA-ith an Austrian aa'lio has been making shirts in Britain for some years past. The partners estimate that if every man in Britain had two shirts repaired instead of buying iicaa' it would, save 145,000,000 yards of cloth.