My great grandmother made clothes for her family. She sewed on Singer treadle sewing machine, purchased in 1918, three years after she married. I'm very proud to own that machine and sewed on it for several years before I purchased a new one.
My mother often told me the story of a dress Granny made for her. My mother's version of the story was that Granny didn't have enough fabric, so she cut a ruffle and sewed it to the bottom, but the ruffle had the stripes going the wrong way. Years later, I saw a photo of my mother wearing a dress of that description, and to be honest, I thought looked nice. The ruffle using opposite direction stripes was a nice design element, but in my mother's memory, this was an example of how thrifty they had to be. I don't think she liked the dress very much.
When I was young, I came home one day complaining of being teased for wearing 'highwater' pants. After letting the hem out a few inches, my mother covered the white, worn hem edge with red ricrac trim. Now it was my turn to be horrified. I think I flat out refused to wear them.
Fast forward .... My daughter has a favorite tee-shirt. It's become way too short. And her school, thankfully, does not allow midriff attire (intentional or not). My suggestion to retire the shirt was not well received. I offered up a possible solution - maybe we could sew a pale green ruffle on the bottom. To my great surprise, she loved the idea, and immediately asked if I could put ruffles on all of her tee shirts.
So Necessity is the mother of Invention, whether it's squeezing a dress out of too little fabric, making a pair of pants last a bit longer, or sparing your daughter the sadness of letting go a favorite shirt. I hope Granny would be proud.
