Bridesmaid's Dress 1948

 My Aunt Chiew, my father\s 7th younger sister, was able to make clothes since she was just twelve, after Grandmother Wong passed away during the Japanese Occupation.

She and Aunt Pick took all the cotton pantaloons worn by Grandmother Wong and fashioned them into simple frocks for the young sisters and themselves.  At that time women's pantaloons had extremely wide legs. The material used was adequate even to make a simple suit for a child and a simple frock for an older girl.

The wide trousers or pantaloons of the 1930's and 40's in Sibu

She started by placing a dress or frock on top of the undone pantaloon material and cut out the pattern. To her it was not difficult at all. She was a natural and gifted seamstress!!

Aunt Carrie was barely two or three years old when she started wearing those little frocks made by Aunt Chiew. 

The young children were able to pass quiet days, hiding from the Japanese in Meradong, after escaping from the Japanese in Sibu at midnight after the Japanese swept up the Rajang River. Grandfather saw to it that they were well taken care of, and that was also the time when Great Grandmother lived with them in Meradong, and not Hua Hong Ice Mill.

After the war, the children continued to live in the Meradong Sawmill (or Mee Ann). During the school holidays she would cut and make the clothes for her siblings.

She said, "It was a lovely experience, to cut and recycle our late mother's pantaloons which had enough material for our clothes during the Japanese Occupation when cloth was limited and sometimes unavailable. So in the subsequent years I just made the clothes during my holidays when school started, until I went to Singapore to study in 1950. I was the first batch to graduate in the Methodist Secondary School in 1949. One of my famous classmates was Tai Sing Chii of Pan Sar fame. And another class mate was Sia Kie Ming, who I was to marry a few years later."

"In 1948 my eldest  brother Ta Kang was getting married and I was chosen to be the bridesmaid. Delighted I made my own bridesmaid's dress and the flower girls' frocks. We all wore white. My father of course was most happy with every one dressed smartly, as he himself was always well turned out.... It was a good experience. I think my eldest brother was always grateful that I quite help make his wedding glamourous with the nice dresses cousin Ik Sing and my own sister Greta wore. I was quite proud of myself indeed."