My grandmother wore navy blue for dress, but for everyday her favorite color was red. One year she had a red dress with white polka dots. Granddaughter was a preschooler. She liked red, too. She liked Gram’s dress very much and wanted one like it. As luck would have it, she needed a dress.
Mother went shopping for polka dots. The first store had sold out. The second was “Sorry,” etc., etc. Pretty soon there were no more stores to try. Mother gave up. She got out the Sears & Roebuck catalog. There were no polka-dotted prints in it either.
Now Mother decided to order from the sale catalogue as she usually did. This time she ordered a remnant bundle. Each piece of fabric was of a guaranteed fabric content and no piece was shorter than three yards. Satisfaction was guaranteed or your money back. The mail carrier brought the packages to the door and the whole arrangement was easier and cheaper than shopping at the local stores.
Have you guessed what the package included? If you said a four-yard piece of Sears best cotton, red with white polka dots, you were correct! One little girl was very happy. There was more than enough cloth to make the dress. Little girls of that era wore slacks with dresses when the weather was cool, so mother made a pair of matching slacks.
Red dress plus red slacks equal happiness.