Thinking about this old book I read, "How to make over old dresses" by Augusta Prescott, 1892. In it she tells us how to take apart, wash, possibly re-dye and then make a new dress out of an old one... And past the whole of "a good housewife simply must properly clothe her legion of children" it's fascinating. How much effort went into it, because if you weren't rich, that was good fabric and you had to make do!
https://archive.org/details/how-to-make-over-old-dresses/mode/2up