Three Talented Danson Sisters: 52 Ancestors: Wk.49

Crafts is this week's theme from "52 Ancestors" and there was no question what I would write about.

 

An Alice in Wonderland collage, stitched by my mother  for my daughter, 1973.   

The three Danson sisters, Edith, Kathlee (my mother) and Peggy were all talented dressmaker, using the old treadle sewing machine in a house that did not get electricity until the mid 1950s.  They also  enjoyed a range of crafts.

Mum  - Kathleen Danson was born in the small town of Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool, daughter of William Danson and Alice English. At the age of 14, she was apprenticed to be a tailoress and was still making her own clothes in her 80's. For her going  into a fabric shop was like going into a jeweller's.   She was a creator in patchwork, crochet, collage, knitting, embroidery, smocking,  dolls and dresses, with dabbles into  rug making, millinery, lampshade making and china painting.  If she sat down, she was rarely without a needle in her hand - epitomised in the motto that sums her up - "Happiness in Stitching".

She set up her own dress-making business from home.  She continued with this this after her marriage and throughout my childhood working initially  in the spare bedroom which was icy cold in winter and hot and stuffy in summer.  I used to love getting the  old Simplicity pattern books and cutting out figures for make believe schools etc. 

As a child, I was a "dolly girl" and my dolls were the best dressed in the street.  But I have one huge regret.  Mum went into hospital for a major operation  at the time of the Queen's  Coronation in 1953.   She made me a very special doll, dressed as the Queen with a long fur trimmed purple velvet train and embroidered beaded dress. I so wish now I had kept it as a family heirloom, but of course by the time I became a teenager, dolls went overboard and there is not even a photograph.  

My own 8 year old daughter had a collection of Cindy dolls - the British version of Barbie, I think - with a lovely wardrobe of clothes again made by  my mother.  Mum was in her mid 70's  and with fading eyesight, yet the small scale stitching on the clothes is so impressive.  

Mum was a typical  1950s and 60s homemaker.   She was always making something cushions changed their covers regularly, new patchwork quilts appeared on the beds and new curtains at the windows, worn sheets were turned, old bath towels were cut, and trimmed into hand towels, old dresses were turned into aprons, and tray cloths and tablecloths were embroidered.  She was a regular contributor at village fetes and was called upon to help with the dresses for the village gala. 

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Costumes made by my mother for Staining Gala, near Blackpool, Lancashire.  These dresses were in apple green satin with silver cardboard headdresses and I remember other years wearing peach satin and yellow taffeta. For me, the dress was always destined to be my party dress for the year. I always wanted to be one of the bigger girls who danced with garlands.


Aunt Edith specialty was embroidery and she was the artist in the family. 

Aunt Peggy emigrated to Australia in 1948 and I have just one example fo her talents - a small painted plate. 

 

I shared my mother's  interest in crafts,  but I cannot say her talent.  I have memories of sitting on the draining board in our old fashioned kitchen and being taught how to knit  a dishcloth from string.    I then graduated to a pixie hood and scarf.   In my teens I was knitting for myself  jumpers for school and weekend wear, and in the early glow of being engaged,  knitted my husband several jumpers to brighten up his rather drab wardrobe.

I was hopeless at embroidery and gave up on my tortuous efforts to sew lazy daisy stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch and French knots on increasingly crumpled material - a reminder on what it must have been like for very young girls to persevere at stitching their samplers centuries ago.

More of my mother's  creations:

                     

 

Victorian collage
made by my mother

Mum and I shared an  interest in costume and I recall us making   a collage picture of Queen Elizabeth 1st in all her glory - plenty of scope for using lots of fancy trimmings.  Years later when my daughter was little (and money was tight) I made felt collage pictures for her bedroom, mounted on cake boards - ducks, teddies, a colourful wigwam etc. (Left - a Victorian couple stitched by my molter)

It was my mother who taught me how to sew patchwork - by hand in the English traditional Grandmother's floral garden pattern using hexagons, beginning with pincushions and eventually reaching the heights of a single bedcover.  I am still patchworking today. 

Animals were a favourite choice. 

 

Below - A lovely little jug & sugar bowl, and plate,   painted by my mother.

 

 

Mum died at the age of 91  and was still making her own clothes in her 80's as well as a patchwork quilt for the bed.   These heirlooms here, may not be all that old,  but they are precious to me and a potent visible reminders of my mother - a very talented lady.

 

 

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