Three Talented Danson Sisters - Sepia Saturday

A late 19th century photograph  of a mother and her daughters, dressed in their finery features in this weeks Sepia Saturday prompt image  - see end of this post.   It immediately brought to mind  my mother and aunts - daughters of William Danson  and Alice Engllish of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.

My aunt Peggy, my grandmother Alice, my aunt Edith and my mother Kathleen, c.1941.

The three Danson sisters  were all talented dressmakers,  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 and, like so many of their generations skilled bakers. 

Mum  - Kathleen Danson (108-1999) at  the age of 14, 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 - I only found this business card after her death, 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  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.

 

 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.

More of Mum's creations:

   

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Victorian collage made by my mother

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Aunt Edith  (1907-1995) 's  specialty was embroidery and she was the artist in the family.  She became an infant teacher, travelled widely, including Russia which was then behind the Iron Curtain, and was a great talker.  She married for the first time at the  age of 73. 

 

Aunt Peggy (1922-1989)  In World War Two she served in the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force), with a note In the family photograph album that she was  in a Barrage Balloon Squadron in Hull, on the east coast of Yorkshire.   There she met her husband and they emigrated to Australia in 1948 and I have just one example of  her talents - a small painted plate. 

 

 

These heirlooms here, may not be all that old,  but they are precious to me and a potent visible reminders of my talented mother and aunts. 

 

 

 

 

The Danson family , c.1941 - Edith, Peggy, parent William & Alice,

son Harry and Kathleen,  with youngest son Billy absent. 

 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history through photographs.

 

  

 

 Click HERE to read tales from other Sepia Saturday bloggers

 

 

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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.   

 

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