Happiness is Stitching - Week 43 of 52 Ancestors

This week the prompt from "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks"  is "Handmade".   There was no   question how I would respond - with a profile of my talented mother who was apprenticed to a tailor at the age of fourteen.  I always thought that her motto could be  "Happiness is Stitching".

My mother, Kathleen Danson of Poulton le Fylde  Lancashire was born in 1908, the middle of three sisters.  Kathleen set up a dressmaking business from her home - the business card  below I only came across after her death.  She was still making her own clothes in her 80's - though on a much more sophisticated sewing machine than the old treadle she began on, for my grandfather's home did not get electricity until the mid 1950s. 

                                

 

Mum modelling one of her dresses  c. early 1930s

 

 

Another  1930s outfit

 

 Mum on he left with her sister Edith

 The two sisters out to enjoy themselves

 For Mum to go into a fabric shop was like going into a jeweller's.   If she sat down, she was rarely without a needle in her hand.  She was a creator in patchwork, crochet, collage, knitting, embroidery, smocking, dolls and dresses, with dabbles into  millinery, lampshade making and china painting.

She continued her home dressmaking  throughout her life.  In the 1950's this meant working in the spare bedroom which was icy cold in winter and hot and stuffy in summer.  I remember one time when my little brother - a typical boy into everything - got hold of her oiling can, filled it with water and proceeded to "oil" the sewing machine!.  He was not very popular!      

A formal photograph  of my brother and I.  We were both  wearing outfits made by my mother,  with Chris in a smocked baby top and myself in a blouse, with cross stitched  embroidery.

 I benefited from Mum's activities - I had the best dressed dolls on the street and enjoyed cutting up her old Butterick and Simplicity pattern books and creating characters and "schools" from the fashion figures.   I was also intrigued by her invoice book with carbon paper creating  copies - one for her customer and one to keep or her own records. 

Mum  was a typical homemaker of the 1950's and 60's -- and beyond.  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, tray cloths and table cloths were embroidered.

Many years later, my own daughter was 8 years and had a collection of Cindy dolls - the British version of Barbie, - 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 also skilled in a variety of crafts - on show below

     

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

More of my mother's  creations:

                     

 

Animals were a favourite choice. 

 

 

 

 

And finally below - My mother modelling an outfit she made in a big  event  organized by the Scottish Women's Rural Institute (SWRI) - 1968

 

 

 

 

Mum died at the age of 91  and was still making hr 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 very talented mother,  whose life indeed was "Happiness is Stitching".  

 

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