Making Clothes

Oh yes, my Mother sewed a lot. Yes, she did all the household sewing, made our clothes, used to take things to pieces and make fresh clothes out of them.

Well, let's think about how you learnt to sew - who actually taught you to sew?

Well, my mother obviously quite a lot at home - and then we did a lot of sewing at school even as young children.

Well, I could have been eight or nine or ten you see, those sorts of ages, while I was at junior school still.

And what kind of things were you taught?

Well, we made clothes. I can remember making a nightdress.

Is that the first thing you remember making?

Definitely can remember those. That was all done by hand and proper hems, and we had to make designs to embroider on, and we learnt to crochet and make crochet edgings for them, and hand scalloping, which we drew with a halfpenny and a penny, a scallop design. Yes.