My brother has just told us that his son deconstructed a ‘hoody’ to make another in fabric of his choice. It took him a weekend to finish.
This brought back so many memories of our family’s sewing history.
When we lived in Lewes in the 50s, my mother used to make dresses for my sister and I by hand.
We were 14 months apart – I am the eldest – and, of the pink and blue, I usually had the pink one.
Who remembers the cut out dolls Nora and Tilly?
Later on we discovered that this wardrobe preference has lasted through to our 70s !!
Many of our clothes were home sewn, or knitted by Grandma.
We learned to knit and sew as part of our growing up creative life.
My Great Aunt Rene, from Knockholt in Kent, was a seamstress at one of the big Victorian fashion houses. She told us that the silk threads were not allowed to be more than 8 inches long, and that she had a ‘threader’ beside her whose job it was to thread the needles and pass them to her.
Her garments that she made for herself were so beautiful with invisible hem stitches.
When we were teenagers in the 60s, the huge full circle skirts of the 1950s were being supplanted by the Mary Quant shift dress. We would go to the local jumble sales and find these skirts, take them home and make a shift each – we called them our ha’penny dresses !!
At college in the late 1960s I remember making a pair of jeans out of some garish sunflower curtain fabric. I also made a lovely long white empire line dress out of a shiny linen table cloth.
In the 1950s, my parents were friends with a couple in the local Masonic Lodge in Lewes, and every Ladies Night, Daddy would make Mummy the most amazing ball gown out of silks and satins. We would wave them goodbye and sometimes they would do a little waltz for us as they left – we really thought they were our ‘Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.’ Daddy tall and regal in his tuxedo and Mummy in her stunning garments.
It may have helped that Daddy worked at Glyndebourne Opera house and mixed with the likes of Cecil Beaton who designed for many of the productions.
Anyway, when it came to my first wedding when I was 21, Mummy and I had bought the white satin and lining and had it all lined up on the dining room table with our white gloves on!
Daddy comes in and says ‘Get out – I’ll do it” and Hey Presto my beautiful Medieval-inspired Wedding Dress appeared.
I have never had the heart to give it away as it was made with such love and care.
Yesterday, we got it out of the wardrobe and I tried it on for fun and my son took some photos.
Here it is – 55 years later and it still fits (if a little more snug).
Of such happy memories is life made.
I still have the top and skirt I wore for my first Folk Concerts in the 1970s. You can see them in the black & white photo at the top of this article.
All through my life I have sewed – from curtains, to men’s shirts and clothing for us all. I take great pride in being able to do this, and often make clothes for my friends. I think that will have to be another article.
I treated myself to a new sewing machine for Christmas 2023.
I have obviously kept my other Wedding Dress from when I married my darling John, and some beautiful ‘Career’ dresses in a box in the cabin. I don’t know if I will have occasion to wear them again, but they are worth looking at now and again to remind me of the beauty I once had the privilege to share.
I don’t think I am unique in this, I’d love to hear what garments you cherish.
