by Fiona Clements

Created on: February 09, 2009

"The Tailor of Gloucester" by Beatrix Potter was part of my early education regarding sewing and dress-making. A wonderful story about how some mice help an ill tailor become rich by listening to his descriptions of how to make a complicated, embroidered coat for the Mayor of the town. Intricate descriptions of types of material, and dressmaking terminology: 'flowered lappets' followed by 'gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffetta'. It didn't matter to the small child exactly what these things were. The imagination worked on its own time being fed words of colour and textures painting a vivid atmospheric picture in the front of my mind.

The 'Tailor of Gloucester reminds me of another childhood favourite: 'The Elves and the Shoe-Maker'. In this story the elves help the shoe-maker become rich by sneaking into his shop in the middle of the night to make the shoes. Again in this story, descriptions of silk, elegant colours and interesting designs appealed to my imagination. The illustrations in both stories also helped etch the memory for me. Both these stories were read to me by my grandmother, who, herself has left her own lasting images from the more domestic sewing front-line.

When I lived with my grandmother and even when I was just visiting I don't recall a time when she didn't ask me to thread a needle for her. Whether she was darning socks or embroidering a cushion, she always seemed to have a needle and thread in her hand. I, with my young eyes used to wonder what she did to thread her needle when I wasn't there. But now that she isn't here, I find myself wondering who is going to darn the socks with such style. First she held the thread up to the light and then wet it between her lips, to draw the loose threads together. I realise now that she didn't need me to do this for her. She was teaching me how to do it, initiating me into the 'sewing club', if you like. Passing on a skill from one generation to another.

Granny had obviously already passed it on to my mother who had spent some time studying 'fashion design' in college. She then went on later to design her own clothing line for her own boutique. I grew up wearing all sorts of experimental items my mother had made for me. My favourite item was a pair of paisley-patterned velvet bell-bottoms in green, blue, yellow and purple. (Yes, I know, very 1960's.) I had to inevitably grow out these trousers and my mother moved on to other interests, but for a while, as a child I derived many benefits out of the business of sewing.

Now I wonder where those mice have got to, I need a button sewn on to my blouse...

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