52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 20 - Textile

 

Amongst my family ephemera I have some items of textile which have been passed down to me from my Mum’s family.   

I have four baby smocks which belonged to my grandmother, Sarah Morgan, nee Taylor, and were probably also used by her brother Arthur.  They are hand-made and constructed from pieces of cotton and lace, with tiny stitches, and cloth buttons.    

My family were not very well off so hand made  and hand me down clothes were the norm right up to my generation.  Nana Morgan made clothes for her own children, all six of them, and whilst bedridden following a stroke a beautiful crochet Christening blanket for me, which we also still have.

There are three designs for the smocks, with two of the smocks being identical.  They are humble everyday items of clothing which show signs of being worn.  

The details are exquisite and show real skill with the needle.

The little smocks are a treasured heirloom and a tangible connection with my Nana who I really can’t remember as she died when I was two years old.  All I remember is a lady in a bed.

The other textile items that my Mum kept and which have also passed down to me have a story attached to them.

I was a very small baby, only 3lb 5oz at birth.  So small that I was kept in hospital for the first few weeks. Not in an incubator, just monitored. So tiny that the baby clothes made in readiness for my arrival swamped me.  My Mum and my Auntie Jean got their heads together and made some really small cardigans for me from dolls clothes knitting patterns.  One is really tiny, with the other slightly larger.

There is also a tiny cotton nightie, also dolly sized, that I wore.

I do not have any other textiles from earlier generations in my family collection - most clothes were passed down amongst siblings until no longer wearable, shoes and boots included.  My Dad vividly remembered the indignity and embarrassment of having to wear his elder sister Nellie's high leg boots to school.