20 in the 1940s

My mother was born in 1921 in a small village in the Potteries and so her 20s were inevitably shaped by the impact of World War 2.  Having left school aged 14, she began work as an office clerk and met my father in a cycling club in 1936.  Four years later the war started and they quickly got married before my father left to join the army. For a short time, my mother became a land girl and then, tiring of farm work, she went to London.  Here, she worked in the drafting department of an aircraft factory, drove ambulances and - for the first time in her life- began to meet middle class and educated people who introduced her to books, the arts and the theatre and to a lifestyle that she might aspire to have. (So it was that, when I was a small child, my mother trained to be a teacher and she succeeded in having a very fulfilling career in education).

Our family photo albums show that my mother was a great traveller, always wanting to see new places, and to have new experiences.  During the war, these trips were done by bicycle and on foot, as she escaped city life for the hills at weekends with her women friends.  But, in the immediate post war period, my mother and father began to do these trips together, travelling further afield and abroad, now by motor bike and old car with a group of friends. Not until their early 30s did they finally settle down with jobs and babies.

Also apparent from the photo albums is that my mother loved clothes.  She became a keen seamstress during the war, learning to fashion garments and to make- do -and mend under the limitations that clothes rationing imposed on her in 1941. Stamped with the utility mark, clothes rationing did not end until 1949 in the UK, but my mother always manage to dress well nonetheless.

This quilt, made of two distinct halves, captures the spirt of my mother’s life in her 20s.  On the one hand, she experienced the ravages and limitations of war and the London blitz; on the other hand, she gained a new sense of what possibilities and adventures life might hold for her in the post-war period.  She capitalised on these experiences throughout her life and died, just before she was 80, about to set off in her camper van for another trip to Spain.

In line with the spirit of make -do -and mend, the quilt is made entirely from scraps but it includes one tiny piece of an embroidered false blouse front that was made by my mother. This v – shaped piece of fabric was tucked inside her buttoned suit to masquerade as a luxurious blouse hidden beneath.  The silhouette is in the austere militaristic 1940s style that was fashionable during the war, before it was displaced by the extravagance of the post-war ‘new look’ in 1947, with its cinched waist, expansive use of fabric and focus on luxury.

Making the hills and mountains out of scraps:

The utility clothing mark:

Final piece: