School Needlework

[Kim2s70-77]

I remember Mending nights on Fridays! (How different from my children's experiences during their adolescence!) Not too many 11 or 12 yer olds today would own a darning mushroom!

[midget]

And yours?

[Kim2s70-77]

My kids or my mushroom?? lol

I don't believe my daughter, or my sons, know how to sew, knit, crochet or darn. I was a very poor parent! I guess they never felt the need, as I did it for them.

[midget]

On one occasion my stepdaughter flung a grubby black sjirt on my lap, saying "Can you put a new zip in this?". I told her I would show her how to do it (I hate sewing black fabrics). she said she didn't want to know how, and stormed off, so I pu the offending skirt in her room. I hate to think how much it cost her to have the job done!

[J.R.]

Can't remember how long it is since I had a sjirt on MY lap!!

[gma]

Have enjoyed this thread immensely (I know, I'm sorry...) We slightly younger HOBs got off quite lightly by the look of it; all I remember making is an unbelievably ugly pair of loon trousers and a peg bag. I remember the former because they were such a foul colour and matched nothing in the known world and the latter because my Mum is still using it 35 years later!!

[englishangel]

I made a pair of green cord loon pants, but I don't think they were school needlework, and I know I didn't make a peg bag, I wish I had, I have to get a new one every couple of years and that is now two which are still going strong.

[kerrensimmonds]

I made a peg bag, gave it to my mum, and still have it (circa 50 years later!). Don't use it as such, but it sits inside my current much bigger peg bag, to remind me that I made it and of its original purpose! And I think there's a drawn thread tray cloth somewhere, too......

[Kim2s70-77]

..... and a purple gingham apron!

[Angela Woodford]

I don't know why I feel so anxious to know. Maybe to know that a major source of worry would be gone.

Maybe it's joy at the demise of a despot. Did she go at the same time as DR?

Who took over? Did the new Tucker regime attach the same fear and trembling to Needlework? Surely not!

[Fjgrogan]

It's strange, but I don't remember Miss Richards inspiring the same degree of fear in my day! And I was certainly not much good at needlework - I believe I once even got a 'below standard' for something involving embroidery (and now I cross stitch for fun!). I know that later one of my daughters (no names no pack drill!) handed in a garment knitted by my mother and got a very mediocre grade for it. Like me, my mother enjoyed knitting but was not too good at sewing it together. Later, out of sheer cussedness I suspect, I made my own wedding dress, but in true CH fashion had to hand stitch the hem in a hurry at the last moment and made a mess of it - it is clearly visible in the wedding photos for both my own dress and my sister's bridesmaid's dress.

[mvgrogan]

It was me!

what's the statute of limitations on hating needlework and handing in my grandmother's work instead?

[Fjgrogan]

Probably long since expired - along with Miss Richards!

[Jo]

Just for you, Angela, I have braved the painful experience of my school reports to see who was appraising my needlework when. Sadly, it did not reveal the date of SWMNBN's retirement .

However, I'm almost certain that I never had to submit any of my own work to her (ie when we no longer had to have lessons), so that suggests she'd retired by the time I was in the 4th year, which would have been 1971. That certainly fits my memory - I'm sure she went just before DR (who retired the following year).

Her successor was Mrs Newbold, whose husband was, I believe a master at Haileybury. I gather she could be a tartar at times - my friend Nina (Jones) did needlework O level and I'm sure was reduced to tears more than once, plus I vaguely remember Yvonne or one of the later Hertford OGs complaining about her - but I always got on fine with her. I didn't have much to do with her, admittedly, but anyone was a relief after SWMNBN

[englishangel]

I must admit the name Newbold gives a little tinkle at the back of my memory, but perhaps it is just that she has been mentioned somewhere before on here.