AREA RUGS FOR LESS

Dorothy Margaret Brogan
I am 88 I was born October the 4th 1921 in Leeds Meanwood 33 Grenwoodmount Meanwood Leeds 6... Lonsdale is my maiden name ...I was the only child...my father was a carpet layer and mother was carpet sewer…Denby and Spinks Albion Street Leeds…we were living up hill two or three bedrooms and an acre of land…father used that for growing vegetables…we had a washing machine…I used to make Yorkshire pudding with me … I went to a church school Green Rd Church school…I learnt to sew there…and liked it..I was fourteen when I left school I was glad to leave…I went to Peacocks then Denby and Spinks…sewing drapes and slip covers…it was an electric sewing machine…I got to work on a street car…the tram…around eight o’clock as long as I was there for nine…I went to out to these posh house s and cut the fabric to cover the furniture…you pinned the cloth all around…and then took it apart with all the marks and all pinned…I was picked up in a car to go out to the houses…I used to go ballroom dancing with friends it was called the Capitol…it was dance band music…I wore kilts and a blouse..I used to get them a Scofileds and Lewis’s...the war came and I volunteered for the Land Army Girls…I went to Headingly first..I got a green sweater brown leggings and shoes…I liked it cos when your on your own with no brothers or sisters I liked the company it was good…we always went in twos cos of the Germans we did digging and then I did rat catching…you’d put the traps up in the buildings and fed em for a few days and then set the trap…I had gloves on to collect them and dug a hole and put them in…I’d do it again cos I enjoyed it…we’d go to the pubs of an evening and have a singsong…I have a shandy…I was there all the war from Inverness to Cornwall…I remember the airaids… I met me husband Charles in Hartlepool during the war …at a dance we married at the church near my home….I had a house and garden with the care of land that me parents had…I had a dog a daschund I went on holiday to Canada with mu husband and mother saw Niagara falls sadly my husband passed away three years later…I continued to work…and there was a lot of travelling doing it..I like to be on the go…it’s always very busy and I’d be sewing at night…it was a singer a sewing machine. I made me own covers for the furniture and curtains…
when the war was over I went back to peacocks making drapes again…I had a car a white ford and that was handy for getting around…I’d drive up to Ilckley with friend or relations..I visited Great Yarmouth a lot a know a few people there…I knew these people because me grandma had taken a lot of these men in Leeds during war…getting older it’s for the birds

I have a few sewing projects going on at the moment. Usually I sew downstairs in our basement where I have a little craft room set up, but it's been so cold downstairs since about October, that I've brought my sewing machine upstairs to our dining room.

Recently I was given a job that requires sewing tulle to satin (cringe). As I prepared to try this new feat, I picked up some fabric and other things crowding my work space, and moved them. Among those things was a box full of pins which promtly fell out of my arms and broke open all over the floor.

As I was grumbling about having to pick all of these little things up, I suddenly thought "Ok, number 1: I'm glad they didn't fall all over the carpet where they can hide. And number 2: might as well take a picture, I'm not doing THIS again."

So I guess it all worked out. =)

AND I was able to sew the tulle to the satin in one shot without having to rip out anything, re-cut anything, or throw out anything.