Let's Talk About..... Esme
This jacket is dedicated to our cat Esme. She was our first cat, along with her brother Joby. At the time, in the mid 80’s, we were living in rural Oxfordshire, and she loved the outdoor life. Joby wasn’t of the same ilk, and didn’t manage to live to a great age. So when we decided to move to the suburbs in Nottinghamshire 7 years later, I thought it would be a kindness to pass Esme on to my mother, who was between cats at the time, as she still lived in my childhood home, a smallholding with plenty of space, and also the birthplace of Esme. Little did I know that Esme would live longer with my mother than with us. She had a long and happy life on the farm.
This daisy fabric I’ve used on Esme came from my lovely friend Mary. Mary and I got to know each other whilst we were both living in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire in the 1990’s, and we each had 2 similar aged children at playgroup and school together. We realised we had lots in common and we both enjoyed the love of making textiles. When Mary and family needed to move house, Mary passed on to me a bin bag full of fabric that her mother had passed on to her. It was full of dress fabric cut up into 9 inch squares, waiting for patchwork projects, including this daisy cotton fabric.
Mary became interested in weaving and answered an advert to someone selling a table loom, and duly bought it. When she showed it to me I couldn’t believe what I saw. On the side of the loom stamped into the wood were the words “This belongs to Newtown Linford County Primary School”. That was MY childhood school in Leicestershire! What a coincidence. Mary was not a ‘local’ to the East Midlands, and certainly wouldn’t know about Newtown Linford, let alone that it was my childhood home.
The loom in question probably dated back to the 1950’s. The headmistress at the time. Miss Lloyd, was very keen that children of a rural village school should learn plenty of home crafts, so the school had all sorts of weaving equipment. By the time I started school in 1966 the headmistress was Mrs Mee and she had different ideas about education.
Our little primary school only had 2 classes, one for infants with Miss Mackley, and one for juniors with the headmistress. By the time I was a junior, our headmistress was Mrs Thorpe and she arranged for one of the mum’s, Mrs Richardson, to teach us girls sewing, on a Thursday afternoon, whilst the boys played football. I never did know how to play football, unlike my Girls. But I definitely know how to sew.
Discover The Esme jacket here.