Five things that my mum made for me

1. I woke up this morning and in that half sleep half wakeful time I started to think about some of the clothes my mum made me when I was wee. The first thing I thought of was a bright yellow gingham sleeveless summer dress with a white square collar. I remember wearing it on a Sunday summer evening in our first house. My cousins were there, they had just got their dog, Dot.

2. Then there was a big red knitted cardigan that for the longest time was too big for me. It was like a jacket, each stitch looped out so it felt like frills and the buttons had red elephants on them. If it was rainy and wild on the way home from school I would always come in and put it on and get cosy. I did that long after I was too big and it had really stopped fitting.

3. Another knitted cardigan, blue this time with pink and white stripes. On a trip somewhere my mum had bought buttons, each one a different letter that spelled out my name. They were packed away and when the time came to put them on they were lost. Their replacements were very pretty little flowers and I liked them a lot but even now I sometimes wonder where that little bag with my name in it might be.

4. My first communion dress was the only hand made one in my class. It was the only short one too and I think I came up with that ground breaking idea, but it may well have been my mum. It was the most gorgeous, soft white fabric, a wide skirt that spun out in just the right way and a handbag in the same fabric to match. I think it was our first joint project of which there have been many since; the formula involves me coming up with some idea or other and my mum doing all the sewing and hard work.

5. When I started my first proper job I mentioned to my mum that I should get a shirt with my name on it the way you see on mechanics in American films or the pink ladies in Grease. Sure enough, on my first day I was wearing a black shirt with my name stitched on it in pink thread.
This way I always know who I am.