Helen O’Hanrahan has been an embroiderer at the Witswatersrand Embroiderers Guild for about 15 years.
As a little girl, she was introduced to the skill by the nuns of the convent school she attended. “Though they did not teach you practical things, they did teach you creative sewing which was wonderful,” she said.
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Now a treasurer for the guild for the last four years, it was only once she retired that she was introduced to the club through a friend. She wished people knew the importance of keeping this art form alive, because, as with most old things she notes, it is a dying art. So, keeping it alive is their ambition – through such things as outreach programmes at schools.
Being part of the guild has helped with getting her out of her house, meeting lifelong friends and has ensured that she is never lonely or bored as it gives you a challenge.
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For her, such groups are important, especially for the elderly. “As you get older your friends die out, or move away which can get very lonely. Clubs like this encourage you to socialise,” she said.
O’Hanrahan is most well known for her smocking (a technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch.). On this particular day, she was found at her smocking machine, creating another smocked piece people will most likely be awed by.
Smocked dresses are never necessarily in fashion, but they are never out of fashion either; they just seem to go on with each generation. She has three children, a granddaughter and will also soon have a great-grandson. She jokingly said making these garments is a clever little way of having her family never forget her. This is a skill she has managed to pass down to her elder daughter.
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