Dress for the dancing

Joyce Grubb of Northmuir has been in touch about Dundee city centre. “Recent photographs have made me long for the days when Dundee’s city centre had a number of elegant shops and choice of items that made selecting a leisurely pleasure,” she writes.

“I learned to dressmake with my mother’s treadle sewing machine and, when dancing in Kidd’s Rooms on a Saturday night was the event of the week, a new dress added to the excitement.

“The fabrics and patterns were laid out out to show the colours and sheen of the cloth and drawings or photographs of the finished garments shown on the cover of the pattern pack, along with a list of required items to make the garment.

“Then there was a half hour journey home by tram to Downfield and the setting up of the sewing machine, I used the dining table to cut out the pattern pieces so that the dress could be finished by the Saturday.

“I also recall helping an art student to paint a fairy grotto on the gound floor of Smith Brothers in time for Christmas and, prior to the school dance at Morgan Academy, friends and I enrolled at a dance class held by an elegant lady called Miss Kinnison in a mirrored studio near Green’s Playhouse, paying 2/6 per lesson and dancing to Victor Sylvester stricttime records with our arms in the air as if holding a partner. Unfortunately, none of the boys knew how to do ballroom. dancing, so our lessons were in vain.”