Mending with Mother: Mother-child needlecraft practices during the Second World War

There is a long-held stereotype of women ‘staying home to knit’ whilst men go off to fight in conflicts, and the Second World War was no exception. Knitting and needlecraft were substantial elements of the maintenance activities women were expected to maintain within households during this period. But also included in these domestic tasks, was childcare. This talk explores the relationship between needlecraft and childcare on the British Homefront – how mothers practiced craft for their children, how children were empowered to undertake their own maintenance activities to aid the war effort, and the government propaganda that sought to influence this.