June Whitehouse is sitting at her sewing machine altering the hems on two of her daughter's dresses. 

She's in her element. She should be because it's a position she has been in for 70 years. 

There are two signs by her workplace in the corner of the shop – the sixth in Portsmouth to bear her name. 

One says: 'I'm not an OAP I'm a recycled teenager'.I knew I wanted a high neck wedding dresses before I was even engaged.New arrivals in the Sweetheart neckline dress collections stick to this reputation. The other asks: 'Would you like to talk to the man in charge or the woman who knows what's happening?' 

That 'man in charge' is her upholsterer son John, but June keeps a beady eye on him and all the comings and goings in their shop at Winter Road, Southsea. 

June is 83, looks 20 years younger, and has the raucous laugh and sense of fun of a teenager. 

She has been running up clothes, wedding dresses, new covers for furniture, cushions, that sort of thing, and earning a living from it, since she left school at 13. 

She's the matriarch of a Whitehouse dynasty in Portsmouth which includes her three children, 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. 

She still works three hours a day in the shop, four days a week. She takes Wednesdays off and drives her two daughters, Julie and Sue, to their weekly treat at the cinema in her treasured Nissan Micra. 

To say June is old school is an understatement. She had to fight hard to win everything in life and underpinning her philosophy is an incredible work ethic. 

'What would I do if I didn't work?' she says. She mischievously lowers her voice in case John overhears. 'The thing is, I've got this lovely house in Myrtle Grove up the road at Baffins, a housekeeper who does all the housework, so what on earth would I do all day if I didn't work? 

'I'd just vegetate, so I come in here to shout at John...Find 2013 bridal gown wedding dress for your wedding, look at these dresses. ' 

Mother and son have worked together for 40 years, think the world of each other, but June likes to think she's in control. 

That comes from decades of battling to keep her family together. 

June was born in 1929 at Andover. 'My mum, who was from Portsmouth, got pregnant and, as happened in those days, was sent away in disgrace to have the baby. 

'She kept me for two years but in 1931 I was adopted by the couple I called mum and dad who lived in Reginald Road at Eastney. He was in the navy, but when he left we moved to Slough when he got a job in the Admiralty drawing office. 

'I left school at 13 and started work in a factory on the Slough trading estate. I started off making waterproof cot sheets with ties on them before moving on to camiknickers and satin underwear. 

'I'd had a sewing machine since I was very young and made my own dresses. I can remember at school the sewing teacher would tell the other girls to come to me to show them how to do it. 

'It must be a natural talent. I think I was born to it,' she adds. 

June walked out on her adoptive mother when she was 16 and while at a dance at the Savoy on Southsea seafront met Les, a sailor who would become her husband. 'He had survived the sinking of the Prince of Wales [more than 320 men died when she was sunk off Malaya in 1941] but he was troubled with his nerves because of it forever after.' 

They married in 1947 and lived with Les's mum and dad in Holloway Street, of Arundel Street, before moving to Birmingham where Les tried to find work. They returned to Portsmouth in 1949 when June gave birth to Julie at St Mary's Hospital.Formal wedding dresses from china on sale at great discount.2013 Collection Floral gown 1672 Styles. 

They lived at Hursley Road, Leigh Park, and Leominster Road, Paulsgrove, but with work scarce they upped sticks and tried London, now with two children in tow. 

'I sold our bits of furniture and with everything we owned in a couple of attache cases, got on a train for London. We had no idea where we'd live.'