My Great Grandmother's Memoir

[WhataPratt]

Thank you to everyone for the help, nearly everything has been solved!

For any newcomers to the thread, I'm still trying to work out the following passage. It's a pretty tricky one, I'll grant you, as some of the words seem to have been squeezed in as a correction.

was not happy working from 9 till 5, sitting all day, sewing up seams and putting bones in collars and seam? ?(blouse?)? & braid? all round skirts. I was able to persuade mother to let me leave – so I went – keeping on

[Wiggy]

Don't think it is blouse . . .  but can't offer anything else as substitute. 

I think the end of this snip is 'helping one'  (or 'out') but, not seeing what follows, can't tell if it makes sense. 
Looking back along that line, and seeing how she has written  the 't' in 'let, I am inclined to think 'out'

Wiggy   

[WhataPratt]

Hi Wiggy, you're absolutely right again - I actually knew it said "out" but I was so sure the word in front of it was "keeping" that it didn't make sense to me so I changed it.
She says "helping out with looking after babies". I thought "keeping on with looking after babies" made sense because she talks about looking after babies on the previous page.

So thanks again!