Once upon a time, i made everything i wore.
Well, except for Levis.
And shoes.
And, you know, unmentionables.
Oh. And i never made a winter coat.
OK. Let's start over.
Once upon a time, i spent many pleasurable hours in fabric shops and sitting at a sewing machine making almost everything i wore. Skirts, blouses, slacks, dresses. Once, someone asked me if i bought my shirt at Brooks Brothers.
i was not unusual.
All my girl friends at school made their clothes, too. Girls and women everywhere did.
My friends and i spent lots of time in the Home Ec room, pouring over Vogue, Butterick, McCall's and Simplicity sewing patterns. And then went home and stitched some more.
This was long before the dawn of the Age of the Discount Stores. Which almost changed everything*.
My oldest sister won National 4-H awards for her sewing and when she was a young married woman she helped support her family (husband in grad school) with her tailoring skills. i remember the fashionable women who came to her house for fittings. Her husband wore an elegant camel hair blazer from her hands.
i was very proud when my Home Ec teacher told me (the youngest in my family) that i was as good as my sisters...who, with my mother, made their own wedding dresses.
Mrs. Hutchings was wrong. i was not as talented.
Though i did manage to make a tailored tweed jacket
once
i've never attained the level of expertise of my oldest sister.
This is the only garment i still own that i stitched with my own hands:
As you can tell, it's been packed away.
It is officially vintage.
i can hardly believe i was once this small!
(yikes. now you know that i'm very very old and chubby)
Everything else was either worn to death or passed on to The Bee Hive, our local thrift shop.
Except this blouse, which i still love.
A few years ago i faced the reality that i will never wear it again.
Last fall, while sorting through boxes and trying to rid myself of excess stuff
it dawned on me that i have nieces
OK, technically they are grand nieces
(yes, i told you, i'm old. i hope we can still be friends)
who might like to have it.
My regular nieces are all much, much taller than i am, so i doubt it would fit any of them.
So, soon, i will package it up with some other little spring doodads and send it off.
Hopefully, one of the young ones will want it.
As you can see
i added some embroidery to it.
(The garden infects nearly everthing in my hands)
i remember that when i crocheted the button loop from sewing thread,
i reflected on the exquistely delicate crocheted antimicasers and doilies
my mother and my Danish/Swedish/English ancestors made from achingly fine threads
and that there was simply no way on earth i could ever do that amazing of a thing.
Cross stitch, crewel, embroidery, knit, needlepoint, yes.
Delicate work with fine threads? No.
My fingers balked. It all felt too twiddly and my work was uneven.
Gaping holes mixed with ones too tight.
My sister Cheri could. And she used to tell me "it's easy! You can do it."
Nope. No way. i had my limits. i marveled at her work and was happy to.
It is very much OK with me that my skills are not as fine as my sisters', my mother's and my mother's mother's...and so on all the way back to who knows when.
Needlework and sewing. i'm sure my mother breathed a huge sigh of relief when i finally
demonstrated a love for these things. They were the only indoor activities
i truly enjoyed all those childhood years.
How sweet it is, that some threads that bind are tender, fine, and unbreakable.
All of this came to mind thanks to a conversation i had with Marvelous Marly on her blog.
P.S. *My nieces (the regular ones) are all gifted seamstresses, too. And they do needlework. And quilts. And wedding dresses. All are mothers. One is a gifted and beloved Home Ec Teacher.
My oldest sister has a grand daughter who not only sews her own clothes, she makes her own patterns.
i love it. i just love it.
