my sewing history

A little bit of my sewing history.  I started sewing at a young age. Maybe 5 or six.  My mom would cut fabric for blouses or sometimes pants.  I would take the scraps and make things that I thought would be useful.  She taught me how to sew by hand using a few simple stitches. I paid no mind to matching threads, but used whatever I could find in my mother sewing things. She had a pair of black handled scissors made of heavy metal.   I used them to cut the fabrics in to shape, I imagined was a good size.  I made small pouches about the size of an envelope. I remember one was made with red fabric, and sewn with white thread.  I would add a button to fasten a button to close the pouch.  Unfortunately, I learned that the stitches were too far apart and the money would fall out.  Like many sewing project, it was trial and error.  I would keep trying to make things, including clothes for my teddy bear.

My mother used an old black singer machine that I was not allowed to touch.  It was heavy and painted with gold scroll work and the SINGER name across the arm. It was electric, but belt driven. It had a funny looking plug with prongs on the machine end of the power cord. Another wire that led to the power pedal.   I’m sure she bought it second hand, perhaps at garage sale.  I really don’t know. And sadly she is not here to ask. I would sit and watch for hours. I was trying to figure out how it worked. Thread turned in to fabrics into garments. My mother made clothes for herself, mostly because stores did not carry plus sizes. And those stores that did, cost too much money. This was a problem, I can relate to.

 I learned that turning the wheel raised and lowered the needle.  The more you depressed the pedal, the faster it would sew.  Even today, I love to sew fast.  I imagine, it similar to the rush a driver may get from slamming on the gas on the straight away. I learned how to thread a bobbin. Which, as a kid, I thought bobbin was a funny word. Mostly because the guy at the full service station was named Bob.  He was friendly and good at pumping gas, but he didn’t seem like a guy who would sew. ‘Bobbin’.  I guess little things like this are funny when you are five years old.  My mother sewed for years. She would make curtains and jackets. She made scrubs for nurses at her work. She made aprons and smocks too.  She many times would buy fabrics for blouses and spend the money on store bought things like the pants.  

I learned to mimic patterns, the way she had. She might buy a blouse and copy style using other fabrics.  She would sometimes make her own patterns.  Today, I can look at something and go, I bet I can make that.  Then I will go home and make my version of it.  I learned a lot that way.

When I moved out, my mother had stopped making clothes. That was about 1997. Her eyes got bad and she couldn’t see well enough to sew anymore. She one day I asked if I could borrow her old machine.  This machine she had  then was bought about ten years old.  She gave it to me. She said, “if I need it again. I will ask for it back.”  I had the feeling that maybe she was not ready to give it up permanently, but it would be permanently.  I don’t recall her ever sewing again.  I used that machine to make some of my first dresses and costumes.  Like most everyone, they were very basic. I was teaching myself as I went.  I sewed on that machine for three years. On Christmas 2000, GW bought me a new one. Imagine my surprise!  Soon to follow was a cutting table. No more laying it out on the floor, like a cave man.  I was developing a skill that would allow me to make extra money and show off new garments that I had made myself.  I went from sewing homemade dresses, to a level of  creative custom dresses and costumes.