On sewing,
or having someone sew for you
I promised to talk about reading, writing, baking, sewing, and gardening, and this week I'd like to talk about sewing. Do you sew? Have a love/hate relationship with sewing machines? Maybe you embroider, or weave, or knit, or crochet. I'd love to hear your experiences with these fiber arts, whatever they may be.
I learned to sew on a Singer treadle machine. The first garment I ever made for myself was a red cotton plisse skirt with a shirred elastic waist. I was eight years old and a member of 4-H, and we had to make a clothing item. Here I am in front in a white top and my red skirt. This might have been my 4-H group.
By the time I was twelve, I was making skirts for my neighbor Judy, for which her mother paid me one dollar each. I made a few for myself as well. I was babysitting 10 hours a day for five dollars a week, so this extra five dollars was a whole week's wages just for doing something I loved anyway.
Again on the Singer treadle machine.
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
Mom rewound the bobbins. I hadn't yet learned how. So the day I decided to make myself a top from two bandanas, the sewing machine wouldn't go and keep going. I had to sew that top one stitch at a time by turning the wheel that moved the needle up and down. When Mom got home from work, she showed me that there was a smaller wheel that was pulled out so she could wind the bobbin. When the little wheel was pushed in, the big one worked as usual.
Mom and Grandma made their own patterns from brown paper. Grandma's dresses were all the same: shirtwaist, short sleeves, and made of cotton. Before my dad died, Mom had made all my clothes including coats and hats.
I never saw a store-bought pattern until I was thirteen and in home ec as a freshman in high school. For one assignment we had to go buy a pattern, fabric, and notions and make a skirt and blouse. I bought a pattern for a boatneck top and full skirt. I bought enough fabric to make two of each: solid sky blue for one set, blue gingham check for the other.
I brought the things home, looked at the completely foreign pattern, cut out the tops and skirts and just made them. When I brought them to school, the teacher was appalled. Where were my facings for the neck and sleeve holes? Duh. I hadn't made them. My grade was marked down, but I didn't have to do them over.
By the next time, I had learned how to read and use a pattern. This time I made a boat-neck blouse with collar, and three-quarter length sleeves. I had to learn how to make and attach collars in addition to the facings. I was still sewing on the treadle machine.
At fourteen I made a dress for my little sister. She was the flower girl in a friend's wedding. I chose a pattern with scalloped neckline and hem. Today I would consider that a bit difficult, but I didn't know any better.
In my twenties, I obtained an electric machine and started making more of my own clothes. I made blouses, skirts, dresses, vests, even pant suits. Sometimes I would make an outfit the evening before I wore it to work the next day. I was also knitting back then. Sweaters, hats, booties, mittens, even a complicated shawl (twice). Ah, youth.
During Covid, I bought myself a dress form, padded it to my own measurements, and learned how to drape fabric. I experimented a lot during that time. I made bags for baby kangaroos during the terrible fires in Australia. I made masks, mostly for myself, and made them to match my outfits. I upcycled cashmere sweaters. I made a couple of lap quilts (one of cashmere, one of my treasured old tee shirts). I made two pair of pants by cutting jeans and sweatpants in half (down the sides), then switching them. I had a pair of jeans with sweatpants in the back, and a pair of sweatpants with jeans in the back
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This year my granddaughter got married. I helped her transform a wedding dress into the dress of her dreams. I made her veil. I made her a tulle skirt and white brocade corset for the party before the wedding. For the more difficult items I made mock-ups (known by designers as "muslins"). That taught me to always make a muslin of advanced items. I always thought it would be too time-consuming, but making a muslin allows for better fittings, fewer sewing mistakes, all on cheaper fabric.
For clients, I always make a mock-up. For a hat I made this year for a client, her fabric of choice was velvet, which I lined with satin. As our heads were nearly the same size, I made the mock-up in a fabric I would wear. From making that hat (a cloche), I learned to measure not only around the head, but also from ear to ear for a perfect fit.
I sew home decor, shorten pants and sleeves, patch holes, mend tears, whatever is needed whether by family or clients.
I believe more people would sew if they learned how to care for their machine. Sewing machines can be frustrating if you haven't learned how to maintain and service, how to troubleshoot for the problem (which might be breaking thread, fabric jamming, broken needles, and more).
Sewing takes patience, and it helps to forgive yourself for mistakes. Lovingly caring for my machine has helped me with both.
I no longer knit, as it makes me feel anxious rather than soothed. I never learned to crochet more than fringe on those two shawls. I've never learned weaving, though I think it's a beautiful art.
I love to watch the design reality shows, documentaries about designers, and the Met Gala (happening Monday, May 1, 2023). I'm a huge fan of the miniature designer outfits made after World War II and now on display at the Maryhill Museum of Art in the Columbia Gorge.
What is your own relationship to clothing? to clothing design? What's your favorite thing to wear? What fabric is it made from?
One thing everyone should know is this: if you have you clothing fitted to you (made or tailored from ready-made), you will feel better and you will look better. Most people are not shaped like ready-made clothing. It helps to have pants legs fitted to each leg's length, for example. Or maybe one arm is shorter than the other. Or maybe when you buy off the rack, the sleeves are ALWAYS too long.
A person like me can help with those issues. If you are able, I urge you to treat yourself to a tailor or sewist. If you sew, you already know you can fit your clothes to yourself better when you make your own.
Sandra,
This was fun to read because it brought back memories. I have a cedar trunk with recital dresses I made for my daughter, a violin player. Her own daughter plays in recitals as well (oboe), but the granddaughter's shoulders are nice and wide, and styles have changed so the original recital dresses stay in the trunk while new and more complex dresses are purchased.
Back in school days, I bought material to make my mother an apron. She had decorated our living room with Japanese inspired wall paper, so the material I bought was also Japanese inspired red and black. Our teacher gave me an almost failing grade, not for the sewing, but for the choice of fabric. My mother loved the apron, and I already knew the teacher preferred boring fabric, so the grade mattered very little to me.
I learned to weave before I had children, and really loved it. Later, my son showed me a picture in the Where's Waldo books in which the weaver's shuttle flies out the window and hits someone in the head. I had failed to catch the shuttle on occasion myself, so we both had a good laugh over that drawing.
Thank you for churning up memories with your tale of sewing. I love your first red skirt photo. How about a photo of those jeans/sweat pants?
This post brought back memories and rekindled a desire - not to sew but to find someone who would make me just one or two things that were fitted to me, as I am. My shoulders are broad and my arms are longer than most people for regular "medium" sizes but my chest is flat so in the old days, many things I owned were either too tight in the shoulders/short in the sleeves or too lose through the bust although not necessary the waist. I had a hell of a time finding coats for example. I also have a few pieces of clothing that I love that I would give anything to make copies of -- when I find a fit or style that works, I don't really want another. I wish I could make my own patterns. I had an aunt who, when she realized my sister and I were going to stay longer for a visit than expected, whipped up two A-Line shifts for us between nap time and dinner so we would have something besides our shorts to wear to church the next day. I marveled at her. I still do.
Beyond simple mending, I have never aspired to sew my own clothes. My few attempts in 7th and 8th grade Home Ec classes ruined that for me. I had to rip out the seams so many times to correct my mistakes the material was barely holding together by the time I "finished" the skirt. Then, in 8th grade, my mother (who was even worse at this stuff than I was) and I bought the pattern for the dress/shift we were assigned. We bought it three times too large. My last week of school saw me standing on a table while my teacher -- who decided not to put herself through any more torture by trying to teach me -- pinned up my hem and then finished off the dress. I wore it the next day, got my period for maybe the second time in my life and bled all over the back of it. I had to wear a coat around my waist for most of the day. There was no saving it. I was DONE!!!!