My grandmother had an old treadle sewing machine and a serious commitment to using and using and using up the fabrics which entered her life. I know that a couple yards of new cloth could enter the house and she would have a new dress. But never a dress with animals in the print because her sister had once commented that only country bumpkins wore animal prints. So her dresses might be floral or paisley or check, but never the cute birds and kittens she loved. Later if that dress began to wear out, she might cut it down into an apron, or turn the apron into tea towels and a quilt block, but the fabric didn’t leave until it was little more than lint.
I liked the idea of sewing, but not the patience required to sew by hand, and even though I took the mandatory home ec sewing classes, and once made a blouse on an overnight at the home of cousins who made sewing look easy, I never learned the art of sewing. I adore other people’s talent. I love friends who create elaborate quilts, or cos play costumes. I really, really hated having to pick apart the stitches I had labored over because they were too crooked or loose.
But I do love fabric and my interest in it led me to take years of weaving in college, and even to running the weaving lab at Southern Oregon State my last two years as a student. I never ended up owning a loom myself, so weaving after college wasn’t something I did, but the yards of tablecloths and skirts and tops I wove are still among my treasures and when we went to Guatemala and China the weavers and embroidery were always the things that stopped me in my tracks and led to long conversations.
Now, out of the blue, my granddaughter has decided that she would love to sew. And so I bought her a small sewing kit, and managed to guide her through sewing by hand to make a doll pillow and a make-up clutch. She has about done everything I know how to teach her however. Maybe she needs 4-H or Girl Scouts or lessons from someone who isn’t me? Anyway, I am thankful that we don’t have to depend on my needlework to keep us in warm clothes.
