Sewing Monsters

Sewing is in my DNA.  I grew up to the humming of Carlene's machine and watching her trim patterns--for every garment but two I ever wore. I watched her thread the machine and bobbin, then push the pinned-together pieces under the presser foot.  I watched her mark darts and take the pins out as she sewed and put them in her mouth.

Ready-made clothes were almost unheard of--unless you ordered underwear from the Sears Catalog.  Instead, we went to the dime store, flipped through Butterick and Simplicity pattern catalogues, then meandered around the store choosing fabric to go with the patterns.  Then zippers and elastic and thread to match.

I learned to sew by watching, but I was never as good a seamstress as Carlene.  I could show her a picture of a dress in Seventeen magazine and she would duplicate it exactly.  I particularly remember a white wool dress with brown wooden buttons for the University of Georgia homecoming, date dresses in kettle cloth, mu-mus for my California trip in 8th grade, and even little fabric stuffed animals she made for me and my friends.

I can only follow patterns, and I prefer patterns without zippers and buttonholes.

So tomorrow Elena wants to make a dress--and I'm trimming pattern pieces tonight, recalling the days when Carlene did that as we watched TV or talked.  I went to Jo Ann's and bought two pieces of fabric--one with ladybugs and one with happy little monsters.  The pattern is easy enough for our combined attention span for sewing and the yellow rick-rack should set it off nicely.

Making clothes at home is no longer less expensive than buying ready-made, but I'm hoping that the memory of making her first dress  will outlast the size 4 dress.