My experience at 11 years old was the teacher measuring all of us in the class and sending us out to buy a size 14 pattern for shorts. (Whatever size we were!) It took weeks to make the shorts using her methods and I never wore them. Neither did my friends! I don't think a single one of us was size 14 at the time. BTW at this time I was making my own clothes at home and I wasn't much older when I was making them for friends and family.
140717
Great topic, Sue & great answers, all! I remember most people hating (at school), doing a sampler square with lots of different handstitches - stemstitch, cross-stitch, household hemming, etc. I often thank my teacher for having us do that -especially when I later worked with people who'd staple or sticky tape up their fallen hems, rather than get out a needle and thread and fix it properly :)
23163Ya'll have such amazing stories! I learned from my mother by watching. She sewed all my roller skating costumes for competition - I can't tell you how many times she literally pinned a skirt to my skin! I've always hated trying to make clothes fit me - so I stick to sewing for other people now. I did just buy a dressmakers form and I'm hoping this will help me to like sewing for me. They didn't offer home ec when I was in high school - I wish they did! I still have a lot to learn but I can get by. Now I'm teaching my daughter. Shes 13 and doesn't know nearly as much as I want her to - but she can at least thread the machine and sew straight stitches. She can follow a pattern and sew basic stuff. She's much more into oragami right now... I'm trying to creatively figure out how to put the two together for us!! On occasion though, my mom will come over and the 3 of us will sit on the floor and sew together. Oh yes ... I've NEVER had a cabinet so all my machines are on the floor - and even my mother sits on the floor and sews with us!! When my grandmother was in town - all 4 of us were sitting on the floor sewing together. That was cool. I hope it is a memory that my daughter will treasure. I know it will always be one of mine!
1784It certainly was fun reading your posts. I've been sewing seriously since the third grade. I remember making doll clothes the most in the beginning. Does anyone remember the toy sewing machines? They were a pain...would sew top stitches, but no bobbin, so all your things would eventually work apart. I loved Home Ec, one of the few in my class. I made a skirt with large pockets on the outside and a zipper. I wore that skirt a lot. My friends would ask for my help and of course I would do what I could. I am passing on my skills to 4-Hers and my GD. I never thought that I would own 5 sewing machines, serger and a longarm machine all at one time! What memories. Makes me smile.
20088Bet if you didn't already know how to sew, you would have said, not for me. Some teacher.
2224Reading all has been such fun! I was sewing doll clothes at 8 and my dresses at 10 like many of you. We had only Dry Good Stores in those days and not many choices. In school I swear I knew more than the teacher. The Sears Catalog was always researched for the latest fashions trends during my middle years for making clothes for my daughter and myself. How things have changed. I visited a high school sewing class and was so glad to see that the students were using sergers to sew boxer shorts along with a sewing machine. I believe home sewing is making a comeback. Those Home Economics Teachers turned off a lot of girls with thier French Seams!
1574OH, I had a similar experience when our teacher made us all make a Playsuit, pants with top all in one.
None of them fitted any of us and like you, I was making my own clothes at home, and they DID fit. :-)
Did you get into trouble with your teacher for expressing your views on her (lack of) capabilities??? I did! :-))))))
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by fannyfurkin
24 Feb 2011
I did not express my views about her lack of capabilities. I think she could see that for herself.
122864Did any of you ever make lightweight coats to match dresses. I think I was making matching coats in the late 60's and early 70's. Women always wore dresses to work then. No pants allowed. Does anyone remember when they began wearing pants to the office?
Marcelle
http://embroideryavenue.com/
http://embroidery.gotop100.com/
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by meganne
23 Feb 2011
Yes, it was some time during my years of absence from the work force, because when I went back to work (1990) I was SHOCKED at what everyone was wearing and it took me another ten years before I stopped wearing skirt and stockings, and this, only after my CEO actually pulled me aside and told me it was ok if I wanted to wear slacks. LOL!!!!
6340Thank you Sue for this great topic. I have had so much fun reading how other Cuties started sewing. Sarah
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255054Don't remember to much sewing at school other than Buttonholes.
29801I was making Barbie doll clothes when I was about 10, my Mom does not sew but she did get a machine when I was about 8 just for repairs. I started Home Ec (sewing and cooking) when I was in Jr. High and my first project was a red plaid skirt with matching zippered bag. I got an A on it. In high school my senior year I was kicked out of Home Ec, we were making an outfit, I made a navy wide wale cord jumper with a sheer blue floral blouse, the teacher refused to grade me because she wanted the back zipper to be (the word escapes me) with the wide part overlapping and I put it centered and refused to change it, it went from my desk to her's and back to mine then her's, she refused to let me take it home even though I paid for every bit of it and sewed it myself (did my girlfriend's also cause she was bad at sewing so we passed them back and forth so I could do them both), ended up that as I left class WITH my outfit I called her a witch (as I recall) but she told the principal I called her a bitch and the next day I was tossed from the class. My friend dropped out right then and there also, lol! I made a lot of my summer clothes mostly and never got into anything that would be too difficult or take too long as I am very impatient.
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by lindalee757
23 Feb 2011
OMGosh Lee, I am cracking up at the image of you and Miss witch Bitch going at it LOL- come on now, fess up-after all these years...you really didn't say witch, did you? =O) ~linda~
33580I was hand stitching by about the age of five, I would make little purses and bags, my mother and my granny both encouraged me, by the time I was 10 I could make all of my own clothes and My sister and I got a shared Christmas gift of an old singer treadle machine. by the time I started home ec at high school there was not much the teacher could teach me and she did not like me at all.we had to buy the fabric for a skirt bring it in and cut it out then take it home and sew one seem. I took it home and sewed the whole skirt. When I brought it back she told me that I had not sewn it my mother had. I informed that this was nonsense as my mother could not sew as well as I could. She thought I was a cheeky upstart and made my life very difficult in her class as I could already knit too. Cooking was even worse, I am the second oldest of a family of nine and I could not understand the meticulous measurement of ingredients, that was not how mum did it. So I had to drop home ec and take art. I still can't draw. but I can sew, knit and cook and do all of them very well.
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by meganne
23 Feb 2011
Ahem! Are you my long lost twin sister?
Our sewing teacher (in Primary school) was Mrs Right and I used to call her Mrs Wrong and we had the same kind of relationship as you had with yours.
Seems like that was quite a common thing. LOL!!!
19430My mom taught me to sew. Every Saturday we cleaned house and then begun sewing lessons. I had to do alot of ripping and was very impatient. We used a treadle machine for several years. When we were good enough we graduated to Mom's electric Singer. My parents bought me a Dressmaker machine with cams for high school graduation. I till have it but don't use it. I bought a Viking 25 years ago that I really like. I bought a Brother embroidery machine in 2009 and love it. I like to make my own patterns or change bought patterns to fit my needs. Embroidery has been so much fun. The Cuties are teaching me alot.
9888I didn't take home economics in school. I learned to sew by watching my mother. I bought my first sewing machine when I was in my last year of high school. I was working at a restaurant and made payments on the little machine! (It took a year to pay it off) It was a Singer "Genie" I had that machine until a few months ago when I gave it to a family of young home schooled girls who loved to sew and only had one machine.
9983I sewed on my mother's sewing machine when I was four.
I had hand-sewing lessons at school in Grade 3 when I was seven. It was war-time and we were given square pieces of crepe paper on which we learned to turn and sew hems, french seams and flat-fell seams. Woe betide us if the paper tore. Have you ever tried to hand-sew on crepe paper?????
In Grade 5 we made ourselves a nightie with hand smocking across the top. I wore mine.
We also made a big Duster bag with 'Dusters' embroidered right across the flap. I still have mine.
Sewing lessons turned to Fancy Work in Grade 7 and then all sewing ceased for me when I went to a purely academic high school.
I bought my first sewing machine for my 21st Birthday - an electric Wertheim with cams for fancy stitches, and sewed all my baby and little girls' dresses on that. Years later I bought a Singer but it couldn't keep its tension on the rough roads in PNG so when we moved to Lae, PNG, in '73 I bought a Bernina. That is still going well and I've passed it on to my oldest grand-daughter.
I was 70 when I bought my embroidery machine and 73 when I first tried stitching designs on it. Now I do just about anything with it.
AlmaG.
2 comments
by meganne
23 Feb 2011
Did you grow up in Aus Alma?
Your story sounds so familiar.
I remember hand sewing (on paper) at school in the fifties and I loathed it as I was using my Mum's sewing machine at home, hers was an HG Palmer machine (I think) and the tension was atrocious.
:-))))
17214I was hand stitching little samples together that came in the mail when I was three. When I was eight my mom had surgery and sent me to take lessons from the Singer sewing lady that was close enough to ride my bike. Took what they called Home Economics in school and learned a lot about fabric. Our teachers were amazing and we could pick the fabric and patterns that we liked. Remember taking a garment to the dressing room at J.C. Penny's and sketched it out because I couldn't afford to buy it. Everyone at school thought it was awesome and wanted to know when I purchased it. Another time my mom called me to the basement just after I finished sewing a new dress. Somehow she managed to turn one whole sleeve white and wanted to know if I had any fabric left over. She was also good at shrinking my wool sweaters that became baby doll size. From then on my sister and myself did our own laundry.
89895Isn't it so much better when you decide what you want to sew . I hate to be be told this is what you must do and this is how you must do it. I'm an Aquarian and we have to do things our way, outside of the box. LOL
Bev
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by greysewist
24 Feb 2011
Ditto! Another Aquarian and I sew dog collars, leads etc for a job and often find ourselves going about the process in different ways to avoid the 'routine' feel when we don't feel like being routine, LOL.
67271I "learned" sewing from my mother. I say that with sarcasim as my mother doesn't sew. Grain of the fabric--I had never heard of straight grain until I took my Home Ec class in Jr Hi. I just put the pattern pieces on which ever way took the least amount of material. So even though I had some of the skills and was way faster than most in the class I did learn some fundamentals which have helped me greatly. My mom--well--while I was in college she decided she wanted to make her own pant suit and asked me to teach her. I told her to stop about 1" before the leg seam of the crotch and to reinforce it. So she did. She sewed from the waist of the pant to the crotch edge, turned the corner and sewed to 1" before the hem THREE times. We laughed and laughed at her mistake and then sat on the floor and ripped out the three seams together. She finally did finish and wear her creation. It was bright orange polyester. It was the 70's after all. It is one of my fondest memories of my mom. I have gotten good enough to design and sew my 2nd daughter's wedding dress and win a blue ribbon at the County Fair. Becky
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by workbecky
22 Feb 2011
Some of my first projects were just doll clothes but I also sewed for my baby girl cousins. As I look back now, their mothers never ridiculed me for my horrible sewing. If they had I might have quit sewing forever. They just dressed their precious daughters in those poorly constructed dresses and play outfits.
by airyfairy
23 Feb 2011
Wouldn't it be great to see all of the creations made by Cuties all those years ago?
9846I was bought up with my mother and grandmother making my clothes - which I hated as all my friends had nice shop bought clothes. I made from an early age all my dolls clothes. In my teens I made my own mini skirts and other strange garments. For years I did not sew - too busy bringing up my daughters and working. I started gradually sewing again and made both my daughters wedding dresses. It was only when I retired that I started making my own clothes again and bought myself a decent sewing machine. Then I bought a second hand embroidery machine..........
255054Well you all heard my nightmare on the other post. My mom had been blind as a child and regained sight in one eye as she got older, so she never received any "craft" training in school and therefore I never received any "craft" nurturing growing up. We never had a sewing machine in the house and I was a total idiot when I got into that one semester of home ec and had to make that stupid top....that, I think, is why I have resisted getting any type of machine and why my hubby took it upon himself to do it for me.......he took a big risk and it turned out great.....embroidery wise.....I am still a clutz at sewing garments.....
261163My worst experience was when I was 14 and had to sew a baby doll nighty. We had to buy the materials from school and the colours were soft pink soft yellow or soft blue. As there was not enough material we all seem to end up making a nightdress for a 10 year old. As I was very much a tom boy all those baby colours put me off from the start. We had to embroider the top and it looked abosolutely awful. Of course we did not have sewing machine and were supposed to put it together by hand. I cheated and took it home and did it on my mum's old singer(hand turning). The teacher ofcourse noticed this and failed me on this project!
57492I learned to sew from my mother at an early age and have since always made my own clothes.
I had sewing class at junior school and loved all the sewing. I did fabulous hardanger chairbacks that were chosen to be shown at A famous show but I never got them back and was refunded my money. The Lady probably took all the best sewn Items from all the schools that she judged at.
My daughter took the end of year prize and trophy so the sewing skills must have rubbed off.
From Bev
7875Our !st machine sewing project was in Jr.High School-we all had to make A-line skirts and the HAD to be "on the knee" length-YUCK-and your right-they took forever because everyone had to work at the same pace-by the book. After we all got graded on them-a bunch of us ended up "modifying" them-yup- and size 14 was the magic # back then-with the standard 5/8" seams-HAH after the grade the seams were about 1" or more and the knee length lost about 8" LOL.I can still remember the color-I loved it after it was "fine tuned".I was already sewing at home at the time too-not so much clothes for myself-mostly toys, dolls and doll clothes-that kind of stuff.
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20173