This month as we have been talking about “Teaching the One” to sew I started thinking about my own sewing journey.
My Grandma tried to instill in me a love for quilting as I was growing up with her numerous quilts spread across her mothers quilt frames…that I enjoyed using for forts…and not learning moments.
My Home Ec teacher tried to teach me proper techniques but…eventually had to kick me out of the class when I was far more interested in goofing off than in sewing.
My Mom tried to give me the gift of sewing when she gave me a sewing machine for my first married Christmas…which I hated and stowed it away in my basement for years.
My neighbor tried to show me that sewing was easy when she pulled my sewing machine out of the box and tried to set it up for me…and I still thought it was too hard.
My mother in law tried to help me understand that sewing was useful by showing me all of the clothes that she had mended…but I just wanted to buy new jeans.
It wasn’t until I was almost 30 on a clear autumn evening when my mother dragged me to a quilting class that I finally caught the vision.
And I was hooked…first on sewing quilt blocks then on sewing garments.
As I began sewing I learned from the quilting instructors (as I took several more classes at different shops) and as I continued I learned from my mom, my grandma, my mother in law, Elizabeth, my neighbor, google, blogs, a delightful community college professor, etc. etc. etc.
And now when I sew up either a garment or a quilt sometimes I think about where I learned how to do this or that…and I realize that even though I think I’m “self-taught” I am anything but! As I sew up a project I use a trick I learned from this person and a tip I learned from that person and a technique I just learned the other day and every once in awhile I catch myself doing something that I had seen someone do back in the day when I was anti-sewing! And then I smile and am thankful for what I was lucky enough to be surrounded with as I grew up.
My sewing really is a compilation of techniques that come from an entire village of women…it’s not prefect…it’s not consistent…but I feel like when I sew I’m with all those ladies who have helped me along the way…and that to me is a gift.
So this month as we are talking about teaching the one to sew, don’t worry if who ever you teach doesn’t take to sewing all at once…it may take awhile for them to come around. And if whoever you teach only learns one thing, that is enough! And if in all the teaching you learn something for yourself along the way…that is awesome to…because there is always new to learn no matter how many years you have been sewing.
-liZ
It took me a while to come around, too, and I didn’t really pick up sewing and quilting as a serious hobby until I was a junior in college. I think my mom was secretly relieved when I finally expressed excitement about it!
I’m late to the party, but my Mom always sewed as did my Grandma, I grew up on homemade clothes that I loved because they were exactly the fabric I wanted. I made my first thing in grade school, a superman cape for my little brother, I was sewing fabric scraps together with the intention of making a quilt with those (I never made the quilt), I made my first skirt in early high school, it was a bubble skirt. In college I was the only one that sought out a sewing machine (I graduated in 1992) to sew something I don’t remember it was old and dusty and in the storage closet, luckily I was an RA so I had access. When I moved out of the house I borrowed one of my Grandma’s. Today, I have three machines in the house a treadle machine that was my Husband’s Great-Grandma’s, a standard simple machine (that I let my 9 yr old use), and a fancier Singer. I’ve made several quilt tops, sew PJ’s for my kids every year, Halloween costumes, you name it I’ll try it, I made two dog beds last night. Those squares I started putting together for a quilt as a kid, my Mom put together as a simple baby quilt when I had my wedding shower, no I wasn’t pregnant, so I would remember my lessons as a child, I’ve never forgotten them, and am not trying my best to pass those lessons on to my daughter, and my son (he’s only 5). I never want them to have to pay someone to sew a button on, or hem some pants, I can put that $25 each pant to a really good machine. My Grandma’s good machine went to my brother, it was a 40’s era Singer that still sung beautifully when she died almost 5 yrs ago at 99.