Sewing

Back in the sewing saddle...

In addition to cookie baking, I’m getting back in touch with something I’ve been away from for far longer -- sewing.

One of my first memories is standing next to my Grandma’s Singer treadle sewing machine, watching her make my annual birthday dress while I gathered ric-rac (I know I’m dating myself and I don’t care) onto a large sewing needle.  The dress was always some confection involving organdy and satin and tiny pastel colored buttons.  There would have been many, many hours involved in the selection of the pattern and fabric, of cutting out and sewing together the pieces, and hundreds of closely spaced hand-stitches in addition to the treadle time.  And I probably wore the dress exactly once for my birthday party in the back yard, my head festooned with a conical paper party hat and unhappy if I didn’t win at Pin the Tail on the Donkey (I have never liked kid’s birthday parties...brings out the brat in them).  This was well before the days of ordering up ponies, jumping castles, and Ringling Brothers, Barnum, & Baily for children’s birthday parties, but I certainly was better dressed than any party-going child now.  I have a vague recollection of the gauzy pale green, lavender, and blue dresses hanging eternally in my closet like ghosts of birthdays past.

I learned to sew for myself in junior high -- a red apron with an apple motif, complete with green border and embroidered apple pocket -- and with sewing being a big part of my personal culture, it stuck.  I made most of my clothes for the next 15 years, working in my room on a borrowed Singer portable (an electric foot pedal, not a treadle).  Sometime in my late 20s, while living in the Caribbean (not much needed in the way of clothes), I fell out of the habit.  

The cabin got me thinking about sewing again and I have been collecting vintage fabric for the past couple of years off Ebay and Etsy with the idea of making pillows and curtains.  I had my “new” sewing machine, a Kenmore bought in the 70s, serviced before leaving for the cabin.  I’d thought about getting a new machine -- Costco had a Singer for about twice the cost of the servicing of my old one -- but when I lifted up the new one it almost flew through the warehouse ceiling...it weighted almost nothing!  I can barely lift the old Kenmore, but I have confidence in it’s solidity and am certain it will be the last sewing machine I need (maybe I’ll get it serviced again in 35 years or so).

Your nap is ready...

The need for bedroom curtains trumped some other things on my list of to-do’s, and with the loft sorted out now I set myself up on my folding six foot table and got to work.  After the thousands of times I’ve filled bobbins and threaded a sewing machine, I sat there not quite sure how to do anything, hoping my body-memory would kick in.  It did eventually, but I backed it up by looking in the sewing machine’s manual -- a miracle to have kept track of that for almost four decades!  I really was a bit short on the fabric I wanted to use, a vintage piece of upholstery weight fabric with a wonderful funky design of espaliered pine boughs on a toasty background, complete with green needles on pine cones.  I’ve seen espaliered pear trees, but pines?  It was a little fiddle since I had to use a facing (a lovely vintage fine stripe of mellow gold and cream) instead of just turning under the pine fabric in order to have enough, but the effect made it quite special.  After I figured out the process on the first section, the second was much quicker.  And I’m cheating by using those suddenly trendy, but retro-feeling rings with the clips on them.  Two rectangles of the appropriate size and presto, you’ve got curtains.  

Hmmm...I’ve got this great old finely striped deep navy and cream for upstairs, or should I hunt for some reasonably priced Eames atomic patterned fabric?  Okay, not reasonably priced Eames atomic patterned fabric (no such thing), but maybe I’ll get lucky on Ebay.  

It’s sew (couldn’t help myself) good to connect with old skills.