I learned how to sew very early in my life.
Back in the day, there were no Wal-marts anywhere and in our little town there was a JC Penny's for ready made clothes. My folks never had much money and Mom made most of our clothes except for socks and underwear. Sometimes we would get a bunch of hand-me-downs. It was a lot of fun to sort and see if anything would fit. I hemmed my first dress by hand when I was 5 and at 9 sewed a skirt for a 4-H project. Mom would buy material for us to make clothes, but if we wanted "store-bought" we bought it ourselves.
I sewed my entire wardrobe for high school and I saved some of my favorites.
Everything I saved has a story, but not everything here is going to be saved.
I made this dress for Lynette from material and pattern that Mom made for me.
The original dress is long gone.
Mom made me this skirt when I was in 7th or 8th grade for the Christmas concert. All the girls decided we should wear long skirts and I begged Mom for one. It must have been a particularly hard season for us because Mom cried. I don't know if she ever knew I caught her. It is made from a weird and ugly piece of double knit with a pantyhose elastic. I loved it. I was so happy to have it.
When Gunne Sax was a thing.
Plaid skirts and velour tops, 1980
I bought the turtleneck at Penney's.
In the days when everyone wanted to what season they were and what colors when with that diagnosis.
Mom and I were summers. I have since learned that generally one picks out the colors that look best on them. I seemed to be drawn to rather odd colors. I learned the "right" way to sew with linings, top stitching, cords, zippers and no short cuts.
Nowadays, you can look on YouTube for ideas, and videos and short cuts. Lynette made her first skirt from a video and I was impressed by the ease she mastered a skill that I spent years learning.
I've never regretted knowing the advanced skills. When you know those, you can also know when shortcuts are appropriate.
On our way home from a FHA event when I was a senior, we stopped at a mall to shop and I bought this skirt for $25. From 7th grade to graduation I made my money from my daily paper route and babysitting.
The way I remember it, the above skirt was supposed to be worn with a fancy, lacy blouse. So, I made one. Twenty five dollars-es don't grow on trees. They don't now and they didn't then.
Prairie blouses and skirts also were "the thing" in the early 80s. I obviously was making pretty good money off my paper route, because I bought these two blouses.
I made this skirt after one I saw in a store. The fad at the time was to wear a lace-edged petticoat under it, but that has been long gone. I also had a plain navy skirt like this without the ribbon to wear with the blue striped blouse. I entered it in the fair as a 4-H project, and got the last place because the ribbon wasn't sewn down on both edges like it was "supposed to". I was a bit aggravated since the one I copied had only the one edge sewed down. That was such a big thing back in the day and a "who cares anymore" thing, now.
The elastic has completely gone out of the waist of this dress. Chambray was thing as well.
This in another set I loved, I put a lot of work in my creations and it's blue, which is my favorite color.
This was another Gunne Sax pattern I was proud of. Getting the waist band stiff enough with crinoline type stuff was a real piece of work. I made another of purple checked gingham. There were two kinds of the fabric, one with large checks and one with small. My cousins all had skirts of different colors with the large checked material in the place of the blue in the pictures and the small in the skirt. I made mine because I wanted to be part of that and made mine the opposite. I was chagrined, but it was good payback for my envy and pride.
I made this jacket for my last big 4-H project and modeled it at the fair. I made it was a straight skirt which is long gone and a circle skirt that was made into a poodle skirt for one of the girl's projects in elementary school. This was one of the hardest projects I ever did.
This dress I made especially for my senior pictures.
Mom made this dress, my graduation dress. She hadn't made any clothes for me for years. I don't have words to explain what it meant for her to make this very important (at the time) dress for me.
I remember wearing this dress to some old lady's house and it was hot, with no air conditioning and I was sweating in the old chair I was sitting in and some of the finish came off the chair and stained my dress. Mom washed it out and I don't remember what she used. I also remembered to watch where I sat!
For awhile our sewing machine was in the living room and it was a good place to sew because Mom was always helpful when thread snarled up or things went wrong. She kept her patience a lot better than I ever did.
I wish these photographs were better.
My camera is pretty good, but tends to yellow the photos in the house.
I'm only keeping the first two, the lacy blouse and the purplish skirt and vest.
The rest will be donated. I wonder if anyone will be able to wear them. I was skinny as a rail in those days.
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