Legacies

Like most, my family wasn’t wealthy. There was no money, jewelry or land to pass down to the children or grandchildren. Our family considered themselves to be fortunate if there was money for a funeral. Nonetheless my family passed along legacies to it’s children. One that was passed on to me by my mother and grandmother (all the grandchildren called her Mam’Maw) was the legacy of needlework.

Mam’Maw was an awesome seamstress and was skilled in many other forms of needlework as well. She could reproduce a dress simply by looking at photos. Many of my school dress where made by her. The dresses fit perfectly and looked as though they came from the Sears catalog because that was most often her inspiration. I'll try to add a couple of pictures later but first I have to get the scanner figured out.

Since Mam’Maw raised me I was always there when she was sewing. I would watch her every move, totally mesmerized by the processes of cutting, pinning, stitching and so on. Like all small children I wanted to do what I saw the adults doing, I would beg her to give me a needle and let me try. Finally one night when I was about 4 she gave in and handed me a real needle, thread and swatch of fabric. She showed me how to do a running stitch and then let me play. I think she may have even given me a button or two.

There were no toy needles back then, she gave me the real deal but admonished me very sternly that I was only allowed to use it while she was with me and that I was to put it back in pin cushion so no one would get hurt. She told me that if I didn’t follow the rules I wouldn’t be allowed to use her things again. I enjoyed sewing so much that I carefully followed those rules.

Needle work just seemed to come second nature to me. By the time I was in my early teens I was making my own clothing. Remember how carefully we picked out the outfit we would wear that first day of school. It had to be just right so as to favorably impress the other students and teachers. The first day of sixth grade my outfit was one I sewed myself. I still remember it. It was a Madras plaid, hip length tunic over a pair elastic waist bellbottoms. I didn’t like the elastic but I wasn’t skilled enough for flies yet and since no one could see the waist I felt I could live with it. My results weren't seamstress quality by any measure but they were pretty impressive for a 12yr old if I say so myself.

However teaching someone to sew, crochet, knit, quilt, embroidery, does not come easy to me. I just don't have the same aptitude for teaching the skill that I have for doing it. Part of the problem is my own patience, I would rather being doing my project than teaching someone else. And that, I am sure, is the reason my skills didn’t get passed down to my children the way I had hope. They each can do a few things but none of them are truly skilled.

I'm not sure what it is but there something about being a grandmother that makes teaching come much easier. I not sure if it’s more maturity on my part or if I am not so pressed for time the way I was while raise 3 of my own.

So I’ve decided to try and teach M a little of what I know so that maybe she won’t be so inept with needle and thread. I started out trying to teach her to crochet but that didn’t go so well. Recently I’ve been letting her sew a bit on my machine. She seems to truly enjoy it, it’s the only thing I’ve found that will get her to put down the game system willingly and without demands on my part. All I have to say is, “do you want to sew” and she’s ready.

We’ve been doing small projects like and old school bean bag and an apron from a panel. But I think she’s ready to move up to patterns and learn to pin and cut properly. I think we’ll try a pair of pajama bottoms next.

Honestly I don’t know why I didn’t think of sewing panels and such with my kids but no need in crying over spilled pins now just move forward with what’s in front of us.

Bargello Needlepoint

My favorite place to shop is a thrift store or antique shop. Like most American’s I don’t need any more stuff, so when I do buy stuff I want to get the best deal for my money. And the fact that the item might be old or have a little wear on it doesn’t bother me.

Last summer G and I took a vacation to Hilton Head (I adore Hilton Head). Inspite of the fact that it was the hottest week of the year G and I scored some nice things at some of thrift stores and antique shops there. This Victorian corner chair being one.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when G decided he had to have it. Being married to a man who likes nice furniture is good but being married to one who appreciates Victorian is over the moon fabulous.


As you can see the chair needs recovering badly. I’m not sure who put this piece of fabric over it but they did a very poor job.



I also scored this book on Bargello Needlepoint durting that trip ($2). It was a rather serendipitous find because we hadn’t found (or bought) the chair yet. And it wasn’t until on the way home while looking at the book that I decided to use a pattern from it to make a new cover for the chair.



This week I decided to FORD ahead with this project. I got the book out, found the pattern, cut the canvas to fit the seat cushion and then after a good start realized that the pattern would look better if it were on the diagonal. That mistake had me a bit frustrated but I decided to go ahead and work the pattern in the colors I had planned to see how they turned out.






My first choice for colors was garnet and gold because G is an FSU fan. But as you can see from the picture that looks just a bit vulgar and there is simply no way I can look at that every day of my life. So I decided to try something more monochromatic with shades of gold. I like that much better and I think that color scheme will pretty much fit into any room in the house. However I'm going to find more muted colors because these still look a little garish to me.


I’ve also decided to find a smaller weave canvas and use thinner tread.

Bobbin Lace

I attended the local lace makers group. I was pretty certain that the group wouldn't be about crochet but I thought it would be interesting to attend all the same. I was right, no crochet, the group was Bobbin Lace. The President of the group took a few moments to show me how Bobbin Lace was made and I was able to practice on a piece. It was easy enough that I picked up the concept in just a few minutes. I worked on the practice piece for a bit but found that your posture has to be near perfect or you get a backache. Although Bobbin lace is beautiful I really don't think I'll be doing any of it, I prefer crochet. However I was able to add one more skill to my repertoire and I learned something very valuable to me, I have every reason to be very proud of my crochet and should probably take it more seriously then I do.