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I have taught my daughters, friends, or anyone who
wants to learn. My Grandmother taught me noy only to sew, but to
love the feel of the needle and the scent of the fabric. I believe
in sharing knowledge and the joy of creating a lasting memory. For several years I taught art at a very small
inner-city parachial middle school. The nuns added an enrichment
class for the seventh and eighth grade called "Life
Skills" which I taught. The class was to cover everything from
simple money management, hygiene, and home ec techniques. Needless
to say there wasn't much money for those students to have new
uniforms much less extras. Most students wore hand-me-downs from
siblings and friends or clothing culled from the uniform closet. I
started with the basics: buttons, hems, and darning. A call went out
to the community for buttons, needles, thread and small supplies. Of
course, sewing boxes were cleaned out and donations including a
couple of old sewing machines rolled in. Then we were able to do the
more fashion oriented skills of embroidery, tie-dying, and heavy
alterations like turning pants into shorts. Surprisingly, even the
boys were eager to have the power to improve their wardrobes. I
smile whenever I think about my students, now in their early 20's,
being able to pick up a needle and thread and knowing exactly what
to do with it! My daughter just turned 4. She announced that she is
almost 5 and ready to go to sewing school. I taught her the running
stitch on board cut outs. I taught her to use blending thread for
garment construction but she insists on bright purple with pale pink
and green. I taught her to not be under the table and pushing my
foot while I am running the machine. She insists she is helping me
and I am suppose to sew fast. I taught her how to add ribbon accents
to make the Easter dress special. She insists it will not have
ribbons. So far she has learned the most important lesson. To design
garments you will love to sew and wear. Her design style fits her.
After all, she insists on having 4 piggy tales right smack on the
top of her head. I have a daughter whom I taught to sew, as she sewed
along with me on her child's Singer machine. After she married and
became busy with a job and family, she has left the sewing up to me.
But in the last few years, I have 3 nephews who have married girls
who have been interested in learning to sew, especially for their
own little girls. After attending the Retreat with Lezette Thomason
and Mary Frank King in Tennessee and making lots of cute creative
things that I was passing down to them, we decided to have our own
"retreat" for them to learn. Twice a year my husband has
weekend business meetings out of town, so 2 or 3 of them come and we
sew together. It has been great fun helping them learn the basics of
construction (starting with what grain of fabric is), sharing ideas
that I have learned from many other teachers, visiting together as a
family, and digging through my "stash" of fabrics, trims,
etc. to spice up the material they may have bought. They have said I
not only showed them what to do, but explained why it was important
to do it that way--maybe this comes from having taught first grade
for 20 years. I also have always tried to have a few "easy to
pull out goodies", so that the weekend would be a special treat
for them (one of them has to travel 5 hours), as the retreats in
Tennessee had been for me. Most of the time they arranged for
babysitters, but occasionally, they bring one of their girls. This
gives me and my granddaughter a chance to have fun with cousins we
do not see often while I'm instructing them in sewing. They have
learned smocking, some embroidery, and construction very quickly and
it has been a a joy for me to watch them grow in skills and enthusiasm. When my husband was in law school we had a couple
that lived just below us in our apartment complex. She knew that I
sewed and asked me if I would show her how to hem a skirt. I did and
she has told me that is the only thing she ever learned sewing wise
but to this day she can hem anything and it will stay in. That was
30+ years ago. As a child I was blessed with two aunts who sewed everything
I wore, from snowsuits as a baby, prom dresses as a teenager and a
beautiful wedding gown as a young woman. I took all this for granted
until I married and needed to have some maternity clothes. By then
my aunts were ill and not doing much sewing. I borrowed one of their
machines and taught myself to sew. However, my real love was
discovered after my seventh child was born when I learned how to
smock. Now my specialty is smocking and heirloom sewing for
children. It helps to have ten grandchildren. Sewing is my passion,
my stress reliever and my joy. I believe I learned much from my
aunts just by hanging around their sewing room. I have taught, my 3 daughters, a friend in Tennessee
when we were in the military, and girls in my town. I have helped
friends to understand patterns and fabric, I think everyone should
enjoy sewing. You could say I have taught people from the east coast
to down south to the west. :) One of the many joys of sewing for me has been
passing it on. I have had the privilege of teaching a few friends
and family how to smock, and how to sew. Some "got it" and
some didn't. A lot of people are afraid of trying something new, and
never went any farther than what we did together. Some never
finished their first project. A few, however, have gone on to find
they enjoyed it and have continued to learn new things from myself
and on their own. One dear friend Karen, whom I never envisioned
getting near a sewing machine before her daughter came along, has
made gorgeous outfits. Another new friend Amy has caught the
smocking bug. It is a completely new and different joy to see
friends get excited about their latest project, and share them with
me when they are finished. I hope I can continue to pass it on. I taught both of my daughters to sew. They are now
both mothers themselves. One followed a career in puppetry and
costume design and is a much better seamstress than I am. 15 month
old twins keep her too busy to do much sewing now but she still
keeps her hand in it. My other daughter is an occupational therapist
and has used her sewing skills to make items to help her patients as
well a many gifts for family and friends. I am very proud that my
daughters are carrying on a skill that I had learned from my mother
too. When my daughter Melissa was old enough to sit at a
sewing machine I promised her I would teach her to sew. After that,
she would follow me around the house saying 'can we sew now?' until
I would sit down and give her a lesson. She has since gone on to
outdo me with her quilting designs and techniques. My other
daughter, Veronica, would have nothing to do with a sewing machine
despite all my efforts! I love to sew. And my daughter-in-law asked if I
help her to learn to sew. I am having the best time teaching her to
sew, and getting to know her better. My Step Granddaughter has emotionally unstable
parents. When she visited we tried to provide the affection missing
in her life. I introduced her to sewing by sitting her on my lap
while she guided the fabric through the machine. She was fascinated
that under the cabinet lid was a second tiny door for the bobbin.
Her Mother, a non-sewer, wanted her daughter to learn to sew. The
Mother helped select the pattern and fabric, then I taught my
Granddaughter to make simple garments. She was so proud of them, but
was never allowed her to wear these clothes. We switched to doll
clothes! The dolls and my Granddaughter were delighted with her
sewing creations. I was asked to make her first formal. Her parents
figured she could spend a weekend with me and learn to sew. Her
Mother sent her to buy the pattern then disliked all the selections.
She would not come along when we bought the fabric, but had rigid
rules on how the formal should look. My Granddaughter looked lovely
in the completed white formal, as usual, her Mother didn’t like
it. The instability in her life produced an angry, out of control,
teenager who eventually moved in with us. For her senior project she
choose to make a jean quilt. Some of her rage was vented on my
sewing machine – but a quilt was finished and she was so proud of
it. My machine survived. It was a rocky road; this girl is now in
college. In her adulthood she will have happy memories of the
peaceful times we spent sharing the joy of sewing. I have taught
many others to sew, but the impact may be greatest on this child.
(To protect my Granddaughter's privacy please use the name of
Creative Needle Fan) Recently I began a project with three young girls in
my family who are between the ages of 10 and 13. We each made a
24" by 30" doll quilt from half-square triangles. They
were able to sew on a machine for their first time and enjoyed doing
that. Each of us tied our quilt with embroidery floss. I did all the
rotary cutting for them. Next, we plan to make some cute girly
handbags. Singularly, I cannot say anyone person taught me to
sew. So many women in my famly sewed beautifully even though in the
30's and 40's it was a necessity; they each one took joy and pride
in her creations. So who really taught me? I would have to say the
inspiration from each aunt and grandmother who set her needle to
fabric encouraged me finally in my twenties to begin the journey of
loving fabric and turning it into a thing of beauty. My mother was a single mother of three, always doing
her best to keep us supervised and learning new things while she was
away at work. During summer breaks, she would enroll us in all kinds
of classes. I learned to needlepoint, embroider, and sew the summer
before my 11th birthday. When I became a mother myself, I fell in
love with smocking and heirloom sewing. It was after I made my first
outfit for my toddler son that she told me about her "Oma"
in Germany and Oma's extraordinary talents with a needle and thread.
Her grandmother was an expert seamstress and embroideress, and she
hand-smocked most of my mother's dresses from whatever was available
during those scarce war and after war years. I still have some of
the table linens she made for her own trousseau, and, although I
don't remember her, it is through my love of needlework that I feel
my connection to her and her connection to my own children. I like
to think she would be delighted to have seen her great-great
grandchildren in their smocked Easter finery. Now that my eldest
will be leaving for college this fall, and in the not-too-distant
future beginning his own family, I look forward to the time I can
smock and embroider for the next generation. I have also begun
teaching my 11 year old daughter to sew, too. I have heard it said
that the generations are woven together in a tapestry of love. I
think in my family, they may just be smocked together! i currently am teaching a precious young mother of
three, under three, and a wonderful grandmother of 2 to smock and
sew. we meet every week and laugh and cry and sew together for about
two hrs at a time. it is so rewarding to see their enthusiasm and
delight at the wonder of their creations. what a treasure of love
they are giving to their children! it is good to know this art will
not die as long s we purpose to pass it on to other generations! My girlfriend had never learned to put needle to
thread, and I was quite surprised when she told me her husband had
bought her a sewing machine. She asked for help and there was never
a moment of doubt how to teach her-- I simply taught her as my
beloved aunt had taught me. Starting with a lesson on fabric grain
and meticulous cutting, we proceeded to slow sewing and pressing as
you go. My friend is quite hooked on sewing now and has completed
several garments. My aunt sacrificed many of her Saturdays,
painstakingly teaching me to sew on her black, straight stitch only
Singer. Gratefully remembering my aunt, I wanted to follow her
example, take time out from my busy schedule (I have four children),
and likewise devote some time to my friend. I taught an 11 year old home schooled child a
difficult heirloom project and she did excellent. Of course, she was
learning on her mother's Designer I, but had no fear of pintucks and
did a wonderful job.
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