My Mom sewed always. Being a depression child, "saving" was never left out of her vocabulary. My older sister's panties were made from feed sacks. By the time I was out of diapers, she was buying my cotton panties. I'm sure she had figured out that buying them was about as economical as making them (otherwise, I'm sure she would have made mine--OR perhaps feedsacks were getting replaced with paper).
My sister is 5 years older. She was in high school, and Mom was making a lovely yellow fancy dress for her for a banquet she would be attending. It was a beautiful brocade as I recall. I must have been in 4th or 5th grade at the time.
Anyhow, Mom was so happy (proud) of the way it had turned out. All was done except for the hem, and the fit was near perfection. Our neighbor, Grace, next door sewed also. She was quite an accomplished sewer. I remember quite well the evening Mom took the dress over to get Grace's opinion. She was gone for about 30 minutes and returned in tears. I seldom saw my Mother cry except at family funerals. She was strong in every aspect of her life.
My Dad couldn't imagine what might have happened. She showed us a burned hole in the dress near the hemline. Yes, a burn as in fire. At the time, Grace and her DH had gas heaters in their house. Mom and Grace were talking, and, yes, the dress got too close to the open fire heater.
It was too late to begin another dress and perhaps there was a question of the cost of buying more beautiful fabric. Grace felt so bad. Grace called to check on Mom and told her she would be over early the next morning and together, they would figure out a save for the dress. Mom, however, thought it a lost cause and told my Sister that she might have to borrow a friend's dress to wear.
Well, leave it to Grace. Since the dress had not been hemmed, and there was plenty of length, they were able to take two tucks (absorbing the burned hole within one of the tucks). The tucks were pressed down and the dress hemmed. Thus, a design element. It worked beautifully! Dress saved!
Then I saw a big smile on Mom's face!
Happy Mother's Day! I have so many wonderful memories of Mom and many of them while she sat at the Singer.
What a lovely memory, Linda. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that wonderful story of your mother. I love the "save" as well.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story - I can only imagine how upset your Mum was when the fabric was burnt!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story!!
ReplyDeleteThat's such a lovely story! I teared up a bit at how anguished your mother must have felt! ugg, how awful, but what a beautiful save! What a relief!
ReplyDeleteI make my kids and husband's underpants out of knit scraps. It's pretty economical, because the cute underpants we like for kids are pretty expensive and the ones my husband likes are $10 a pair.
I haven't quite mastered making my own, yet.