Sewing

Embroidered Napkins

My first memory of sewing is from when I was about 5 years old.  We were on holiday, my parents and I, at a hotel in the mountains.  My mother had bought me a child's beginning sewing kit, which had printed pictures of animals on thin cardboard, with small holes punched along the outline of the animal; an assortment of wool yarn and a wool needle (larger than regular sewing needles, blunt, with a large eye).  I remember sitting in the hotel lounge and sewing along the outlines of the printed cardboard, pushing and pulling my needle through the punched holes.  Years later, when my own daughter was a little girl, I searched for and found similar children's sewing kits with punched cardboard and taught her to sew.

I also remember having to sew, or more accurately, embroider, a little tray cloth in 1st grade - the teacher had drawn a design of two or three fish among some water plants with a stream of bubbles above each fish.  We were required to outline the design in running stitch!  I don't remember how good I was at it, but I remember the teacher telling my mother that I could take it home to work on it at home (presumably with my mother's help?!)  

Sewing, officially became a school subject, just like art, physical education, and history, when I was in 2nd grade.   Once a week, a school period (40 mins) was devoted to learning to sew (by hand).  We were required to have a little sewing kit - an empty candy tin was equipped with a piece of white cotton fabric, pins, a needle, a reel of thread, and a small pair of scissors.  We were expected to bring our sewing kits with us on the days when we had sewing.  More often than not, I forgot.  Sometimes, we were allowed to borrow from a classmate, if a classmate had spare fabric, needle and thread.  If not, we were punished by being made to stand outside the classroom, where anyone passing by - other students, teachers, maybe even the principal, could see and know that we were being punished.

In 2nd grade, we were taught the basics.  First, how to fold a hem, pin, and baste.  Once basting was mastered, we were taught the hem stitch - small, upright stitches, evenly spaced.  Our sewing teacher, Miss P. would check our work, every so often, and if she didn't think our stitches were small enough, or neat enough, she made us unpick everything and start all over again.  It seemed that I could never sew well enough to satisfy her.  "Your stitches are like coconut trees" she would tell me.  Too big!  Unpick.  Sew again.  Over and over.  I must have sewn at least a foot of hem stitches and still had only about an inch to show!  Until, finally, Miss P. gave up and allowed me to progress to the next step, which was sewing a seam!  LOL. I was in 2nd grade when my father died - maybe that also had something to do with Miss P. relaxing her standards, just a bit?

Poor Miss P.  She had to deal with me and my messy sewing for the next six years, as sewing lessons continued through 8th grade.  I didn't like to sew.  I wasn't neat enough and my stitches continued to be too big!   Nevertheless, under her tutelage, I learned to sew seams (including French seams), bias bindings, button holes and buttons, press studs (or snaps), hooks and eyes and various embroidery stitches.  I learned to darn, applique, cross stitch, smock, and do drawn thread work.

Each year, I did the various required projects that were our final exam and meant to show off the skills we learned that year.  They included a small table cover, about a yard square, with drawn thread hemming and embroidered flowers; a pillowcase; a school uniform (box pleats, short sleeves, pockets, and collar!), and a nightdress (I got into trouble with Miss P. on that one because I hand sewed the scallops along the yoke only and not the ones along the bottom hem, which I did on my mother's sewing machine!)

Once I no longer had sewing as a subject, I stopped sewing for about 3 years.  Then, one day, when I was 17, I felt the urge to sew!  For fun!  I cut out a set of 6 napkins,  embroidered a spray of flowers on each, and hemmed them with drawn thread hemming!  Miss P. might have tut-tutted over the stitches, but I enjoyed sewing them and I still have 5 of the 6 napkins! 

Napkins Close Up

Drawn Thread Hem

And then, I embroidered more pieces of fabric and had my mother sew them into two pocket wall hanger organizers. The first one had four pockets with flowers embroidered on them.  I no longer have it, as the fabric deteriorated and tore.  But I have the second one:

Embroidered Pocket Wall Hanger/Organizer

It had two larger pockets and a narrow, longer pocket.  The two larger pocket depicted spring (girl with tulips) and summer (boy with flowers and fruit).

Spring and Summer

The upper long pocket depicted the four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter:

The Four Seasons

(Not the best quality photos, I'm afraid; I am taking them with my laptop, since I don't have a digital camera or smart phone.)

The patterns were copied from a Japanese embroidery book my mother had bought.  All the instructions were in Japanese.  Which neither my mother nor I knew to read!  But, the line drawings had labels in Japanese identifying the type of embroidery stitch and at the end of the book, there were diagrams of the stitches.  It was a simple matter of matching the labels on the drawings with the characters for the stitch names in the back diagrams and I was able to figure it out!

I discovered that I liked sewing!  Imagine that!  I am still not the neatest seamstress, but I do enjoy sewing.  Miss P. would have been surprised!  And, perhaps, a little pleased?     

Do you sew?  What is your first memory of sewing?  Were you taught sewing at school?  Did you enjoy learning to sew?