Sew many memories

Autumn always brings memories -- some good, and some, like my back-to-school memories, not so good.  In my early years school was very difficult for me.  Thankfully, as time went by,  I did eventually realize that I enjoyed learning and so I managed to cope with the other aspects that had made school so challenging.

As I've gone through old treasures at my childhood home, one unexpected good memory of back-to-school surfaced.  It's the one where every fall, my mother made me some new outfits for school. 

It had to have been late summer each year when my mother would take me downtown to look at pattern books in our local five and dime.  I would choose patterns I liked and sometimes we would pick out fabric together.  Other times, I distinctly remember choosing fabric first.  There was a shop in a nearby town that had lovely fabric.

I am sure I had a jumper similar to the one pictured at the top of the post.  I think it was a teal flannel print with sort of a Tyrolean look.  So sweet!

One of my favorite dresses was a collarless shirtwaist made out of a fabric with botanical drawings of fruit on a cream colored background.  I had a pretty pin resembling peaches that I wore with it.   I still have that pin today!

And, in fact, I found a piece of the fabric in my mother's fabric stash when we cleaned out the house:

You can see how pretty it is!    If I remember right, the dress I had was view 2 below.

 I could literally go on for quite some time about the various outfits and dresses that my mother made.  My aunt, who could sew but was a busy mom of six, often mentioned her gratitude that my mother sewed for me -- because all of my handmade dresses and outfits got passed on to her girls -- three of them, before making their way back to my much younger sister.

And she also made some special occasion things too, like 8th grade graduation dresses for me and, years later, my sister.  She also made both of our high school graduation dresses.

Pretty sure the one above was my 8th grade graduation dress.  It was made from a gorgeous pale aqua chiffon with the jacket of matching lace.  So pretty!

And I think this was my high school graduation dress.  It would have been view 1, made in a heavy white lace.  I think the buttons and neck trim were pale blue satin but I don't remember for sure.
 

 One of my finds in cleaning out the home place was a box full of homemade Halloween costumes.  There was a Dutch girl costume -- which I actually remember wearing, complete with a blond wig with braids -- a pirate outfit (that one was only partially homemade), and a Little Red Riding Hood cape.  My mother was an amazing seamstress.  I found the pattern for the clown costume below among her sewing patterns, but I don't recall her making one of these.  The pattern itself seems to have been unused, and I sold it for $10 in my Etsy shop in 2019.  View 3, with the bow tie and the red vest with tails, is particularly nifty.

Time went on, as it is prone to do, and in later years my mother sewed at least one wedding dress besides mine (which was extremely simple, with a definite "prairie" flair).  The daughter of neighborhood friends was getting married on a low budget, and my mother made her dress for her.  Though also quite simple, it was really a lovely dress and made our neighbor friend feel so special (and look so beautiful) on her wedding day.  She also made a maid of honor dress for me for a wedding I was in.

Later than that, I recall my mother sewing dresses for her own mother, my grandmother.   I've written before about how my grandmother always dressed so nicely.  Even her housedresses were attractive (she never wore slacks) and her aprons and earrings matched them.  But I think in later years she must have had difficulty in finding dresses she liked, especially for special occasions like family parties.  So my mother stepped in and sewed them for her.  Below are some of the patterns she likely used:

My mother sewed clothing for herself, too.  But it's a little bit ironic (and also a little bit sad) that she never got to make patchwork quilts as she intended to.  The closest she came was stitching up a quilt out of red and blue bandannas for a grandson leaving for college.  Better than nothing, but with all of the fabric scraps she had amassed over the years, I know she was looking forward to making some patchwork designs. 

Life hit hard with the illness and eventual passing of two children, then with Parkinson's disease, and the quilting plans fell by the wayside along with other plans and dreams.  

Readers may justifiably wonder if I learned to sew at my mother's knee.  I did not.  It was my mother-in-law who challenged me to learn to sew when my girls were toddlers, reminding me that some day they would need pretty clothes and even formals, and it would behoove me to start when they were young.  Here my mother did enter into the story, for I chose a couple of simple patterns (and allowed the girls to choose the fabrics) and stitched up two little dresses on my mother's sewing machine at her home so she would be available for any questions.  

Much to my surprise, I found that I loved to sew and yes, I did continue making clothes for the girls and myself for many years.  These days I am much more apt to choose projects with straight and simple seams, things like place mats and pillow cases, but I do hope that some of the things I've made will one day spark "sew many memories" for my family.