The sewing/embroidering/crochetting kit
The kit is pretty nice, it has several “projects”, most of which involve sewing. I can sew. Not very well, nor in a straight line, and I definitely cannot hem, but I can attach a piece of cloth to another with thread. In may be little, but it does prove useful. Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I acquired rudimentary skills on machine sewing. I’ve definitely have forgotten those.
I’m hoping that my girls’ needle skills will be better than mine. I was just thinking that I would not be able to teach them – and suddenly the image of my grandmother Zuni came to my mind. My grandmother Zuni, like all women from her time, really knew how to sew. She made most of the clothing her 8 children wore, and I think she even made their communion dresses for their daughters. I wish I had the pictures of those dresses – they were truly, truly amazing. I seem to have a memory, though, of my aunt Beatriz having made her own communion dress, but as girls have their communion around the age of 8, that doesn’t seem as likely. In any case, my aunt Beatriz is known in the family as being very handy with a needle – her coup came when she was 5 years old, and she embroidered a whole tablecloth.
My mother, of course, knew how to sew, but she never liked it much. She did, of course, hem our clothing, sew buttons and put new zippers on clothing. Even today, I send her those new pieces of clothing that need to be hemmed (yes, it’s pretty pathetic).
One thing my mother did do, and for which I was very grateful growing up, is make clothing for my dolls. Doll clothing was very expensive in Argentina at that time (and probably now as well), so having mom make it was great. She made many dresses, and even a couple amazing wedding gowns.
Despite all that sewing knowledge, I don’t think anyone really taught me how to sew – perhaps I didn’t show any interest.
As for sewing machines, there were three in my life. My grandmother Zuni’s, in the “sewing room” of her huge house. That’s the one my mother used to make those dresses. Then there was Granny & Gladys’ old Singer (or whatever it’s called). Gladys used it sparingly. I wonder what happened to it. And finally, there was (and there is) a tiny “toy” sewing machine from when Gladys was a little girl. It now has a broken needle, and I have no idea how to use it, but my mother still used it in the 70’s and 80’s to make some of my dolls’ clothing. At some point I’ll take a picture of it and put it here.
As for the other needle crafts, I never really learned any. For a brief period, when I was 14, I was able to knit, poorly. I don’t think I ever figured out how to crochet. I did have one of those embroidery hoops, and I have a vague memory of semi-embroidering something, but it was definitely not something I did more than once.
We took out the first “project” from the craft kit today – to do while Camila was at the pool. It’s a simple con purse, but I still wasn’t able to figure out how to make it. For example, the thread is very thick, it’s actually made of 5 strands of thread rolled together. Am I supposed to use the whole thick thread, or take it apart and just use one strand? I tried for 10 minutes to thread it in its thick consistency, but there is no way it can make it through the (big) eye of the needle. Separating it and using 1 strand didn’t work either – it wasn’t thick enough and it passed through the cloth. I ended up using 2 strands, double knotted. It did work, but it’s a pain in the butt to separate the strands. And then… it’s a coin purse. Shouldn’t the sides we sewn together? And yet there are no instructions on doing that, at least as far as I can see. Well, I’ll write more about all of that when I review the kit.
Well, I’m told that that my grandmother Zuni did indeed saw her daughter’s first communion dresses – but that she had made one dress, and kept modifying it for the different girls. Apparently a niece and a neighbor used it too. The dress was made from Zuni’s wedding gown. I still remember the wedding picture of Zuni and Tito that hang on the wall of their bedroom. There was a flower girl as well, and my mom had been jealous that it was not her š
I wish I had that picture as well.
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