Thanks, Donna!
It was dentist and errand day today – once again the Mayo OR chipped a front tooth. No, I’m not filing a claim – it’s the money or the paperwork – I’m not going to do all that paperwork.
Remember the crazy cat lady from California who drove to Country Threads to adopt my neighbor’s two kittens? Turns out one has paralyzed back legs. Here’s Biscuit and Pumpkin!
These are two beloved cats!
I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading your stories about learning to sew. I don’t think I’ve even gotten them all read yet – and I’m hoping more of you will add your early sewing experiences with all of us. Let’s let this reader question ride for a few more days so others can leave a comment.
How and when did you learn to sew/quilt? Many of you named 4-H like I did but so many had mothers and grandmothers who taught you. Remember my mom wanted to teach me to golf, not sew. Ha!
I’m sad about the Fever game tonight – they didn’t play well and LVA did – opposite of the first game.
Tell me your sewing/quilting story!
Good Night!
I learned to sew in 6th grade; every child had to take 1/2 a year of home ec and 1/2 a year of shop. I grew up on a small farm, so I was more comfortable with shop than home ec stuff. My mom had a singer, and she made us all clothes over the years, but we weren’t allowed to touch her machine. When I was in 11th grade I made a suit jacket for my prom date and we have been married 49 years. He bought me a Viking sewing machine as a wedding gift that had cams, and was all metal insides. I still own it and it sews like a dream. I taught both of our kids how to sew on it and they can manage to repair a hem, sew on a button and do hems. It served them well in the Marine Corp to be able to sew on buttons properly and badges. Our son once had to demonstrate to his platoon how to properly attach buttons to a Marine uniform. He wrote us while in boot camp and explained how I got him in trouble because he knew how to do it like a real tailor, what a hoot. We gave both of our kids Pfaff machines when they graduated college, and they both use them to this day. I didn’t get serious about quilting until our kids left home and there was lots of empty time on my hands. I have loved it ever since. Our new home has 550 sq feet of studio for my textile collection and my machines. My dad made sure that I got his mother treadle machine which I still use and also taught my kids to use when they were younger. They argue over who gets it after me. I often wonder what I would of chosen to do with my older self if I hadn’t gone down the quilting path. I really enjoyed reading all the answers from everyone on how your journey started. Great question Mary
Kim – yes, this was a great question and I, too, have loved reading all the answers! We’re all more alike than different.
Oh, I love these “Learning to Sew” stories! My mother had had enough of sewing by the time I came along, cutting down adult garments to make children’s clothes during the war, but she did teach me to embroider. At about age 5 I was embroidering on dish towels. I’m sure they were lovely. My first sewing box was an old tin candy box with odds and ends of Coats & Clark floss and even some silk threads. By age 7 I had worked my way up to sewing baby doll clothes by hand, sitting in a tent made with bedspreads pinned to the clothesline. Then it was on to sewing for those little 7″-8″ fashion dolls from the dime store. My grandmother made my school dresses and always sent a few pieces of the “goods” and some trims along with them, so I had lots of fabrics to practice on. The only needle skill I would learn in Girl Scouts was darning socks which I have refused to do for decades!
My sister gave me a larger fashion doll for Christmas when I was 10 with a whole wardrobe she had sewn, and I HAD to learn how to sew on a machine like that! She taught me to thread Mom’s old machine, how to fill the bobbin and slide it in the shuttle, sew a straight seam by following a line drawn on paper. Soon, like so many others, I learned by doing, reading a pattern, cutting, sewing, pressing. Between majors in college, I worked in a fabric store and while most of my friends were saving to buy a cool car, I was saving to buy a sewing machine! My mother’s old long-bobbin/shuttle machine still worked and it did sew in reverse (quite the magic in its day), but I really wanted a zig-zag machine and in 1968, the Singer Stylist 478 was SO COOL! It wasn’t black. It was white! And it came in a cabinet. And it had round bobbins. And it had 20 cams that would make fancy stitches. And it had a light.
That machine stitched gift items, curtains with pink and orange flowers and lime green leaves (so trendy and went so well with the orange matchstick blinds in my room), a new cover for a quilt that had seen better days, clothes for me (including my wedding dress), a double-knit sport coat and pants for my husband (Thank you to UW Extension Tailoring with Knits class, but never again!), more curtains and more home dec. projects, and in 1975 my first real quilt, a Rail Fence I called Jewel Box because it had such bright colors.
Next up, costumes for the 1976 Bi-Centennial, then baby quilts for my nieces’ children and clothes for ours, quilts for them as they grew into big kid beds, an Irish Chain quilt, years of making formal draperies and curtains for a decorating department, a kaleidoscope quilt, a Stack-N-Whack retreat with Klaudeen Hansen, and I was hooked. Plus, I finally figured out that quilts did not have to be bed size to be a real quilt!
In time our daughter learned to sew to make blankets for her model horses. Our son learned to sew to make gear bags for his roller blades and other important stuff, and as a result, the Stylist was in need of repair. I should mention that my dad replaced the contacts in the foot pedal with a scrap of copper and my husband did the same thing years later. Mom always said I sewed like my Nana…pedal to the metal!
I did have it fixed, but while it was away from home, I thought about this quilting hobby of mine. If I was going to continue, perhaps I should consider a new machine with some of the bells and whistles that are now common–A knee lever to lift the presser foot, auto needle threader, needle up/down button, built-in thread cutter, needle L/R of center. Not that I had to have any of that, but…before long, a Janome Memory Craft 6500 (and a Janome Gem for all those quilting classes I longed to take) came home with me. That was in 2004, and we have been best friends ever since. I named the Janome ‘Linda’ in memory of my sister who taught me to sew by machine.
The Gem found its way to my daughter’s house to hem jeans and it never came back. Rumor has it that she used it to stitch signatures for the books she crafted. Our son bought his own machine and made masks during Covid and gave them to anyone who wanted them. I heard the fabric with flames was popular.
When I retired, I bought a lightweight Brother to take to those quilt classes. I’m using it now on the kitchen table to piece quilt tops for LWR and avoiding too many trips downstairs to my quilt corner. I won’t be buying another new sewing machine, but I have toyed with the idea of finding a long-bobbin machine like my mother’s just to round out the collection.
And that is the story of how Kris in WI learned to sew and quilt. Thanks for listening!
I wish the blog had a “like” button like Facebook!! This is a great story, Kris! Both of my kids learned to sew, too, but somehow they always still bring me the mending that they want done! I’m looking forward to teaching my granddaughter next!
Kris – I loved listening to your quilting story! Hasn’t this been just so fun to hear everyone’s stories?
Sewing has been part of my life as long as I can remember. My mother sewed all of my clothing as well as hers. My first venture was cutting holes in the tops of socks to make doll clothes – no sewing though. Ha! Then gradually started just sewing straight lines on fabric. Junior high was home ec classes and I was off and running. I began to make my own clothes and would stop on my way home from school at the JC Penney store and buy a piece of fabric and a zipper and make a ‘pant skirt ‘ for school the next day. I made my prom dress, several bridesmaid dresses and also my wedding dress. When my children were born, I made most of their clothing too. Quilting came about when our very kind new high school home ec teacher couldn’t challenge us with clothing construction any longer so suggested other things. We knitted and crocheted and then I pieced a quilt totally by hand! It was only tied, but I pieced it. As time went on after high school, I pieced quilts out of double knit scraps – so heavy and never wore out! Then I finally got into piecing cotton quilts and loved it as well as the hand quilting. I can no longer hand quilt, so do it either on my machine or with my embroidery machine. I’ve always got some sort of project waiting for me.
My aunt was a seamstress, she made clothes not quilts. she showed me how to sew by hand, would never let me touch her sewing machine, so when I went to junior high we had sewing class and I learned to use a sewing machine, my grandmother has a machine so I went home and used hers every day, and learned to sew. I always loved quilts but did not know how to make them. For my first quilt I sewed squares together and then attached them to a comforter, I looked at quilts every time I saw one and studied them and started making them from sight, then I found a book that taught me more, and then some more and tv shows and magazines and got better from there.
Hello Mary, and everyone! Soybean harvest is in full swing! The no-see-ums and Asian beetles are in full swing! Ugh! They are so miserable I don’t even want to go outside!
I’m like Jo, I think I told you about my sewing history. Quilting started in 1983.
Looks like the 10 day forecast is warm!
Joy – we’re having such lovely weather and can’t even be outside because of those same bugs!
I had hand me down clothes from my cousin who was 2 years older and much larger than I. I started 4H in order to make clothes that fit me. My advisor taught me to sew. My mom did not sew but had an old singer. I took Home Ec as a freshman and my teacher was a stickler for everything perfect and her way. I left home ec and went for math and science classes – At that time girls did not do that so there were only 3 of us girls with the rest boys. I left home at 17 and went to college. Much later after marriage and 3 kids I graduated and got a job back in my home town. I went to church and saw the older ladies hand quilting. I fell in love with quilts right then. My elderly neighbor taught me how to make quilts …. no rotary cutter back then. The rest if history with me going to quilt camp at Country Threads and owing a quilt shop eventually.
Polly – you are an excellent quilter! Country Threads is pre – rotary cutter, too! Made my first Trip quilt with a shiny new Gingher shears / thank God someone invented the rotary cutter
My Grandmother lived with us so I learned to sew on her treadle. I loved it! She worked in a garment factory and sewed mostly aprons, sunbonnets, and utility quilts. My sister had a Featherweight and when I was 8, she sewed my junior bridesmaids dress for her wedding while I cut circles out of scraps for one of my dolls. (remember the kind they used to put on the front of wedding cars, or was that just a PA thing?) When we were in 8th grade, a friend & I made sheath dresses on my sister’s borrowed Featherweight. No Home Economics in HS. (two languages instead) I graduated to curtains and double knit maternity clothes after I married. I bought a multi-stitch Kenmore and graduated to children’s coats, dresses, hats, skirts, Raggedy Ann dolls, lined drapes, more curtains, and even re-upholstered a swivel rocker in plaid. (it was gaudy but inexpensive fabric at the Vanity Fair Outlets in Reading, PA.) In 1984, a friend and took at quilt class based on Georgia Bonesteel’s lap quilt method. I was hooked; my friend was once and done! lol
You’d think that having a mother who was a tailor that I learned to sew from her – nope! She was always working and sewing for her was not a hobby. I took a garment making class at the local Singer (stretch & sew?) shop. I was in high school at the time. Made an empire waisted lime green dotted Swiss cotton dress with short puff sleeves. All the rage at the time. I wish I could see that dress today. Never made another real garment (just Halloween costumes) and now it’s all machine quilt making. When neighbors ask for a clothing repair job I tell them “I only do flat”.
Gloria – I only do flat! I love it and going to use it!!!
I have told lots of people I only do flat too, never could do garments that looked good enough to wear. Just sticking to flat, really enjoy the piecing & binding most.
My longarm quilter turned friend and I were just talking about how we each learned to sew and both of us remember learning in Girl Scouts (sewing badge) and both of us made simple aprons, which we both still have! I would have been in 4th or 5th grade. I always say my Grandma was the one who taught me to sew, probably when I was about 6. We were all gathered at my uncle’s hobby farm near River Falls, WI and it ended up being a rainy weekend so we were all stuck in our pop-up camper. To keep the kids occupied, Grandma taught us to make little outfits for our Liddle Kiddle dolls (they were about 4″ tall dolls). I still have those first attempts and the dolls they fit! Grandma must have been working on a quilt to have had fabric and needles with her on that trip. I ended up taking every junior high and high school sewing class available and then went on to get my degree in Clothing, Textiles and Design from the University of Minnesota. I turned to quilting in the early 90’s. Not one to start with a simple project, I decided to make a quilt large enough to be like a bedspread for a queen-sized bed–long enough to cover pillows and wide enough to drop down and cover the mattress all the way around. This was before the advent of the rotary cutter, so everything was cut with templates and scissors. I made an Amish “cactus basket”, a rather difficult pattern with LOTS of points! And the plan was to hand quilt it. I did not have a frame so tried to do the quilting on a big wooden hoop. I had an infant son and a burgeoning home business. Needless to say, I eventually had a church group finish the quilting for me. I don’t do projects that large any longer and everything gets quilted on a longarm!! The things we learn through life, eh?
My mom did a lot of garment construction for my 5 sisters and I. I remember helping her square up the fabric when I was maybe 5. She showed me how to lay out the pattern on the fabric. My oldest sister, 13 years older, was quilting in her early years of marriage. She encouraged me to make a quilt with her using all my mom’s scraps from the clothing. The pattern was a hexagon and I felt so accomplished when I was done. I was a senior in high school. I also took home ec and everyone was choosing aprons for their project. I chose a lined wool jacket! Turned out great and I got an A! I’ve been quilting for about 45 years
I began trying to sew as a preschooler—maybe because my mother and her friends met occasionally to do handwork — embroidery, knitting or crocheting. I even tried the treadle machine we had and put the needle thru my thumb! When I was in 7th grade my sister and I taught my best friend to sew and she and I made matching outfits we would wear to school on the same day. About 20 years ago my sister’s church began a quilt ministry. Seeing what they did, I realized I wanted to do that so I joined my church’s group and enjoy the quilting and friendships I’ve made. Look forward to your blog each day. Thank you for writing it.
I learned to sew at Oregon State University where I took beginning sewing 101. And, 101 it was not!!! Every girl in the class was a very accomplished sewist and I had rarely held a needle. We made a dress. I got a D. But, oddly enough, that experience didn’t stop me. I was hooked. Now I dreamed of owning my own sewing machine and finally got one about 5 years after we were married. A Viking top of the line, old blue, blue, blue. That’s what the girls at the fabric shop called those old Vikings. Anyway, long story short, I loved sewing. I took lots of classes, made lots of clothes for my girls and myself. Then, when I was in my 50’s, I discovered quilting. Turned the corner and never looked back. I love pieceing and hand applique.
4-H sewing was not my forte – dropped out early! High School Home Ec. we had to make a dress and wear it 3 times by the end of the semester to receive a grade – I wore it the last 3 days of school and never again! Married a man whose mother and sisters all sewed, he said if I learned to sew he would buy me a sewing machine – took a class and learned how to sew a “pant suit” for myself. Got the sewing machine and ended up sewing all his long sleeved dress shirts – buttons, collar and all! Sewed several dresses for our daughter when she came along. A friend and I took a beginners quilting class – didn’t realize it was to make a “miniature” quilt! That was in 1991. I have made lots of quilts in all sizes over the years and that’s what I am doing here in my retirement years!
My mom taught me to sew when I was about 8. My first sewing projects were Barbie doll clothes. I look back and am amazed that I enjoy sewing as much as I do🤭. Several years later I joined 4-H and started sewing my own clothes. Then there was high school home ec and we had to make a blouse and a matching box pleated skirt….ugly!! The worst was we had to wear them to school after they were finished and model them in class!! I made my first quilt when I was expecting our first baby…47 years ago…now I’ll be making his son a tshirt quilt for graduation later this year. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my quilting journey from pieced, appliqué both machine and handmade paper piecing and everything in between. I’ve passed this wonderful form of art down to my daughters and now one granddaughter.
I love reading these stories. My husband and I upholstered a sofa and love seat ourselves after we learned how expensive it would be to have it done professionally. I always told myself I “earned” the Kenmore we bought to do the job. Ha! By then I was sewing my daughter’s clothes and learning how to do alerations. Remember Frostline kits. I made a down vest for my husband. I was game for anything
that involving the needlearts. And I was always trying to cook from scratch. I had some basic education from HomeEc in Jr high school, but mostly I learned from books and magazines.
Hi Mary —
I learned to sew in home ec class in junior high school… I made pajamas out of white and hot pink flannel… oh they were horrible… puckers, gaps, I think I even left a pin in them somewhere. Even thought they were so horrible, I loved it! My Mom made many of my clothes so there was always fabric around…I messed around with all the leftovers… I worked at Stretch and Sew all throughout high school. I sew a bit of everything these days…. haven’t bought a purse or wallet in years or a coat or jacket…. lol…
Kris,
I still have all my Stretch and Sew class materials from the many classes I took at our local store. I loved making the tee shirts and pjs for my children. Even did lingerie for awhile.
After reading each comment, it doesn’t appear many of us took quilting classes as much as we self taught ourselves to quilt. But Stretch and Sew classes were addictive to me taking as many as I could and learn all I could about garment making with knits.
Hey Kathy! Stretch and Sew was such a unique and wonderful experience… addictive for sure. I still have my patterns as well… I don’t know about you but the classes gave me permission to make those things that most people didn’t… lingerie, bathing suits, etc…. I’m so glad you have such fond memories of Stretch and Sew….me, too!
Reading all the comments is so heartwarming how sewing has enriched our lives and those of our past and present loved ones. You’ve certainly brought up a subject Mary many can comment on with such interesting words to read.
When my twin sister and I were 3 years old our mum showed us how to sew with brown wool and blunt tipped needles and fabric like burlap, but much softer. She had us make two rows of stitches about 3 inches apart, then gathered the material along those threads. One went round the neck of our dolls, the other round their waist, tied in the back. 2 little cuts for arm holes made a very basic dress. We were hooked, and made many dresses for our dolls like that; they looked like the Flintstone family, but we were 3 and thought it was wonderful. It didn’t take long to graduate to proper needle and thread and more ambitious projects. For our 5th birthday we each received a sewing basket with a thimble that Mum patiently taught us to use. And there were 3 half yards of fabric in the baskets. I don’t think any present has made us happier. We’re still sewing 62 years later, with hundreds of quilts made along the way. Now we’re teaching our granddaughters to sew, passing on the knowledge. We have to have someone to leave the stash to.
I learned to sew in my first home economics class when we made a basic summer blouse. I was hooked!! We had great Singer machines and one treadle machine (no one wanted to sew on it but me!!) That treadle was for sale, so my Dad bought it for me. It is still in my house, upstairs in my sewing area. I love it! So many memories !!
Yes, I got a new Singer electric sometime later!!!
Hello!
Like you, I learned to sew in 4-H, a neighbor lady started the group with 6 girls, in two years time the group grew to 20. Of the original group 4 of us still get together regularly for a sit and stitch.
Over the years I have made my own clothes as well as prom dresses and clothes for our kids. Now I mostly quilt and make placemats.
My Mom never learned to sew as a young girl. When I was in my twenties she showed interest in learning so we worked together to make her first quilt at 60.
Our older sister had sewing in high school, so our parents bought a singer sewing machine in the cabinet. Ourgrandmother sewed, quilts. She also made us Easter outfits every year. I took a half a year sewing class just for an easy credit my senior year. The teacher kept telling me I wasn’t a thing like my two older sisters. But I learned to sew from this teacher. The thing was if you were sewing a seam on a dress, and your bobbin ran out in the middle of the seam she made you take the whole seam out, because she said that would be the weakest part. By the time I finished that class, I made two prom dresses one for myself one for our cousin. And I didn’t sew until a couple years later I did make some clothes. Then I got into making artist teddy bears. After that, I didn’t so much at all. My sister Linda gave me a throw for Christmas one year she had made. I said I could do that. So that spring I started quilting that has been over 16 years ago.
I started “sewing” by cutting out fabrics for my clothes. My mother hated that part and I couldn’t get her to make something unless I cut it out. Looking back now, maybe she was trying to teach me something?? Anyway she was an excellent seamstress because she took many classes at the city college. I didn’t learn until I was married and then forced myself to sew clothing (self-taught). In 1985 I took a beginner class in quilting. She taught us a lot; how to piece, applique and quilt! I learned a lot in that $25 class! I haven’t made many clothes in the last few years but I think I will again since I never find anything I like at the store.
I taught myself how to make quilts, but before that I “learned” how to make an apron in the 7th grade–I am 82 now, so you do the math 🙂 I also taught myself to knit, crochet, embroider, needlepoint, etc.
The quilting bug captured me totally in 1970 and I never looked back
I love your blog, even though I don’t often reply
This sound exactly like my experience. Apron in 7th grade home ec. I am also 82. Went to my grandmothers house (family farm) and she gave me some fabric to make another one on her featherweight. Still have the aprons and the featherweight!!
Dorothy – well, I’m glad you commented on this subject! See how much fun it is when readers leave a comment and explain their lives? I love it!!
Loved the story about Sally Babcock and her butter pat plates……we’re good friends of Sally and sister Susan…… both dinosaurs like me and you Mary! Have never seen so many butter dishes in one place !🥰. I started sewing patchwork after Jinny Breyer won that Family Circle contest with her star quilt!! I was doing a needlepoint of Mickey Mouse and a flag for the 1976 Centennial! I put that needlepoint down…… and never looked back…… I was hooked!……. And the rest is history! I met Alice Berg in 1982,,,,, started our quilt guild and in 1988 Little Quilts was born!!!!!😉🥰🇺🇸
I’m late 60’s and learned to sew in summer school after 9th grade…Mrs. Shepherd, whose son was the same age as me at the same school. I made a pair of shorts, with a zipper and eyelet trim around the legs and a matching cropped top.
I started reading quilt blogs and watching YouTube videos around 2009. I am completely self-taught. There are some things I don’t do such as hand binding. applique, or EPP…life is too short, and my quilts all go out to a longarm quilter.