A shout out to My Mom!

In my Capstone class we have to write an essay every week. This week's was about tools passed down from one generation to the next.........

The tool that I have learned to use is a sewing machine. Just this last weekend I put that skill to use, sewing new dresses for my daughters. I have a family tradition that has been passed down for generations. That tradition is getting a new dress on Easter. A homemade dress is preferred. Also if there are multiple girls, their dresses should match. I have four sisters and every year just before Easter my mom would be sewing dresses for me and my sisters. I was talking to my sister last Thursday and jokingly asked her if she had her sewing done for Easter. Followed by me saying that I didn’t think I was going to do it this year. That thought only lasted a day. The next day, Friday, I started cutting fabric to start sewing. It is as if I have to do it, no matter what.

This is a picture of a pattern piece, burned to pieces, because I had
to make dresses no matter what. I started on Friday, and finished
Saturday night, 3 Dresses. This happened late Saturday night while cutting the
piece out for the bottom ruffle. A candle was burning on the counter top,
and caught the pattern piece when I lifted up to find the scissors.

As a child I can remember playing at my mom’s feet as she would sew for hours making pretty things for me to wear. When I was tired or fussy, she would hold me in her lap and continue to sew. Telling me not to touch the needle, because it would bite me. The sewing machine was a tool that made pretty things, but not for children to touch. My mom told me stories of when she was a girl how she and her sisters would make their own dresses to wear to school. My mom learned to sew from her mother, my grandmother. My grandmother used to tell my mom, that she was born before her time, because she would create new patterns that would be in fashion the next year. When my sisters and I were leaving home, the one thing that my mom made sure we had was a sewing machine. It seems kind of a silly thing to send your daughters out into the world with. We have enjoyed having that skill, and having the tool to use that skill.

I have not passed it onto my daughters yet, because they are too little. I have found myself picking them up on my lap while I sew and telling them not to touch the needle because it will bite them.

The finished Beauties! Thanks Mom!