quilter1

My Mom taught me to sew on her old black Singer (wish I had that now).She used to make me Barbie dresses and knitted sweaters for them. I still have an argyle sweater that she made for my Barbie- so tiny. I made my graduation dress for my grade 8 graduation and most of my clothes too. I started quilting when my eldest son was a baby, the church up the street had a program to teach quilting and they looked after the babies for free. That was 24 years ago and I haven't looked back. I still like to do cross stitch too. Happy moments come when there is a needle in my hand.

Treasureit

I bet it was sewing a button on as a child. My mother made a lot of our clothes until I was in Jr. Hi...then I didn't want them. I did make a suit for my sisters wedding with my mothers help...that was age 15 I think.

WTxRed

I learned to embroidery probably around 6 or 7 (mid 1960's) and started sewing on a machine at 8 and made clothes, pillows, purses, craft items for a few decades , hand darned oops repaired items for as far back as i could remember... I also remember being 8 and ironing sheets and pillowcases so the creases were just 'so' on the bed... got paid a quarter for a dozen. Great memories!

GailG

My mom always sewed our clothes, including clothes for our dolls. She "spruced up" coats and dresses that we were outgrowing by adding collars, and by adding trim to faded hemlines when the hems were dropped down, etc, etc etc. At six (in 1946) I watched my aunt doing embroidering. She threaded a needle for me and gave me a stamped dresser scarf to work on. Over the years I sat next to the machine as my mom sewed. The summer before I entered seventh grade, she was sewing away on a baby layette for the baby that was on the way. I asked her to make me a new sundress. She sent me to the general merchandise store across the street and told me to ask my aunt to help me find a pattern and fabric. When I got back, she helped me place the fabric. I cut it and sewed it under her watchful eye. And the rest is history. The quilting didn't start until '95 when I took part in a block swap at work.

jcrow

I remember the day Kennedy was shot. I was in Catholic school and they let us out early. I came home and my mom was sewing on her Singer and crying and had the TV on. I was in fourth grade. She was teaching me how to sew clothes at that time. Very basic clothes. Skirts with elastic in the waist. I couldn't wear them to school as we had to wear school uniforms but I could wear them to church. She died young and I got her sewing machine and made my kids their clothes for years while they were little. I traded it in (stupid) for a Viking Huskavarna 300 and in 1992 took my first quilt class. Never sewed clothes after that. Been quilting ever since, but only really into quilting the last four years. Before I dabbled. I hate to mend clothes! Rather throw them away and buy new. I mended clothes for too many years. I have an aversion to mending clothes now! Ughhhhh!!!!!!

JustAbitCrazy

When I was in elementary school I begged for fabric scraps and needle and thread, and made Barbie doll clothes by hand, no pattern. Just figured out the basics from looking at my clothes and stitched the doll's items by hand. Mom only sewed when she had to make curtains or such. She always hated to sew. Not sure where my love of sewing originated...

petthefabric

Don't remember all the details, but by 9 y/o I was sewing on a machine to make Barbie doll cloths. I didn't really play with dolls, just wanted to dress them. By that time I'd experienced hand embroidery, crochet, knitting. One DGM was from Missouri and sewed cloths for all her GC (14) and quilted. She made a wedding quilt for the oldest before she died, I was the last one to receive a quilt. My mom had me in the kitchen and I trussed a turkey with a needle.

Nammie to 7

My Mom would draw pictures of apples on a cloth so I could embroider them when I was 5 or 6 years old. I always loved fabric and sewing. In 7th grade I took home ec and started sewing all my own clothes. I just brought my Mom's singer sewing machine home - it was what I learned to sew on. It was like greeting an old friend! Now I sew on a new Bernina 830. Since I retired I sew practically every day - when I don't get to sew for a couple of days I get crabby!!

charsuewilson

I just found some practice cardboard cutouts with holes that would be the first things that I put a needle into. Then my mother taught me embroidery, but i didn't do too much. I started quilting and sewing about the same time. Mom taught me some sewing and I took sewing in school, and my grandmother showed me how to hand sew quilt blocks.

We were allowed one store-bought outfit a year. Mom made the rest of our clothes. Not like today's kids, who require a new outfit for the whole first week of class. We wore older stuff, too.

tessagin

I started with the paper dolls that had the holes on the sides of the clothes to run the cotton threads (used for tatting and crocheting) that came in a small box. My grandmother crocheted and tatted and taught my cousins and I how to crochet and tat. My grandmother on my mother's side tried to show me how to use her treadle. Could never get the treadle to work forward. I was always backstitching or something. People got impatient with me though. Taught myself how to embroider. just seemed so much easier. If I lost a pattern I would trace an object onto the material. I tried but oh well. No I'm doing it my way.