This is my main hobby, I have been sewing for years now. My mother taught me how to sew when I was I think ten years old. She saw that I had her natural talent for sewing and that I had a genuine interest in it. Over the years I have used sewing machines, but to be honest I prefer using my hands to sew. Maybe if I had more space to where the machine could be out at all times instead of being stored away I might feel differently about using it. Anyway, the mian thing that I make are doll clothes. I have sold some over the years on ebay, and I have actually entered some original dolls in Fairs in my area. So, this is basically my main hobby, I find sewing to be relaxing and not a chore as some would.
I also like to sew and know exactly what you mean about it being relaxing. I just bought some fabric that is like a mock suede, i want to make myself a dress for this years ren festival. I was looking at some of the traditional dresses they had for sale, that although well made were rather costly. I managed to track down a nice pattern and have decided to make my own. It will be a black outer long dress that has a cinched up front to expose the Irish tartan plaid that is underneath. I will make the traditional Irish riding jacket as the next project. This year I will just have the tartan Shaw that matches the skirt. We always do the ren fest for the Highlander Festival. I do fair amount of hand sewing, mostly needlepoint or embroidery. I have gotten so I also add beads to some of the embroidery work. I also do quite a bit of loom knitting because- and this is the laziest reason ever, I do not have to count. I find it so very relaxing to just start sewing and let the day fade away. I usually do quite a bit of handwork over the winter just because I am inside. I am just about finished with a large afghan that I made of llama yarn. It is so soft and in my favorite Halloween hues. I did a few pair of socks this year, I can knock a pair out in a weekend. I cannot even begin to explain how happy it makes me to go to the store and touch all the yarns, I love the colors and textures. I have found as I have got older I notice occasionally my thumb on my right hand will lock from holding a piece to long. It is very painful. Mostly it happens with the needlepoint and canvas work I have to hold. Have you any experience with using holders? I know they have them for quilting so I think I might be able to find one that works.
I have never actually used holder myself because I don't do a whole lot of needlepoint or quilting. I have seen them advertised in catalogs though, and they do look like something that could of be of help in doing these crafts. I have crochet in the past, and am pretty good at it just like sewing. I guess I just have that talent that my mother and grandmother had for these crafts.
I learned to sew while in school and from my mother, who is very talented. I am not that great but I can make a simple pattern well enough to wear it. When my daughters were little I made most of their clothes to help with the budget. I have been wanting to purchase a sewing machine so that I can make a few new pieces lately. I like to go to the second hand store get something I can pull apart and remake it into something new and exciting.
I have always liked to sew. One of my foster parents started me on embroidery when I was six or seven. She gave me a bunch of colorful threads that had to be untangled, and an old shirt to use the pretty threads on. I didn't stay long with that family, but I remember spending hours play with the needles and threads. When the vets came back home in the late '60's, most were not encouraged to talk about their experiences, so when a family member asked me to put his memories on an old Army shirt, I did. I had never used a pattern before, and I had always just drawn out whatever looked good. I had been embroidering cowboy shirts this way since I was about twelve. When I finished the first war shirt, you couldn't see even a small piece of the original shirt. I did about seven war shirts by the mid '70's. Some of the designs were pretty awful, but the shirts seemed to mean so much to the servicemen.
I liked to sew doll clothes when I was a child because I loved watching my mom doing it. Later in my teens, I liked to help sewing some kitchen clothes she used to sale for an extra income in a time when it was not common that a woman would get a job out there. However she didn't teach me how, I was doing it only by inspiration, and the main challenge came shortly before I turned 30, having not clothes of my liking for sale. This was the late 80s and you might remember the kind of extravagant fashion then, so I thought to sew my own clothes and if not with the best, professional finishing, I was proud of the fashion I designed and sew to wear. Not longer sewing again since, mostly due to lack of time, and sewing needs to be with love and careful patience.
I'm not good at sewing, back years ago when I was a teenager they used to teach sewing in school, but I was never good at it. Everyone is good at different things.
My first sewing attempt was many years ago in a Home Economics class. I took the class mainly for the cooking part and had no real interest in sewing. I struggled through the process of making a lined dress and hated every minute of it. However: after I married and had children I started sewing for them and myself. In fact, all of my children's clothing was made by me and I really enjoyed it. I had a very tall husband (6'6") and it was very difficult to find shirts that had long enough tails and pants to fit him. So I started making shirts and even some of his pants. It was such a good feeling when I saw him put on something that I had made for him. I no longer sew due to issues with my hands and I really miss it.
I can sew well enough to make simple repairs, although I haven't done so lately, except to sew on buttons. My mother had a large sewing machine that she kept in what us kids referred to as the fake living room. It was a room that we only used when company was over, and even then only when it was someone special, like the pastor, a visiting missionary, or someone else who wasn't in the habit of coming over often. Since we didn't get very many visitors of that sort, the room was not used for anything. It was pretty much off limits to us. Mom called it the front room, but we had another living room that we actually used, where we could lay on the couch and spread toys out on the floor, etc. Mom had a sewing machine in the front room that looked like it had been purchased new, except that I don't remember ever seeing her sew with the machine. What sewing she did, she did by hand. Like the room itself, it was sort of a fake sewing machine; real but not used for anything but looks. Maybe it was there just for show, except that we weren't wealthy enough to buy new sewing machines that weren't going to be used. Maybe it was a gift that she never learned how to use. I don't know.
No doubt many homes have memorable rooms, for me is the "horror rooms" in my parents house, where everything not user or broken is still put into up to date, but in such a messy way that it seem you have entered into a place where horror lives... probably the horror to get it cleaned up and organized, LOL But, back on topic, my mother had a singer sewing machine with interchangeable discs to produce embroidery. I liked to play in the platform that this machine has (still exists!) as if it were a kind of swing or something because I was so young that easily could fit in that space She loved to sew our clothes and made the embroidery our school uniforms required, and even dresses for our dolls. However in the early 80s my father gave her a new singer machine with digital features that she ignored. This machine also exists and has never been used but once or twice, because she lost her interest in sewing.
I love to sew. It's one of the things I can do while I'm watching TV or chatting on the speaker phone with little to no effort. Lately all I have been doing is quilts and pillows though. I really can't afford to buy material for any pattern sewing. And it's cheaper to buy clothes now. When I quilt I can use found materials. Most all of my friends save their or their husband's shirts and jeans for me to cut up and use in my quilts. I think the quilts have more character with a variety of used materials anyway.
@Cheryl Torrie . I too used to quilt, but cannot now. This is what I used. It is in the colapsed upright position. Have you ever used one like it? I have crocheted quilts on it now, as that is all I use it for now. This picture is about 1/4 of the length of the quilting frame. Those are the instructions to the frame on top, because it get confusing to move after it is left in one posiyion for long periods.
I have never had a stretcher like yours Ina. I do have a quilt rack though, perhaps we should trade. When I am doing intricate quilting I use an embroidery ring that I have had for a hundred years. Well, maybe not that long but since I was a child anyway. Otherwise I just use lots of pins and hold the quilt on my lap. Do you miss quilting? Perhaps you could switch to machine quilting for the joy of the finished product? I would hate to think of someone wanting to create and not being able to do it. Hand quilting is a dying art. I understand it because the cost of materials are so high and it takes a long time to produce one quilt but I think we are missing out by not creating our own little works of art.
I have a portable sewing machine that I like to sew baby quilts and blankets on and small projects. The tops above are my latest project that I am working on for one of my sisters. She wanted to add lace to these tops and blue jean jacket that she bought...and since she doesn't know how to sew at all...I offered to do it for her. I actually had passed my portable sewing machine down to my youngest daughter but with two young children and a third on the way she does not have time to learn to sew at this time. And when I brought the machine to her while they lived in Texas she took me to the fabric shop and picked out patterns and fabric for things she wanted me to sew for her. Which I did. Somehow the machine ended back at my home and even though it is not in use constantly these days every once in awhile someone remembers I can sew simple things and calls on me to sew something for them. I don't really mind helping them out as long as I can do it at my own speed...and not theirs.
Well Done Babs. You have made a good job of them. I never learnt to use a sewing machine but my s-i-l who was courting my brother and was younger than me made my wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses. That was way back in 1949.