Sewing Notions

Mama was a seamstress.  She made her own quilt by hand at 8 years old.  This was what the girls did. 

She made every dress I wore until I was almost 13 and detested the idea of anything homemade.  At that time, I'd rather have "hand-me-downs" or items from the "mission box," than wear "homemade" dresses.  I had the "notion" that wearing "homemade" meant we were "poor."

Mama and Daddy didn't have much money.  Daddy worked 2 jobs, in addition to being a full time pastor, and Mama worked to make ends meet.  But we never lacked for clothing nor did anyone else.

  One day when mama picked me up from school, she noticed a classmate of mine who wore a tattered dress.  She said to me, "Tell her tomorrow that she is going home with you.  Don't worry.  I'll inform her mother."  That was mama.  She saw a need and she met it.  She brought her home and put her in my tub.  Washed her hair.  Cleaned her up and put her on some of MY clothes that she had made.  That gave her two outfits for school.  By the next day, she had sewn together three more outfits so that she could have one for each day of the school week.

I saw this on my Peaches-to-Beaches excursion.  I've never seen a pink machine.  Anyway, Mama always had a Singer.  She loved it when Singer came out with zig-zag.  Anyone rememer that?

I look back now, saddened somewhat by my adolescent behavior and my notion, that we were "poor."  For in fact, we indeed were rich in the things that mattered most!

I learned alot from my mama...how to love...how to serve...how to give...how to have "heart."

Sorry to say, I never learned to sew.

My daughter got a sewing machine for Christmas.  Maybe she'll carry on the notion of sewing with the pride that her Nanny had.