How I Learned to Sew

My mother hates to sew. That's where my sewing story begins, because for as long as I can remember, I've wanted to learn to sew and embroider (I used to call this "sewing pictures". I'd always ask my mom and sisters to show me how to "sew pictures"). I'd ask for the toy sewing machines out of the Sears catalog every year at Christmas. I would ask my mom to teach me to sew. She'd always tell me she didn't know how.I never actually believed her because she could hem our pants and sew on buttons. I figured this meant she'd learned to sew. I believe her now, even though I know she learned to sew. I believe her because I'm pretty sure learning to sew was such a hard thing for her that she didn't enjoy one bit that she's blocked all memories of actually sewing and only remembers the frustration she had.

I wasn't completely deprived though, I did learn to embroider, and I was always making plastic canvas things, or friendship bracelets. I made beaded things, and clay things. I even sewed things by hand sometimes, like ric rac on the bottom of my jeans or a denim skirt made from cut open jeans. I just never learned to sew with a pattern or even use a sewing machine.

Then, the summer I was nineteen, between Sophomore and Junior years in college, I decided I had to learn to sew. I went to Walmart and bought a very basic sewing machine. My husband was with me at the time. We were just dating then, and he'd come to visit because I was leaving to spend the summer in CA with my sister, Angie.

I brought it home and started setting it up. That was when I learned my mom was very serious about not liking to sew. "I have no idea. Don't ask me. I'm not going near that thing." Seriously, she's got a sewing phobia. So, I went to my grandma.

Grandma is an excellent seamstress. She sewed clothes for seven kids. And a million baby dolls and Barbie dolls. She'd sew matching sister dresses for my aunts and mom and tailored wool winter coats. My grandma definitely knows her way around a sewing machine.

So I went over there and asked grandma to teach me to sew. "Oh, it's not hard," she said, "you just have to follow the instructions in the pattern. Get a pattern for a skirt and follow the instructions. I'll answer your questions if you have any." She's my grandma, I have to believe her. Plus, I'm the kind of person who believes you can learn to do just about anything with the right book.

I was obviously on my own for the most part with this endeavor, so I devised a plan. First, I wanted to learn to use the machine its self, so I thought I'd start with a bunch of straight lines. I cut apart all of my jeans from high school, and some of my dad's old jeans too. I made a cardboard square and started tracing. I used a black Sharpie marker to trace onto the back of the denim. Yes, I wince to hear that now too.

I ended up with a huge stack of squares. I took them outside and laid them on the grass to plan how I wanted the pattern, since there were tan and dark blue and light blue. Then I sewed and I sewed. And I called my grandma to see if I should press the seams open. She said yes. (She's a clothing sewer, not a quilter.) So, I pressed and I pressed. And I burned myself. I'd never used an iron as much in my life. That's how I learned that there's almost as much pressing in sewing as there is sewing.

In the end, I had a huge heavy denim quilt top. I did put it together with batting and lining, but I never did tie it. It was just too big, and I was too inexperienced to know how. Anyway, I wanted to sew clothes, not quilts. I do remember that my dad was pretty surprised and impressed that I'd finished something so big. I've never been known for my ability to finish projects in a timely manner. I still have the quilt top, but it's since been taken apart to make throw pillows

So, that summer, I packed up my new sewing machine and headed off to California to see the Pacific Ocean, work at a mall, see my sister get pregnanter and pregnanter, and learn to sew. I picked things up along the way, like the time at JoAnn fabrics that a nice woman explained to me that I should never pay more than a dollar or two for a pattern, that's how often they go on sale.

And it turned out my grandma was right. All I had to do was read the pattern instructions. It really is as simple and as complicated as that. It can be like a foreign language, and I'd read them over and over and over again for a few hours till they made sense, but it worked. And I learned to sew, and I learned more things from books and even more from a few sewing websites (mostly historical costuming, but man can those reenactors sew!).

I fell in love with sewing. For one thing, I finished projects when I sewed, and that was actually kind of new to me. For another, I had a lot of encouragement. My mom was glad to see me enjoying something she'd never understood, my sister helped me through my first projects and came up with some new things I wasn't exactly ready for (a maternity dress for her to wear to her husband's graduation) but had the good humor to help me cover my mistakes and wore them proudly. My dad and my boyfriend (Ben) both thought it was neat that I wanted to learn to sew. My little brother started coming up with a never ending string of challenging and interesting projects for me to make for him. My other sister, Donna, asked for my help learning to complete her projects. And my grandma was proud of me and told me all about the Barbie clothes and the tailored winter coats.

Learning to sew has been worth every frustration. Like the time Angie and I learned that a pattern really means it when it says stretch knits only. Or the time I figured I could adjust a dress to fit my very pregnant sister by just moving it over and making the whole thing two inches wider across the front and the back, and we ended up making a very sophisticated scarf to hide the gaping neckline. Right up to the time about six months ago that I actually managed to have the sewing machine needle go right through my finger. No matter how hard or completely simple a project is, when I'm holding the finished project, there's always a sense of accomplishment and happiness that I've never found anywhere else.