Me too! Especially since this generation didn’t grow up with home ec or any of that stuff, so most of them are self taught. My daughter learned from YT videos.
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None of my kids can sew. I don’t know if they can even do a hem.
My stepdad was a great seamstress. He repaired all his work clothes (he was an iron worker). He sewed bedding for the corner group my sister and I had in her bedroom. He even made the bolsters.
@aunt_bea my sister was two years younger and she had the option of taking wood shop. Did you go to a LA Unified school? I don’t think the schools my kids went to taught sewing even as an elective.
Yes my D learned from YT videos and also the tutorials on this website: https://inthefolds.com/ She created the pattern for her wedding dress by learning from those and other tutorials.
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I’m a sewer and a quilter. My mother studied home economics education in college (though I’m not sure she ever taught home ec). I learned to sew, knit and crochet in elementary school. In 7th grade I sewed a shift dress with waist darts in a Madras plaid fabric (and all the plaid lines matched). I made my own dress and crocheted a wrap for junior prom.
I took my very inexpensive Brother machine (bought with Green Stamps) to college where I sewed down jackets, sleeping bags and down comforter for DH and myself in my dorm room. In grad school I made draperies & some slipcovers for our student ghetto furnished apartment.
Post grad school, we bought our first house and started to have some money. Dh wanted a dog; I wanted a new sewing machine. I bought a midline, mechanical, all metal-geared Pfaff that I still have. That Pfaff was built tough. I taught years of Brownies how to sew on it and even they never broke anything.
My husband’s aunt had a treadle Singer that I lusted in my heart after. I hinted how much I wanted it, especially after I gave them a couple of hand made and hand quilted double bed quilts for the home. Aunt Sis said maybe, but one of her daughters claimed it. The daughter kept in it an outdoor shed where it rusted and her second husband sent it to the landfill after she died. That broke my heart.
I made all of the nursery decorations for my kids’s rooms. Sewed tons of little girl dresses. I used to set my machine on the kitchen counter and sewed standing up while watching the 3 years old play. Playmates would often come over in one outfit and go home wearing a new knit dress I’d sewed for them during the play date.
I taught myself to quilt because the dog jumped on the bed and ripped the quilt my paternal grandmother had given me. (She used old, wore out men’s shirts to make her quilt tops and the fabric was quite fragile.) I decided instead of repairing the quilt (which I did do), I would just make a new one. That first quilt–a queen sized quilt– took me 5 years to finish.
I took tailoring lessons and pattern making lessons at the local Joanne’s in the 80’s. I made Dh a custom-tailored wool herringbone sports coat he wore until his death 20 years later.
As my kids got older and self conscious about “home-made” clothing (instead “brand name”), I mostly did repairs and alterations.
Both girls took sewing classes at a Bernina dealer’s store. (My friend worked there and she taught the kids’ classes.) One has never sewn anything since (though she has asked me to repair, alter, embellish her thrift store finds.) The other loved Project Runway and did some sewing in high school, but not since. (Though they both suture–does that count as sewing?)
I have a Brother Innovis circa 2005 that I’m using. I wanted machine that could make nice automatic buttonholes. Right now it’s still packed up from my move last fall and I feel vaguely like I’ve had something amputated. I’m jonesing for my sewing space to get set up. I have a boxes full of quilt tops to quilt and fabric that need cutting. Plus there’s a whole new generation of little ones whose clothing & toys needs repairing & altering.
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Both my kids had a semester of Home Ec (called FACS) in middle school. It was a requirement. But neither are into any sort of crafting.
I had Home Ec in junior high as it was required for the girls (the boys took shop}. Seventh grade was sewing and we spent half a year embroidering an apron before actually getting to use a sewing machine. I hated it. Just not my thing.
No, just a bit further south- San Diego.
BTW, my FIL always appreciated my sewing skills. His father was a tailor, his mother a professional seamstress who worked in the garment industry (sweatshops) in NYC. My FIL learned to tailor working in his father’s dry cleaning shop growing up. He was always amused that he could sew, but wife, a literal farm girl, could not. He did all sewing, alterations and repairs in the household. When my FIL died, I inherited a 1950 sewing machine a huge wooden cabinet. It was older than I was, but had all its original parts–like a separate buttonholer attachment and extra bobbins. I donated the machine to a charity who gave to a needy family which used it to make and repair the children’s clothes.
Never took home ec; neither did either of my daughters.
This thread has inspired me. I’ve been wanting cushions for my porch bench, but I haven’t liked anything I’ve seen. I think I’ll look for a Sunbrella fabric that I like & make covers (I know where I can buy the cushions). That will give me a winter project to look forward to.
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My mom was a fabulous knitter. She learned growing up in France. She knit doll clothes, including Barbie outfits and made me and my brother and sister lots of gorgeous sweaters. It was a money saver back in the day, now it’s an investment.
She sewed also and sewed me many dresses for dances though she always preferred knitting.
She taught my D to knit and she is also a great knitter, learning a lot from YouTube. My sister also prefers knitting to sewing- she’s making me an awesome sweater and I’m making her a quilt 
Both my kids took a home ec course in middle school where they learned to sew and did some cooking.
@WayOutWestMom I like to hand quilt too! I made my first queen size quilt during the pandemic and it took me 3 years, I’ve got my 2nd top made and am about to start quilting it.
I have a Bernina machine that I got over 30 years ago and it is a work horse. I’ve had it serviced only 3 times.
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I got an email today from this shop that I have ordered fabric from before, they have more fashion fabric than quilting and they have samples for $2 apiece:
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I wish my daughters or son learned to sew because it’s just so useful. I imagine later they may take it up but it’s their choice so whatever they do I’m fine with.
When I did therapy at a residential school for troubled youth teens, the occupational therapist and I got to talking about sewing since we shared the same office.
We talked about knitting and crocheting, neither of which we were good at and we talked about sharing our skills with our students/patients and teaching them basics about sewing. These were some violent kids so we were super cautious when we approached the Principal.
She cautioned us about their behavior but the kids were really good about being respectful to us.
So we approached their counselors and the counselors wouldn’t agree. So we approached the students and we asked them “if we teach you some basic sewing skills, will you stay “on-task” long enough for us to teach you about the machines and how clothing is made?”.
No one had ever approached them about doing anything vocational that might seem interesting. And we didn’t know that. They were really excited and we forewarned them that their behaviors had to be appropriate with us and with their staff.
We asked them to approach their counselors and their counselors came up with a laundry list of behavioral tasks.
Kathi and I brought in our machines so that the kids could look at them and inspire some use of compliant behaviors.
We started with really simple lessons about how clothes is constructed and how people use patterns. We had four students who actually made it through the behavioral parts and we pre-cut a number of their first tasks. Gym bags.
They couldn’t wait for their therapy days! They were so interested in sewing! I got to use a lot of new language terms with them about sewing tasks and order of tasks. Kathi showed them (fine motor skills) how to use seam rippers to recycle jeans. They eventually realized that we would incorporate their IEP goals with sewing.
It was a really popular event and soon we had a long waiting list but the problem was that not everyone had IEP’s with speech or with occupational therapy.
They tried to bring in other people that could volunteer to teach some home economic skills. The problem was a lot of people weren’t trained to work with behavioral students. So once we left the program, the sewing program stopped. But from what I understand the four students requested a used sewing machine, so that they could continue to sew.
We were brought in by our County office to provide therapy. (These schools have a lack of professionals interested in working with them because of the extreme behavioral issues.) Kathi and I grew up in tough neighborhoods so we could physically take care of ourselves. We were “nominated” by our districts. I initially didn’t want to do it but it turned out really well, but they do rotate the “volunteer” therapists.
I think the sewing really calmed them down a lot! And I think they continued with it.
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Slightly off topic but also not, has anyone watched The Quilters on Netflix? Not at all the type of documentary I would normally watch but wow, was I drawn in and I was touched more than once when watching it.
Highly recommend.
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Yes, really enjoyed it!
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Neither of our kids use a sewing machine…but I taught both how to sew on buttons and snaps, and how to hem before they went to college, and sent with a teeny sewing kit…which both used, and were thankful to have.
I watched this too!
I was amazed at how skilled they became! I loved some of the patterns and colors of their quilts!
The calm and expertise in sewing brings a lot of change in individuals.
I think when they take a piece of cloth and they transform it into a usable item, it makes the person feel successful, productive, as well as, valued!
(We took pictures of our students “items” and posted them in the admin office.)
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My D at around 5 or 6 wanted a witch costume for Halloween and I offered to buy a pattern and let her sew it. Nope! Don’t need a pattern! I’m gonna lay on the floor on a piece of paper and you trace me! So we did. She made a lot of dolls and stuffed animals by hand and machine (which I did show her) but I don’t think she ever looked at any pattern or asked for help in her creations. No surprise she went to art school…
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A great source of cotton fabric is sheets—though it’s been harder to find cotton sheets at Ross—mostly microfiber and blends these days. I don’t like them nearly as much.
WalMart has some fabrics.
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Be cautious using sheets. Percale, used in sheets, has a denser weave than clothing fabrics or the fabrics used in many duvet covers and quilts. Sewing through percale will dull your sewing machine needles very quickly and lead to frequent broken threads. Hand stitching through sheets is just about impossible.
I used a flat bedsheet as a backing for a quilt once and regretted it. I ruined several machine needles quilting it. Plus sheets shrink differently in the wash vs less densely woven fabric so you get an uneven and bunched texture after several trip through the washer & dryer.
Using sheets for clothing is tricky because the more tightly woven fabric doesn’t “hang” the same as regular cotton fabric.
Flannel sheets might work, depending on the project, but flannel on the bolt is less expensive than a new flannel sheet or two.
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BTW, documentarian Ken Burn is a quilt collector. He has one of the largest private quilt collections in the US.
The PBS series, Craft in America, has episode about contemporary American quilting. Really very interesting. Ken Burns shows off some his quilts at an exhibit at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.
https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/series-media/nebraska-stories-video/season-9-video-15886/the-quilts-of-ken-burns-50006035/
Wow—I never knew these things about using sheets. I’m not as adept a sewer.