My mother was an incredible seamstress. I had no idea how good she was when I was little. She could make a dress in a day, but since no-one else around us seemed to even use a sewing machine, I had no way to process this achievement and compare it to others.
I do now.
That was an amazing achievement. Pin. Cut out. Sew. Hem by hand.
Kids take their own environment for granted. They don’t really measure it against other environments, until later on. For example, last time I scrambled eggs for my visiting grandchildren I tossed eight or ten eggshells in the sink and then moved them to the garbage can. The watching seven-year old said that his dad moves the trash can up so he can skip a step in this eggshell disposal process. The kid wasn’t telling me I was inefficient, he was just explaining how it was done for ten eggs, because he understood that I didn’t usually have eight or ten eggshells to clean up. He wasn’t judging my overall action.
But I judged me. Of course it’s more efficient to go straight for the trash can, for one egg or for ten.
As an adult I understood first, that the tell with respect to my sewing mother was that no-one else used a sewing machine. That made her stand out. Now that I’ve been doing more sewing and more thinking I’ve realized that she was a bit of a Picasso.
He’s famous, in part, for knowing the rules of drawing and then breaking them to get what he wanted.
My mother knew the sewing rules and then used them for her own purposes. She knew which rules to bend to make the sewing move more quickly. She knew how to get the most out of a given bit of fabric. She made garments that were wearable and she made lots of them. She made a wedding outfit when she had no money at all. hand sewn buttonholes. Cute pockets.
When we were little she did sewed because she had to for fiscal survival. Then she had grandchildren and she did it for love. (She also ironed a lot more than we do…)
Hand crocheted lace.
Hand smocking.
Thanks Mom.
(Here’s some Picasso. Links because he’s not in the public domain. Two pictures that show recognizable people and one that doesn’t quite. My mom didn’t make harlequin outfits but she was still an artist.)
https://www.nga.gov/artworks/46667-lovers
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