Giveaway Week Day 5 – Vendor Booty

these glimpses into people’s stories (through these comments) has simply been a beautiful start to my day. (thank you for asking for such meaningful responses to your giveaway posts.)

i learned to sew in 4H when i was 10. my mom did help me with my long elastic-waist skirt and coordinating drawstring bag. i wish i had them still as i loved them both so much. the skirt made me feel very laura ingalls…

I am self-taught. My mom wasn’t much of a sewer and didn’t have any interest in teaching me herself. But she did encourage me as I struggled along and never said no when I asked for money for fabric, patterns, and notions. And most importantly, she never made me wear my early and often hideous attempts at garments .

i leaned to sew a little from grandma and my aunt but most is self taught with a lot of experimenting!

I was taught to sew in home economics at school but I was dreadful and my teacher felt so sorry for me she would take my work home with her and do it herself and bring it back next lesson, instead of feeling happy this actually made me sad because I so desperately wanted her to show me how to do it myself and I wanted so much to improve. I felt like I was a lost cause, however, years later I was doing a Fine Art degree and I decided to give it another go, reading books and tutorials online gave me confidence just to go for it. I’m still learning and trying to perfect my technique, I get so inspired by blogs like this which remind me I’m not alone and I keep telling myself practice, practice, practice and one day you will get there.

Wow, this would be awesome. My mother taught me to sew. I remember making “pockets” with a little girlfriend on my mom’s machine. I also made a doll quilt for a talent competition with her. My first quilt! Thanks for the awesome giveaway.

I learned to sew from my mom, who is a Home Economics teacher. I remember as a child sitting along side of her sewing machine pulling pins out for her right before they reached the needle. I would arrange her pins by color on her pin cushion. Over the years we’ve made pajama pants, a tshirt quilt from all my high school tshirts, and now we’ve started the tradition of sewing every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving!

I learned the basics from my Mom. She made most of our clothes. She let me just experiment with the sewing machine. I made a quilt top when I was around 9. When I look at it I see the different fabrics that our clothes were made out of. Thank you for the give aways and your blog, it is one of my favorites.

Growing up, my mother was always sewing us girls Easter dresses, doll clothes and the like. As my sisters became teenagers they began sewing their own clothes. As the youngest of the 4 girls, I of course wanted to keep up with my sisters, and learned to sew too.

In highschool a friend who knew how to sew taught me what she knew. We figured out how to make some hippyish/laura ashley style dresses and some crazy hats. We would show the stuff we made which looked horrible on the inside to my grandmother and she would tell us how to do it the right way. I kind of put sewing on the back burner until a few years ago and am now trying to really hone my skills. Thanks for these great giveways.

I come from a line of women who sew (passionately) but my mother never taught me to sew! Can you believe it???? I took a class in middle school and never touched a needle again until I was in my mid-20s. Saw some quilts. Fell in love. And, like every crafter I know, uttered the words “I can make that.” Went to my first full-blown quilt show while visiting friends in Dallas and have been crazy-hooked since! (the less than interesting details….I finally took a class to have a basic understanding of quilting lingo.)

I learned some at school, but that is such a long time ago I don’t remember much of it. Now I’m trying to teach myself – with the help of the wonderful internet. So many resources out there

I learnt to sew in Grade 1 at school in the 1950s. It was a one teacher school in country Queensland, Australia. It covered eight grades of school and had about 20-25 farmers’ kids. Some kids rode horses to school, and some rode bicycles and some of us were driven by car pooling parents.

Miss Stolzenberg, a local farmer’s daughter came to teach the girls to sew. She started us on burlap bags with wool in a darning needle.

By Year 2, I had embroidered a tortoise on a baby bib that won a prize in the local Agriculture Show, and a fine linen sampler.

As a teenager in the 1960s, my sister and I sewed a lot of our clothes. The new fashions (like Mary Quant shifts) were so easy to put together, compared with the detailed tailoring of the 1950s.

Now that clothes are so cheap to buy, we put our sewing skills to creative use in patchwork and quilting!

I learned in a quilting class (in french) in Luxembourg, which was when I first moved to europe. I loved it and bought a used machine. I had already done hand sewing with my grandma when I was young, but this was something new. After that class my french mother-in-law helped me extensively. When I moved back to Texas, I awoke my mom’s sewing desire and now we share this wonderful hobby! I love that this same ability has somehow been transferred from my grandmother (who sewed all her 4 daughters’ clothes) to my mom (who sewed all my clothes growing up) to me (and I do a few clothes for each of my kids, but wish I had time to do more!) Great week Kathy!!

I have always been crafty even as a child. Unfortunately I was not raised in an environment that encouraged such things. I would make do with found objects…….I know sob story right? :0) When I was 21 and newly married my father, who had not been in my life very long gave me an old Singer still in the beautiful wooden cabinet as a gift for Christmas. I LOVED it and still do. I SLOWLY taught myself to sew over the years. I even got a job in a fabric store to learn more and for the discount! Years later a friend gave me a matching machine and I now use them as nightstands & I sew on a machine my husband bought me. But I love my original one & think about using it again from time to time.

I learned to sew from my mother when I was about 12; I don’t recall where she learned. I had to take Home Ec and sewing was a required class. I already knew it all and didn’t learn anything; oh well. I was making a lot of my clothes which I liked because no one would have the same outfit I had. I liked being original and having it fit the way it should and choose pretty fabrics and trims. I am 54 and I have been sewing for, OMG, 42 years! My paternal grandmother sewed “everything” and could also crochet “without looking” which just astonished us young children. I have taught my daughter some sewing basics and she has never had much interest but she is very artistic with pen and inks and watercolors. Sewing is my art.

So many lovely stories — I learned to sew in the 10th grade. At first I hated the idea of giving up my Saturday afternoons for ten weeks to learn how to sew. By the second week I was hooked and haven’t looked back since. I made my prom dress the next year and when I got married 20 years after that first class, I had also sewn enough and learned enough to make my own wedding dress. Today I sew little things because I only have little time. There’s nothing more pleasurable than spending an afternoon choosing fabric and planning what I will sew next. Pink

I learned to sew in Junior High Home Economics class with Mrs. Garrett. The girls all took Home Ec while the boys took Shop. Nothing like putting kids in their proper places! (We were free to choose which we wanted to take, but everyone fell in along gender lines). I had tried sewing much earlier than that, though, because my mom sewed all the time, as did my grandmother. When I was little my brother and I had coordinating outfits for every holiday. I hated dresses, but my mom sewed them anyway. I remember my brother and I always hanging out on the bean-bag chairs at the fabric store while my mom shopped. I used to beg her to make me clothes out of fake fur, but she would never do it. My grandmother was more adventuresome. Once, in the early 70′s, she made me groovy, shiny, super-synthetic pink PJs with purple and gold trim. I thought they were the fanciest, most grown-up PJs ever. But I digress (a lot). Even though the only sewing lessons I had were that year in Junior High, there must be something in the genes because now here I am, making skirts and dresses for my little girls.

I learned to sew in Mrs. Laird’s Home Ec class. My mother made me not only pick out the pattern, but after I made it and it turned out badly, she made me wear it. I hated the dress and was embarrassed. I washed it in hot water so it would shrink and then it didn’t fit me.

I didn’t sew again until I was expecting my first baby and wanted to make a quilt for him.

My mother sewed on a treadle, though by the time my sisters and I were old enough to learn she had an electric. I remember the piece goods shop was a regular on our weekend rounds, along with the mall and the grocery store. My mother was quite good, but I never had the precision to sew well as a youngster. I’m no master seamstress now, but I do take pleasure in the care and precision that handicrafts take.

My grandmother taught me to hand sew when I was 3 years old. She and I Made doll quilts and pillows day in and day out. I remember vividly the craving for fabric and thread even back then. I would get to her house and beg to sew. I was hooked. When I was 7 I got my first little sewing machine, my first project was a little polka dot bag for my grandma. I remember being so proud, I even stuffed it with cotton balls to make it look like they do in stores.

My mom taught me to sew. It started when I was 4. I remember she used to let me push the material through but what I really wanted to do was use that pedal! Now that I have my own sewing machine and my own shiny pedal to push–well–PEDAL TO THE METAL!!! I love to sew and my mother was extremely patient. For that I am truly grateful.
Thanks for the chance to win!
Kelly O.

Sis and I learned to sew during summers with my mom on her old singer sewing machine. She let us make our own pajama pants using fabrics from her stash. She taught us to lay out fabric, cut the pieces and sew on her machine. Remember those times fondly, especially proudly wearing pajama pants that we made ourselves.

My mom came from a family of 11 kids, and she has always sewn (they had to!). I learned from her when I was about 12. My first project was a little spaghetti-strap tank top, made of a lightweight white fabric with tiny purple flowers. In the front, it had an inset of lace, and my mom let me use some lace that was leftover from her wedding dress! Man, I loved that little shirt! My mom recently sent me a box of random scrap fabrics, and there was some of that same fabric in it! 30 years later!! Now I’m wondering, should I make something for my daughter (almost 3), or save it for her to learn to sew with?

I learned to sew when I was middle school age in a church girls club called Calvinettes. We could earn badges for different things and I earned my sewing badge. Very basic stuff. Then in high school I took three years of home ec, the first semester was sewing and the second semester was cooking. The first year was required but the other years weren’t so only those who were really interested took the class, by the third year our teacher let us make what ever we wanted. I sewed a lot of my own clothes in high school and sewed for my children when they were young. I don’t sew garmets much any more, what little time I have for sewing is spent on piecing quilts.

I also learned to sew from my beloved Grandma. She first taught me by hand with little projects and then she would let me have a go on her old Singer. It is one of those old balck ones (featherweight?)that sits on it’s own base. When you raise it up from the base there is a little note that says, “for Maureen” that she put there before she died to make sure tht I ended up with it. The smell of it when I sew with it still takes me back.