Back to Sewing - 1968 to 1971

It's time for a breath of fresh air.

As I've been looking through my pictures lately, I found that I put my sewing/craft activities on hold for the most part in the late 60s and early 70s. (I also realized again had badly color pictures from 30-40 years ago have held up.)

I did make yellow curtains for a guest room in our new house in 1969-70?, but it turned out to be a nursery soon after we moved in. This is the only picture I could find, and they're all tied back here to let the fresh air in for morning juice.

My next project was maternity clothes. I don't know what brought out the sewing machine for maternity clothes, but I made most of them all 3 times. Maybe it's pricing things that you will just wear a few times, or maybe it's the nesting instinct. Or maybe they were just easy to make. Nowadays, maternity clothes are just bigger versions of normal clothes, but then the only style seemed to be a yoke and gathers, long or short, add rick-rack or braid,change the fabric, but all basically alike.

This is a lovely fashionable jumper that I made. Excuse the quality of the picture; the more I tried to lighten it, the worse it looked. I'm sorry this is not in color. Black-and-white doesn't do justice to the red and yellow plaid of the jumper and the yellow shirt. This was at a shower given by Mike's co-workers. I did love this jumper though. I wore it to an Auburn-Georgia Tech game on one of the most beautiful October days I can remember. We won 31-14 (I looked it up), we more than likely saw Sullivan and Beasley make some outstanding plays, and we were to have a baby in 2 months. It's funny to remember something that long ago, but I remember standing in the stadium and having an all's-right-with-the-world feeling. I probably told myself to remember that moment.


Keeping with the red and yellow theme, here I am 18 months later actually crocheting but not for the new baby; this was a red, white, and blue afghan for Gray's big-boy bed fixed up and painted blue to lure him out of the baby bed so Elise would have a place to sleep. These pictures are awful. I don't think I really looked like this. I'm sure it's the quality of the picture that makes me look this way and nothing to do with hairbands or goofy smiles.

Speaking of goofy looks. Back to plaid but this time blue and red. This was in 1977, and I felt sure my best years were over at 31. Too old to be having a baby. Too old for anything. But now I've doubled those 31 years and have changed my mind about being too old. I don't know if I want another 31, but I'll take it if it happens.

I found only 2 pictures of that completed red, white, and blue afghan, but even after Gray outgrew the little blue bed and moved into a bigger one, it stayed in his room. And here it is in the early 1990's making a very comfortable spot for Chappy the cat to sleep.


Another smaller glimpse is in this picture of our oldest 2 and Debby's oldest 2. I think they all look just as guilty as they can be.


The smallest one on the right, Brent, is now a physican in Hartford, Connecticut, and he sent his mom a picture lately that she shared with me. I'm sorry I couldn't get it any bigger or clearer and that I don't know exactly what his specialty is. I found out - it's foot and ankle surgery!
I got a chance to talk with him last fall at his grandmother's funeral, and he's such a nice guy. I think he's going to do well and hopefully will get to come back to the south in a few years.

I have more pictures I have unearthed this week but no more time today. I bought some daisies this morning that need planting. Stay tuned for clown suits and wedding dresses.

Pretty Bad Pictures - or Sewing Memories Part 3

The first two sections of my sewing memories came easily - until I got to the knitting part. I did do a lot of it. I made baby sweaters, booties, and blankets for friends - never any for my own children though, strangely. I learned a lot of techniques - learned to turn a heel to make socks, to knit with different colors, to do lacy knitting, make buttonholes and ribbing. But there are no pictures of any of it. EXCEPT. This outstanding one of me actually doing the knitting AND wearing my hand-knitted pink slippers with pompoms. Mike is sitting on the right reading the Atlanta Journal, and Daddy's arm is shown sitting next to me. So I guess Mama took the picture, and it's her fault for not telling me to cover up more - or unwind or something. I can't remember what I was knitting, but it looks like there is more of it on the table shelf. The hairdo looks frozen into place, and unfortunately I still wear a version of it except with less hair and less hair spray. I don't know how to fix pictures to make them look better, but I do know how to crop, and I decided not to. Like Mike always said, "It's who we are." The messy table, the book beside me just in case I get tired of knitting, the book on the table for when Mike gets through with the newspaper, our busily pursing our own pleasures, although we obviously have company. I always thought this picture was taken at the apartment in Cornelia, but looking at the floor, I realize it's in Alto in our first house complete with the Danish Modern furniture from Mike's parents that we were happy to have and never wore out. I believe some of us still have those tables around. There's some sort of radio, it looks like, and my ever-present glass of something. These pictures didn't hold up well.

I'm not totally proud of this bit of handiwork, but it must have seemed appropriate at the time. This is Grandma with her precious poodle that everyone hated but her and their matching outfits. Debby, if you read this, tell me her name. I'm sure all 3 of us were very proud at the moment. Gray was born 3 days after this picture was taken, so I can be forgiven for any lapses of common sense, I guess.
I see our merged collection of 33's and that Danish Modern coffee table holding the decorated bush. I wish the picture were clearer so I could see that what that decoration was behind her. I don't believe wired ribbon had been invented yet, so I can't imagine what could make a bow behave that way.

Another picture I found shows the second thing I knitted, a pink stuffed rabbit. You can't see much of the rabbit - I don't think it held up very well either - but I just wanted a chance to use the picture of that cute guilty-looking guy behind the door.
I guess I hadn't gotten the memo about babies playing with balloons yet.
That's about it with my knitting career. I did sew a few things during this time, some curtains, and I found a couple of pictures for a later time.

Sewing Beginnings - Part 1

My Grandmother Eula Dunn Watkins surrounded by her grandchildren. L-R: My cousin Sherry, cousin Debby in front, me peeking out from behind, my brother Mike, and another cousin Bobby.

When I decided to start this blog/journal, I mainly wanted to remember the days of my life in 2009, but I also wanted it to be a place where I could record the few needlework projects I do. There won't be many, but I have pictures of things I've done in the past few years to make it seem like I do a lot.

I can't remember when I first thought about sewing myself. My first memories are the sounds of the sewing machine and scissors snipping and people coming and going and trying on clothes. My grandmother Eula was a talented seamstress who sewed not only for our family but for the public. She sewed effortlessly and well on that shiny black Singer machine. Pieces of fabric just seemed to magically turn into clothes and quilts and curtains. I don't even think she used a pattern most of the time. Many times I would come home from school to find a new dress to wear the next day (more than likely plaid). I just took it for granted and never asked her to show me how or expressed the least interest in it. She kept my brother and me and most of my cousins, and she probably preferred that we leave her alone.

She did teach me to crochet on long winter evenings sitting by the fire. Again, she didn't use a pattern but just taught me by telling me how many times to wrap the thread around my needle and how many stitches to skip until I had turned out yards and yards of lace. It wasn't until much later that I learned that those stitch combinations had names, and that you could make different designs by reading patterns. I never used the lace that I recall but was content to just mindlessly turn out long trails of it. She also tatted, although I never actually saw her do it. She supposedly tatted lace for my baby socks, and I have some pretty intricate collars she did. By the time I became interested, her hands were shaky, and she couldn't really remember. I do have her shuttles and finally learned a few years ago. I can see why she couldn't teach me. It's not easy!

Another thing she taught me was embroidery, just simple stitches, like the running stitch, lazy daisy, French knots, and I turned out many dish towels with flowers and animals on them - the types of things people love so much now - vintage! We didn't spend much time inside in those days, and I would always have a little bit of grubby needlework with me. I also don't ever recall those being used to dry dishes. Wonder why. She once made a quilt with the state flower for each state embroidered on squares, and she let me do French knots to my heart's content. That turned out to be the quilt she gave me.

Once I dropped out of college and was living and working at home, I had some time on my hands and thought I would learn to sew. I was also going to get married in a year or so and was feeling a little domestic. I bought a Singer teach-yourself-to-sew book and kind of taught myself with a little guidance from Grandma. She had talent, and I didn't (that gift went to Sherry), so she didn't have that much patience with teaching me how to put in zippers: "Just use your imagination," she once said. I guess I don't have much, because zippers still give me fits.

I did make a few things but I think got a little bored with it. Mama was just deciding she wanted to learn to sew (and did, quite well), so she was always making things. In fact, she made just about everything I wore for my wedding showers and parties and I think a couple of the bridesmaid's dresses. So that was my first brief venture into the sewing world and I pronounced it a little boring. I would then get married and move away and have no access to a sewing machine for several years.