The Sewing Machine
In Search of a Wisewoman
Reading a post from “Deb at Night Shift Writing “about packing away the old Singer opened a memory stream of the Home Ec classroom of my past. There were still a few treadle machines, and the smell of the oil used in the Singer sewing machines is an olfactory trigger. The new machines are space-aged by comparison offering intricate stitch options where the old machines were considered revolutionary if the back stitching option was offered. And yet, the sewing instructions we received were backed onto what it was assumed we had already learned at home, not just the basics. To this day I could make a flat felled seam or a bound buttonhole, details of tailoring taught to teenagers. The closest one gets to seeing a flat felled seam is to actually inspect those blue jeans you might just be wearing. It is a double seam that enclosed raw edges particularly on flannelette pyjamas before the serger or the pinking shears or the zigzag stitch were even invented.
Men working in professions that require business attire are still more fortunate than their female counterparts. A decent suit - or several, a few good shirts, and an array of ties and that’s all. Women in the same profession are held to higher standards of scrutiny and criticism. A man could easily wear the same tie for a month and not be called out. While some women have opted for a well-tailored suit, it must then be accessorized and let’s not get started on the shoes.
In my era, classmates who wore ‘homemade clothes’ were either stigmatized as being too poor to afford store-bought or envied because their mother sewed like a dream. Every home had a sewing machine and no one would be caught dead in public with holes in their jeans, a fad that still staggers me was sold as fashionable. Things were mended and the patches mended until there was nothing left to mend. The sewing machine was never put away but was set up somewhere in the home for ready access. Now fabric stores are going under. Sewing has become too costly and fast fashion is cheap in more ways than one. AND women no longer have time to sew if they enjoy it. That skill set taught more than how to sew. It taught logistics, problem-solving, frugality, mechanics, patience, and creativity. As for me, my portable sewing machine chortles each time I take it out of its dark lair as if to say, “Let’s see what she does when we do this!” Clearly, some lessons still need repeating.
My mother used her now antique Singer to make our clothes because we could not afford expensive store bought haute fashion. No one new they were homemade because she was an artist. She even made doll clothes, the last ones were for my Barbie, which showed her ability to fit any body including mine. She was given permission to create my high school uniform after the store said "your daughter does not fit out uniforms." Imagine that!