One of the most necessary arts of homekeeping has been lost to several generations. Some Great grandma's don't even know how. I'm not sure if my grandma or my great grandma know how to sew. I know that just until a few years ago my mother didn't really know, and still is learning as she goes. I myself don't really know how to sew. I know how to use the sewing machine and how to fix a whole or sew on a button, but nothing very complex. Last year I tried to make a shawl-cape, which turned out fined except the seams liked like a 5yo sewed them together. I need more practice.
Today people rely on companies to make and cloth them. People aren't very self-sufficient nowadays. You can go to just about anywhere and buy just about anything. While it's convenient to go buy clothes from a store they really aren't worth the money and certainly don't last very long, unless you pay a high price.That is why having your own sewing machine and knowing how to use it is very important. I am pleasantly surprise to find many ladies today learning how to sew, whether by hand or machine, depending on the project. I even read about a friend who's grandmother was helping her make a skirt.
Can you believe that the sewing machine has only been around since 1846? This September 10th will mark 162 since it was patented and even longer after that before people were using it in their homes.
Inventor Elias Howe was born in 1819 in Massachusetts, and after losing his job in a factory during the Panic of 1837 he moved from Spencer to Boston where she started working with machines in a shop. This is when he began to create the mechanical sewing machine.
It took him over eight years to get it to work, and finally at 250 stitches a minute he machine outran five hand sewers for speed. Howe struggled to get his machine patented because others were using his lockstitch mechanism with their own inventions.This was about the time Isaac Singer created his up-and-down motion machine and Allen Wilson created the rotary hook shuttle. Finally in 1856, after many legal battles, he won the right to be recognized as inventor. Afterwards the three worked together with their patents and marketed the sewing machine under the Sewing Machine Combination.
The machine wasn't used in homes right away, but at first in garment factories and during the Civil War Howe donated a portion of his wealth to help equip the Union Army.
Ladies I encourage you to learn this art as it will come in handy throughout your life. We should be practicing in all areas to become like the Proverbs 31 Woman, who puts her hand to the spindle, don't you think?
Joann at Bunkhouse Sewing would like to encourage you to do so as well. She has a book called Stitches & Pins, which is a beginner sewing book for girls by herself and Corrie Gagnon Berneking. She has donated a copy of this book along with Sewing & Growing with God's Word, which is a devotional to giveaway to one GGM reader. There will be two winners. First place will receive the Stitches & Pins and second place will receive the devotional book. These products, together, are valued at about $35, and we would love for you to enter a chance to win one!Rules Of Participation
2) Announce this giveaway on your blog (linked to GGM & to Bunkhouse Sewing).
3) Please put the icon on your sidebar, linked to this article.
Giveaway Button Code. Select all, copy, paste into your site template.
This giveaway will end at midnight, Friday, September 19th, and the winner will be announced the following Monday. Please make sure you follow all the rules to be entered! We don't want to have to exclude anyone due to lack of participation!
20 Comment(s)! Please Leave A Comment!:
What a great giveaway!!!
Hey, I posted about it on my Homeschool and homestead blog. You can go check it out. Am I entered? :P
Hope so, this would be a wonderful thing to have!
Love,
Rachel
I have owned a sewing machine since I was 18. I love to sew, but have never really had the time or area to be able to really sew much. Grandma Duvall (my mom) was a great seamstress, and created her own patterns etc. She also could knit and crochet and made sweaterjackets, ponchos, hats, and slippers etc.
Sounds like a great giveaway.
Love you,
grandmastarr
I just posted on my blog for the give away!
http://homeschoolblogger.com/emily6m/583791/
Emily
My Gram (aka my grandma) is the seamstress in our family, and she's the one who taught me how to sew. My first remembrance of her at her sewing machine was when she was making me a pink blanket with a blue teddy bear in the middle with a few hearts in the corners. I remember being so excited and tracing the teddy bear with my finger over and over. Our first sewing project together was a doll dress and it was a complete mess (looked more like a robe than a dress!!) She gave me a sewing machine for my birthday and claims that now I have to do all the sewing for our family. lol
Am I entered now?? ^_^
Toria
Hello, I've gone through the steps to create the links, mention the contest and placed the icon on my blog sidebar. However, I am not sure where I am supposed to share about the three little seamstresses in my family. I have three sewing entries on my blog, all three were posted this past July, entitled: Their First Dresses!; Second Sewing Lessons; First Sewing Lessons. Please let me know if I must send these stories off somewhere or if I must repost them to a more recent date upon my blog. Thank you for the opportunity!
Thanks for entering you all!
KelleyBee - I just wanted you to share about any women in your family who were seamstress and the heritage they left behind at all. :)
Well then, I suppose that leaves us out. There were no seamstresses in our family. I learned everything from a wonderful teacher at school and now I am passing the art on to my daughters.
Well, that is is alright. I'm not going to exclude you for that! lol I am so glad you were able to learn in spite of that and that you're teaching your girls as well!
Oh! Great! I will share our sewing journey with you here then!
This past winter, the girls received their first sewing lessons. I pulled out the machine that our dear friend, Linda, gifted to us to commemorate finalizing the children's adoption in March. By then, my machine was 26 years old and not doing so well anymore.
They went to town learning how to sew straight, curvy and zig-zag lines with the machine sewing upon paper. When I felt they were comfortable enough with the machine, we advanced to material. Pillows seemed to be the easiest "first" project.
Gabriella, thus far, has proved to be the best at sewing. She is content taking her time to
ensure her seams are straight. The other two were more interested in speed! LOL.
Because I want them to appreciate sewing in terms of fashioning their own wardrobe, for their next sewing project I thought perhaps a simple skirt with elastic waist would do. However, I saw some really pretty and inexpensive material at the store, the kind that has the elastic in what would be the bodice of a top or dress and thought the material would make a great first clothing project for them. Three straight seams were required and they proved they could handle them. I set and sewed in the sleeves.
We did not use a pattern for their dresses. While in high school more than 27 years ago, I had the rare opportunity in our home economics department to take a year or two of advanced sewing and tailoring. Therefore, I am often able to create my own paper patterns or to simply cut more simpler projects directly from the material. It is very liberating to be able to work without pre-made patterns.
Our next project will be that simple skirt I was considering before. Again, I will create my own pattern since it will not be complex.
Feel free to visit my blog to see photos of their work. You will find three posts in July 2008 referring to our projects. My blog is at: http://kelleybee.blogspot.com/
We have 5 seamstresses in my family. 2 of which are beginners. Mom used to sew dresses for me and my younger sisters. Anne took sewing lessons, and she works wonders! She alters clothes and makes patterns, mostly. I love to sew. I mostly makes skirts, but have made a few tops before.
Emily and Katie, our beginners, haven't sewn much. They have made a skirt each, I think, and have helped sew seams on shirts, and helped cut out patterns.
I have posted about this giveaway on blog, and put the icon on the sidebar. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/bookwormbethy5/586871/
Hi!
My grandmother was the main seamstress in my family. She could sew anything! My mother sewed some. I remember a yellow dress she sewed for me when I was in kindergarten or 1st grade. It was my favorite, and I wore it til I was much too tall for it. :)
I blogged about this here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Suzanne/587224/.
Also, I posted your giveaway button on my sidebar here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Suzanne/#Giveaways
Thanks for the giveaways!
roseinthemorning[at]comcast[dot]net
Nobody in my family sews, that is why I can't. I would love to learn with my daughter!
http://thehomeschoolway.blogspot.com/2008/09/homeschool-contests.html
I'm not sure if this counts, but the seamstress of my family is my Grandma. She doesn't sew much, but she crochets amazingly and taught me. She has crocheted coundless blankets with amazing detail and perfection. I have yet to make a blanket, but my grandma has started my crocheting obsession.
I would like to enter this if I can. I really want to learn how to sew but I have never learned how.
I also want to say that this is a great trade ( I guess you would call it that) for girls of all ages to learn.
Blessings,
Tulip
Hello! What a wonderful giveaway! I have been meaning to buy these books for my daughter! I have posted about the giveaway on my blog, and talked a little about the seamstress(es) in my family as well!
Thank you!
~ Kim
Hey! I stumbled upon this just in time! I posted about it here~
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momofmhasr/590287/
And it is in the sidebar also. Good luck to all!
Looks like I just made the deadline by a couple of days. Thanks for doing this. Sheri
http://homeschoolblogger.com/OntheRightTrack
Please pick me. I just love this lost art. Read my post here.
http://tonsofsons.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/give-away-learn-how-to-sew/
Thanks for the chance to win.
My daughter would love it if I won this contest. She is sewing project for Christmas right now. She loves to sew as do I. I have posted a post about the give away and put the icon in my side bar.
abi [underscore} b [underscore] me [at] yahoo [dot] com
http://www.homesteadblogger.com/teaching4Him/110930/
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