National Sewing Month

 IN RECOGNITION of SEPTEMBER BEING NATIONAL SEWING MONTH

I have written extensively about my mother’s fabric shop which was attached to our home out in the country where I spent many a school evening ‘designing’ outfits instead of doing homework, especially math.

When I was in my preteens my grandmother taught sewing on Saturday mornings during the winter in my mother's shop. That is where I learned about darts and inseams, marking, and pinning patterns and secrets on how to cut patterns out.

While it took me forever to trim a pattern, pin it to the fabric, and cut it out, my grandmother did it in lightning speed. And when she was not the instructor, she would be in her home, in her sewing room sitting at her little black Singer sewing machine with a tape measure around her neck, pumping the foot pedal and turning out one beautifully sewn item after another.

She had the eye for her artform and when you have the eye, creativity is the driving force. My mother also had the eye. She was a fine seamstress, sewing everything from suits to coats. Each dart. Each seam was flawless.

Last summer my cousin Carol, who lives in Kentucky, came for a visit. We were close growing up on Black Lake Road. That is when there were four houses in a row all filled with relatives.

Back to Cousin Carol’s visit.

When it was just the two of us, she handed me ten sheets of paper held together by a paper clip. Across the top of the first page was the title, “The Busy B Club.”

Carol explained this was the club my grandmother, my mother and her sisters Anne, Claire and Helen formed, getting together, when possible, on certain evenings to talk and enjoy desserts while they kept busy creating whatever they chose to create. The ten sheets of paper represented the first ten meetings of their club. I do not know how long they kept their club going. I hope it was for a very long time.

I am sure my grandmother was always wearing a house dress with her hair pulled back in a bun at those meetings. I am sure my mother’s hair was always up in bobby pins. I am sure there was lots of laughter to the point of tears. I am sure there were packs of Camels and Winstons on the table. Needless to say, there were no cellphones sitting at their fingertips distracting some from the others.

The members always met in the evenings. While they took turns hosting their meetings, serving those delicious desserts was a must. So was creating. Busy B members were creative in various skills including crocheting, knitting, molding candles, and then decorating them and sewing, everything from nighties to felt hats.

A personal note on this first day of National Sewing Month.

There is something about sewing. Maybe it is the hum of a sewing machine. Maybe it is the scent of yards of material or the feel of the material.

Or maybe it is the magic of that driving force called Creativity, especially at meetings of The Busy B Club rotating between four houses in a row so very long ago.