Sewing Lesson

Hannah asked me if she could bring her mother, Annie, a messenger bag when she returned home to Texas. I thought she was asking me to teach her how to make one, and today we started sewing school. Hannah was not very enthusiastic at first, but we managed to get the bag cut out and assembly started. Hannah and Luke only have four more days here so we'll do some every day. My mother "forced" me to learn how to sew in various ways. One way included buying me fabric but not clothes. My Southern grandmother, who we knew as Oma, could sew like a champ. Every once in a while a box would arrive, wrapped in paper grocery bags with white string around it. The boxes contained home sewn dresses for me to wear. My mother could sew, but she didn't like to and was determined that I would sew for her. My first sewing project was a curtain for our kitchen window. My mother ordered fabric that matched the wall paper. The fabric was very pricey so Mom ordered only one yard. That was quite the challenge to cover a window with one yard. The next assignment was to replace the satin skirt on a cocktail dress that had a chiffon covering on the skirt. She had spilled a drink on the skirt and it was stained. I had to remove the skirt from the bodice, replace the skirt with new fabric and reattach the skirt with the chiffon overskirt. Not easy for a rank amateur. I did it and my mother was able to wear it. She then had me make a shift with jacket to match out of a huge print. It also was a success. My mother had kind of a teasing, derisive, sarcastic sense of humor. I remember her saying to someone, can you imagine she made this and she (me) doesn't even know what "on the bias" means??? Hahahahahahaaa! She was right, I had no idea what on the bias meant...but somehow my clothes worked. I've been sewing ever since. I told Hannah about Summer Plus, the fancy summer school I worked for where wealthy working parents would send their kids to learn chess, math, French and knitting/sewing/quilting from me. I showed Hannah some pictures I recently found of happy Asian kids holding up their lovely completed projects. Hannah was unimpressed and does not want anyone to know that she is sewing at all. Oh, well, at least Annie will have a nice computer bag and Hannah will know what "right sides together" means.