how I learned to sew

seems like I always sewed - I made clothes for my not-a-barbie doll  by hand - including a blouse with set-in sleeves while I was still in elementary school. (We were not allowed to have ridiculously over-developed Barbies.)

My mom had a sewing machine, but never learned how to use it. I had a eureka moment when a neighbor of mine (my age) brought home fabric one night and wore the new blouse and matching jumper the next day.

I demanded to be put into Home Ec class in 9th grade even though I hadn't had 7th n 8th grade Home Ec, and they did it because my sister and I were in a single-mom household, which was very rare then. Our first project was an apron with miles of bias tape that had to be sewn down by hand (for an apron!??!) 

And our second project was a dress - had to have a waist, zipper, collar, and set-in sleeves - (but we could pick any pattern we wanted ha ha)

The teacher made 5 dresses while we made ours, and had them pinned up to bulletin boards all over the room in various mid-finished state. She also wore hundreds of beautiful dresses that she had finished in previous semesters.

I borrowed books from her sewing library and learned some ready-to-wear techniques and never looked back. By the time I was in college, I was making all my own clothes.

-got borders on and got it pinned this weekend. Now how am I going to quilt it? The colors are off because of incandescent lights - the red is really a rust brown, and the teals are more blue and deeper.