Longing for the 70's!

I think each adult considers the years when they were in their  20's and 30's "the best".  After all,  we were in body and mind "the best" at that point and for most of us,  were raising children.   I have not forgotten that it is exhausting to be up with a sick child, or juggling chores,  work and spending time with your children.  I look back nostalgically on those years when my own daughters were young.   A time when my home bustled with activity instead of me muttering to my 3 pets and thinking I'd make a meal once a week.

In the  70's I sewed a lot.  I sewed for myself,  my husband and for my oldest daughter. I sewed gifts for family members.   I felt I actually could save money.  Now clothing can be bought so cheaply at Target etc that I don't think that is the case.  When I look at various photos of my oldest daughter,  I remember getting that dress at a sample sale,  or that I made those denim overalls with fabric purchased at an outlet in the warehouse area of downtown Minneapolis and that I  embroidered on the patch pockets.  I wish I had those overalls!

I remember fighting with my ex husband about household chores.   I envied stay at home moms.  So often we continued to do all the chores of running a home,  besides the outside job. Things have improved in this area for most working moms,  I think.

Many things are better today.  Medical care is much better.  What else?  I'm trying to think.
I don't think we worried about investment fraud.  If you replied to an ad in the mail you didn't think your information would be sold to 10 other companies! The phone company was the only company, and you had ONE phone book and almost everyone was in it!  Now I keep them for awhile and throw them out,  unused. There were more jobs back then.  Because of inflation,  your home quickly appreciated in value.  As a young single buyer,  before I was engaged, I was able to buy a small home through a local program. 

I have at least 4 large boxes of patterns.  I have this one Betsey Johnson designed  T shirt pattern for Butterick.  It is so cute!  There is nothing like it available now.  I just had to look up Betsey Johnson patterns on ebay.  I saw several beautiful patterns and felt the designs were better than the ones currently in the catalogs.  I bought the dress pattern.   I will take a photo of the pattern envelope and share it after I get it.

By the 80's I didn't sew nearly as much.   My second daughter was mentally disabled and chronically sick the first 2 years.   I was single when she was born.  I had been a real estate agent and the market tanked and I couldn't make a living at it.  So I did family day care for a living,  for 4 years.  I had 50 hour work weeks.  I started dating and put energy into that.   Before I put that house on the market,  I sewed curtains for the 1st floor and bedrooms.

Then in 1989 I moved to this former sorority house.  It had 6 huge bedrooms, plus extra rooms. I could store all the patterns and fabric that I wanted!  At this point I was an insurance agent full time.
I learned to use sergers.  I made rolled hem napkins and tableclothes.  I sewed tons of stretch pants in vibrant prints for my daughters and foster daughters. I taught the wife of an African friend to sew when she came here for 3 months.  In about 1994 I started a sewing program for low income people.

Because as a foster parent I often saw parents sabotage their children,  I designed this program so that a child or adult could come empty handed and still participate.  ( You may wonder,  how I think parents sabotage their children?  By not signing permission slips, by not giving them even tiny amounts for class fees, for not bothering to get materials needed, by suddenly saying the child had to do something else at that point.  I saw this too often as a mentor and later, foster parent. )

It was a huge project.  I  recruited about 6 women from the sewing guild to help me teach classes.  We taught 6 series of classes,  with 6 classes each at various community centers.  I paid for most of the fabric and supplies.  Sometimes I set classes up and brought in supplies and then a team of 2 women would teach some of the classes.  Sometimes they let attendees take almost a bolt of fabric home instead of enough for ONE OUTFIT!  They also let teens sit down and sew without the required attending instruction of how to use the machines.  This caused a huge increase in expenses for me, and made the program unworkable to continue.   When I left that house 4 years ago,  I gave away a ton of fabrics, patterns and sewing machines!

I haven't pared down all that well.   I need to get things under control and actually sew up the fabrics I have. 

Sewing for Charities

My church has a Piecemaker's group Wednesday mornings.  They occassionally cut out uniforms for girls in Sierra Leone.  Sometimes they work on a special project for the church like making items to sell at an annual craft sale.  But usually they knit and chat and enjoy coffee and each other's company. I  was told by the leader of Piecemakers a few weeks ago that I could help myself to some donated fabric there if I had a use for  it. I took a large bagful and spent a lot of time prewashing it. I spent several hours ironing and am not done with it. A lady at Piecemakers helped me iron fabric.

I have gone to help twice when they were cutting out the uniforms.  The cut pieces  are packed and go off to another church to be sewn up.  I don't knit so I only went a few other times. 

I really would like to make some super simple clothing for needy children.  I bought some patterns on sale such as a "knot dress" Simplicity 2171. It does use contrasting fabrics but I don't think it will add that much time to sew.  Today I got two Kwik Sew patters for pullover woven tops ( 3235) and shorts or pants with fake fly for boys and cut sleeveless T shirt pattern for knits.

I am thinking,  sleep pants,  simple shorts or elastic waist pants,  pullover woven tops and the print dresses. I started to think in terms of doing it on my own and then thought,  how crazy!  Surely there will be someone at Piecemakers willing to help me cut out and later sew!

I was inspired by a woman on patternreview.com who made over 50 a line pullover dresses to go to Haiti.  She won 1st place in a 2010 "use up the stash" contest.  I don't know how they were shipped.  Years ago I distributed some sewn donated clothing to kids in respite foster care. Ladies made items from left over fabric and brought it to a local fabric store for me to give away.  Children of the poor love new clothes,  even if it's a T shirt! They don't take it for granted to have nice clothing. 

A year ago I got several huge leaf bags full of children's clothing.  We have a huge number of refugees in St. Paul that have recently arrived from Nepali refugee camps and Myanmer. I originally was trying to find shoes for the little girl of the refugee familiy our church sponsored.  All of this clothing was for young children as it came from one family.  I saw these children running around barefoot outside each week when I came to visit the refugee family we sponsored. There is a large cluster of apartment buildings that are mostly inhabited by refugees.  I started to pull out some clothing I thought would fit some children I saw.  Soon I was surrounded by children.  I tried to fairly distribute what I had.  Soon some of the grandmas came,  who didn't speak English, who would point to a child,  wondering if I had something for this older boy?  I felt bad. I did try to get clothing donated from clothing not sold at garage sales,  but only once did someone call me to pick up things.

Some women at my church have been bringing some donated items of all kinds to put on a free table where English classes are held.  So some of my ideas on how to distribute these simple clothing items would be at the free table,  out of the back of my truck again,  through food shelves or finding needy children through the local schools.

So far I've bought patterns, fabric , and have prewashed fabric,  ironed it and cut out about 6 items.