In a message dated 5/22/2006 5:13:19 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Both of them had started very early, making clothes for themselves and for dolls. And they did it for pleasure! I first started sewing when I got a Babette (cheap imitation Barbie) in 4th grade. Before that, my mom sewed for me and my dolls. My first efforts were trying to copy what the commercial Barbies had, but then I started getting creative. It was great when the first commercial patterns for these dolls came out. I graduated to sewing for myself when I took home ec. in 7th grade. I made most of my clothes in high school, and my family had limited funds. Majored in home ec. ed in college, where I took two very rigorous clothing construction classes. Flat pattern was only offered in summer school, which I couldn't afford, so I bought the text and tried to learn on my own--later took that in graduate school. But I know what you mean about sewing. The design, fabric selection, and figuring out how to do the project are what I enjoy most. The actual sewing, only if I'm doing something new. That is one reason I didn't last in theatre--I was only a stitcher, and too old to wait to work my up in the hierarchy to get to the design part. As a reenactor, I get to do the fun part--designing! Before I took up reenacting, 10 years ago, I went through other sewing phases. Made active wear for a while--leotards and swimsuits, mostly. And I did some lingerie. The occasional formal dress. And then my husband and I started square dancing, and I made outfits for that--another way to indulge a fondness for fun fabrics and trims. I almost never make daywear anymore, but now I have two granddaughters, and I make some things for them. I had forgotten, though, how tedious it is to manipulate size 3 parts! Sometimes wish I had mice, like the Tailor of Gloucester, to do some of the stitching. Or, as someone said, we have these high tech sewing machines. Why can't we just put the fabric on and they do the rest? Ann Wass _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
