My Grandmother

Day six of the Ultimate Blog Challenge suggested topic is to write about people in your life that we admire. Today I’m writing about my grandmother.

When my grandmother was growing up, she sewed clothes for all seven of her children. The one outfit I am most proud to still have is the Christening Gown she made for her children back in 1907. My mom ended up with it and my sisters and I wore it when we were Christened. It was then passed down to me for safe keeping. Our two daughters wore it and three of our grandchildren wore it at their Christenings.

Our great grand daughter, Lia Faith will be blessed soon and she will be the fifth generation to wear this beautiful silk gown. It will then be waiting for the next little one to wear. This is a blog I wrote a few years ago about the history of this beautiful Christening Gown.
http://themarthareview.com/christening-gown-passed-down-through-generations/

Nanny, as her grandchildren called her, lived with us since I was small. She loved to sew and she made most all of my sisters and my clothes. I remember the matching dresses we had for Easter and Christmas. I also remember the navy blue coat she made for me when I was around six years old. The coat had a bright red lining with shiny brass buttons because it was made from my cousin’s Navy trousers and the buttons were from his Navy jacket.

I would love to watch Nanny sew and while I never had formal training, I learned to sew by watching her. When I was in 7th grade (back when Home Ec classes were taught in school) we had to sew a project. My project was making culottes but the teacher told me since this was our first class sewing project, maybe I should start with an easier project like an apron or elastic waist skirt. I didn’t listen and completed my culottes and surprised the teacher. By the way, I got 100 on my sewing project.

Nanny made my junior prom gown and senior ball gown. By the time my senior ball came around Nanny was getting up in age and starting to make sewing mistakes. One she made was cutting the skirt part of my gown where the hem line was instead of allowing extra hem fabric. After she went to bed, my mom and I ripped out the hem and we had to come up with a plan to add about 4″ to the length. I guess that was where my creativity started to blossom. I took a strip of the bodice fabric and added a gathered flounce to the bottom. You could say I was always the one that would wear something totally unique from the others.

When it was time for my wedding in 1967 I helped my grandmother make my bridal gown and the bridesmaids and flowergirls dresses. Nanny is the one pictured on the right of me.

I graduated in June 1967, got married in July 1967 and started my sewing business right after. It was mostly alterations and dressmaking but people would ask if I could make a prom or wedding gown, I said “I’ll try!”

I then expanded into window treatments, slipcovers and upholstery. I would remember my grandmother saying she would try anything and she would always be able to figure it out. I was the same way, in fact that was how I came up with my motto “If you want to explore deeper oceans you first have to leave sight of the shore.” You’ll never know if something can be accomplished if we don’t at least try.

One of the joys of sewing that I was able to pass down was teaching my children to sew. I also taught our grandchildren, both boys and girls how to make a pillow when they were around three years old. I also volunteered to teach sewing in 4-H and my favorite part was to show the youngsters not to get upset if they cut or sew something incorrectly. I called that our “Boo-Boo class”

I hope Nanny is looking down smiling at all my sewing skills I learned from her and how much I admire her for all she taught me.