In elementary school in the late 1970s, I made my own handkerchief shirt. It was for the Junior Girl Scouts sewing badge, called the Needlecraft badge. I had never tried to sew before, but I wanted to earn every badge. My mom, Joy Gillis, an expert seamstress, was determined to help me.
My mom and I had many things in common, but sewing wasn’t one of them. At all. I have absolutely no talent for sewing. But my mom was an incredible seamstress. I can’t wait to write more on this blog about her sewing.
The Needlecraft badge had several requirements, like knowing the parts of the sewing machine, demonstrating basic hand stitches, sewing on buttons, applying a patch, and understanding different fabrics. The grand finale was to sew a simple item of clothing.
My mom suggested a handkerchief shirt would be the simplest. It was four pieces of fabric sewn together to form the front, back, and two wide, loose sleeves. She helped me pick out the pattern and the material, and she showed me how to use her sewing machine.
That project was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was a struggle to feed the fabric into the machine, keep the seams straight, and avoid sewing my fingers! I felt like I had no coordination.
Each time I tapped the pedal, the needle took off so fast, and that made me very nervous. Quick start, quick stop, over and over. That’s how it went, seemingly for hours. My mom showed incredible patience. It must have been painful to watch.
Eventually, I finished the shirt. It actually looked pretty cool. It was very comfy. I wore it a lot. It became my sixth grade go-to shirt. I enjoyed wearing something I had made myself. That was kind of fun. But I definitely didn’t want to sew anything else, ever again.
I’m incredibly grateful for my mom’s seamstress talent. I’ll be blogging about that soon. It’s a good thing she knew how to sew very well. She made most of my clothes when I was growing up. If it had been left up to me to sew my own clothes, I would have worn the same outfit every day.
Exploring Generations 