Learning To Sew Has Greatly Enriched My Life – Sewing Machines Los Angeles

When I was a little girl I always watched my mom sew. It looked like fun and the finished products were always fun to wear. When I was eleven, saying that we did not have any money was an understatement. I did not even get my first pair of jeans until I was 14 when my grandma bought them for me. My mom did however, have a chest full of material. One day when I was 11, I was very board at home and wanted to feel creative, so I called my mom at work and asked her if I could use a piece of material. I told her which piece I wanted and what I wanted to do with it. When my mom got home she showed me how to use the machine, and how to cut out a pattern, and she got me started. I would ask her questions and call her at work when I needed help but basically I taught my self-how to sew.

When I was 14 I bought a sewing machine with my own money. I still use that same machine today. It was one of the last all metal machines made. I got really good at sewing. I made almost all of my own clothes. People were very surprised when I told them that I had made what I was wearing. I made my own wedding dress putting two patterns together to make the style I wanted. I got so good as to figure out how to make clothes without using a pattern. We had two kids before my husband graduated from college. I made many of my kid’s clothes from remnants that friends would give me.

Besides helping to cloth my kids, and myself I learned many great things from sewing. I learned to be thrifty, saving remnants and scraps that I could use later. A few sayings that I heard and would always remember was that a woman could throw more out the back door with a teaspoon than her husband could bring in the front door with a shovel. Waste not, want not, use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. I learned a skill that I eventually became very good at. It helped me to develop confidence in my teenage world where everyone was always better at everything else than me and it helped me have a sense of accomplishment in wearing a new outfit that I had made myself. I learned to plan a head and to be organized. I sewed in my bedroom on the second floor and the iron was in the basement. I would sew all the pieces I could together and then take them all at once to the basement to iron the seams. I learned early on that if you did not take time to iron the seams that your finished product would always look homemade and sloppy. I learned to grateful for what I had and that things were not always easy to come by. In addition I also took very good care of my clothes. I did not like the way they were coming out of the laundry so I started buying my own detergent and taking them to the laundry mat when I was a senior in high school. I learned how to read a pattern and developed my own tricks to make things go easier and faster. I learned the construction of a garment and how it is put together. It makes a huge difference if a garment is not placed at on the straight of a material. You can see the difference on a cheep tee-shirt. When washed the bottom of the side seams will twist around and end up in the front or back of your body instead of at the sides. I’ve learned what type of needle to use, the trick to sewing knits, and how to cut out things with a nap so that your pants do not look like they are made with too different colors. Sewing is something I really enjoy and gives me great satisfaction.

I in turn have made many things for my kids that could not be bought, from costumes for Halloween and school plays to altering prom dresses and making the brides maids dresses for my daughter’s wedding. I have also made may book bags and other articles for a children’s home and curtains for cheep, cheep, cheep.

I am so grateful that my mom gave me guidance and then let me have the opportunity to learn to sew. Weather it be sewing, knitting, embroidery, painting, cooking, or woodworking, auto repair, or gardening. I think it is a great service to teach your children a craft, skill, or art that will help them to value their own self-worth and give them something that is real and down to earth. To teach them a skill is a great gift. Give them something that they can use.