Sewing "Back Then" Where Did They Find The Time?

Have been reading through vintage sewing books from the early to mid

1900's, looking for tips/techniques for "heirloom" sewing and am always amazed by how much work was done by hand. Even with machine sewing, much work was still advised to be done by hand to give the professional "French" seamstress touch. Guess by this it was meant that true couture clothing would have had certain things done by hand, (hems, certain seams, details), but all that took time. With all that homemakers had to do, when on earth did any find the time to sew not only for themselves, but the normally huge families?

On the flip side, am wondering if we are loosing much in the way of techniques being passed down as more sewers turn to computer machines for fancy stitching in place of hand work. Yes, hand work does take time, but for some stitches, like hemstitching, have yet to find a home machine that equals the beauty of properly done hand work.

Thoughts?

Candide

Reply to
Candide
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I suppose the amount of handsewing that I do is based on the project I'm working on. I'm working on a wedding gown right now and so I'm doing a great deal of the work by hand. However, I have also taken fabric and "bammed" it through my serger when it was something that was a utilitarian project and fine finish work was not a consideration (dog blankets for a local rescue mission). I guess the sewing techniques I choose to use are based on the project, and I have no problem taking advantage of the technology if it's appropriate for the project.

My grandmother, who was born in the late 1880s, had 8 children and made just about everything they wore. Much of the clothing was hand-me-downs from one sibling to the next and were "done over" for a younger child. They also didn't have very many clothes like we do now. Each child only had one or two special outfits and the rest were work clothes. Grandma knit *everything* they wore for winter, too, and she was very fast. As the girls got old enough, Grandma would teach them sewing and knitting as well, so there were more hands at the tasks of mending, etc. I know that most of the housekeeping and tasks were assigned days of the week--Monday for making bread, Tuesday for laundry, etc. They lived in rural Michigan and were farmers. I would guess that most of her sewing was sturdy and utilitarian. She did knit a beautiful, delicate lace pinafore for my sister when my sister was a toddler. We still have that so I know she had a talent for creating fine work.

lisa

Reply to
karlisa

Easy.

In the first place, people didn't have as many clothes as we do today, and they made them last longer.

In the second place, there was no TV, no movies, no soccer games, no bar scenes for the average person, etc., etc., etc.

Reply to
Melinda Meahan - take out TRAS

In the third place, most women did not work outside the home. Women of our grandmothers' generation and before worked fulltime at managing a household without some of today's distractions or modern conveniences. One would want to make routine tasks into an opportunity to create something beautiful when possible.

Reply to
Max Penn

And if you have an older home (from the early 1900's and older), you clearly see that closet space was not considered the way it is today. Only someone like the Queen of England would have had a closet like Oprah's, and probably not even then. Certainly there would not have been

100's of pairs of shoes in it!

Gee, when we were growing up we had one outfit for church, five dresses for school, a couple of sets of play clothes, and three pair of shoes--one each for the three venues. And that was pretty much it, except for coats and a light rain jacket, and maybe a hat. In fact, I'm trying to get back to that way of dressing; my closet contains a ton of clothes, but I don't wear many of them, some of which are 10 years old, or more. It's too confusing to try to figure out what to wear!

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

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Mel> Easy.

Reply to
Karen Maslowski

You know, they didn't waste any time. There was no tv, they didn't have to run to the store, no after school activities. But when the bread or buscuits were baking, or the clothes were on the line drying were moments for hand work. They didn't shower every day so that saves 45 minutes. I am just saying we use a lot of time for things they wouldn't have thought about. Once your daughters were old enough, they were expected to help in the house.

My late MIL told me she and her two sisters always fought over the flour sack. The one that got it had new underwear. My MIL herself saved the string off the flour sack and feed sacks and when she was married she had enough lace tatted from that string to put lace on every curtain in her new house.

Reply to
Vikki In WA State

It is true that the majority of women were not doing *paid* work outside the home, but even women in small towns had activities outside the home including charity work, ladies' societies, quilting groups, church work, school work, etc. The main reason this has been forgotten is because men have historically tended not to value "women's work" or work for which women are not remunerated.

Reply to
Phaedrine

For ordinary, everyday garments, all we sewed by hand were hems and buttons.

Remember that hand sewing can be done while you are resting up from some other chore -- and that the "huge families" were expected to do some of the work.

I think the average during the span that included the baby boom was about two children. Mom had four, one of her friends had six (which was much remarked upon), another had none, at least three had one each, and there was a great deal of gossip about a family of fifteen. (Somehow I never met any of the fifteen children at school; I think they were all older than me.) Rumor had it that the mother didn't do a lick of work herself -- all her time was taken up supervising the children.) Mom once said, "I don't know what her kids look like when they come home at night, but when they step out the door in the morning, they look like they came out of a bandbox."

(I *think* that in *her* mother's time, a bandbox was where men kept their formal collars so they wouldn't get rumpled. i.e., "out of a bandbox" meant "perfectly clean and neat".)

[Google says it was hats, but there was only one hit.]

Also remember that before the introduction of 'labor-saving" devices, everyone knew how to get along without them. In cities, people sent their laundry out -- and people didn't dirty a tenth as many clothes as we do now. Mom once told the story of how she suddenly realized that she no longer had to wear an apron -- now that she had a Bendix, a housedress was just as easy to wash as an apron. (I wore aprons when first married anyhow: for the sake of the pockets.)

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

My Mom Mom Hawkins (paternal grandmother) told me how they made their nightgowns out of the flour sacks by cutting open the bottom (for a neck hole and the sides (for arm holes). She then embroidered the raw edges with a bit of floss to make them nice.

Erin

Reply to
Erin

Let alone consent to wear gowns until he's old enough to go to school! Re-enactors sometimes get flack from the "gentle guests" for putting their baby boys in "dresses" -- but how practical a gown is for a child that hasn't been housebroken yet!

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

Bringing this back on topic! *LOL*

Old feed/flour sack material is very highly sought after these days for all sorts of things including quilt backing. Personally cannot imagine wearing or sleeping in anything made from them, but then again have only seen modern sorts of materials. Am told the vintage "real McCoy" is very soft and quite durable.

Candide (with a huge bolt of vintage Pequot sheeting fabric that someday will get worked on).

Reply to
Candide

themselves,

All my vintage sewing books state that a good housewife should keep her mending box/bag handy so she could tackle projects in her "spare" time, and not let things pile up. Perhaps this is why so many of those items like vintage knitting/crocheting bags/boxes are so beautifully done, they were meant to be seen.

Grew up with two siblings, and am here to tell you there was no slacking off. Each of us had chores and heaven forbid if one did not complete them properly. Dishes were taken in turn each night, but thankfully taking out the rubbish was left for the boys ( was too afraid of possums and the raccoons that hung around the rubbish bins). Once asked my mother (while I was doing a sink full of dishes), why we didn't have an automatic dishwasher. Her reply was she "had one", me. Well nearly shot back a good answer, but that would have probably lead to a date with the wooden spoon, so kept on washing with my mouth shut! *LOL*

Think many communities "back then" had their share of those paragons of motherhood that produced almost annually. "Mrs. McCleary" and her 10 or so children would often be pointed out by the parish priest as the local saint of motherhood, as she brought in yet another new baby for christening. And yes, with that many bodies in a household, there should have not been much work for "mum" to do, besides she was probably carrying another anyway! *LOL*

Shirt collars came back from the laundry VERY stiff, and could not lay flat, nor would men wish them to do so. So they were kept in boxes to remain neat, clean and keep their shape.

Oh but I love a nice clean pinny! Draw the line at the heavily frou-frou types that seem to invite frivolity though. Aprons are a great way to keep neat while hoovering/dusting/housework and much easier to run through the ironer than a housedress! Now if one could only get little children back into the habit of wearing pinafores, laundry day would be a breeze! Well, one might get away with it for little girls, but have a strong hunch no self respecting little boy would even touch the garment.

Reply to
Candide

True, true. That and short pants which are far more economical in terms of time for wee boys than hemming or buying new every time they grow another inch or two.

Or course "dresses" served another purpose back then, with such high infant mortality rates, it almost didn't "pay" to run up sex specific clothing at least until the child had reached toddler or in some cases just before starting school age.

Candide

Reply to
Candide

*Very* soft -- they used a different kind of spinning machine in those days. And to this day, I persist in expecting cotton to get softer after it's washed. Never happens, but I keep on expecting it!

Flour and sugar came in paper bags by the time I came along, but we used seed-corn sacks for anything heavy duty -- my older sister is still using the seed-corn sack dish towels she started housekeeping with in the late fifties.

Mom used to take me to McDonald's Chick Hatchery to pick out my new play clothes: they had what we would now call a lawn building piled to the rafters with empty cotton sacks, which smelled very strongly of ground grain. I would find a print I liked and Mom would tell me how many matching sacks she needed to make me an outfit. I think they charged ten cents per sack.

I think that some of those old-time spinning machines are still in operation in India.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

You were born a bit later than me -- my Sunday dress was usually my newest school dress, and we polished our everyday shoes on Saturday night. And for play, I didn't wear shoes, except during recess at school, of course, and when shooed outdoors during parties. I was puzzled when I first read a passage that said "put off thy shoes, for thou art on holy ground" -- you put *on* shoes to show respect!

I vaguely recall a pair of red Mary Janes, though, and by the time I was a teenager, I had party shoes. We also had dedicated gym shoes, which must not be worn anywhere except in the gym. The grade-school children used the gym only in nasty weather, so we ran around in stocking feet instead. (And the gym floor wasn't all that *clean*!)

I was vastly surprised when I stopped growing and learned that shoes can wear out.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

Ah! That might explain the nice soft sack the basmati rice came in that I got for a christmas present. Too small really to use for anything, but it was pretty soft for a sack.

Liz

Reply to
Liz

Oh sure they would. My son is a boy through and through and he's all for anything that saves him having to change clothes. He's perfectly willing to pull an old t-shirt, a smock or scrubs over his clothes, provided someone reminds him to do so.

Just tweak the styling details and call it a haz-mat protector.

Kathleen

Reply to
Kathleen

Now, they try to convince us that nothing is clean unless it's sprayed or wiped with an antibacterial something or other.

A friend of mine had a neighbor that had a bucket of soapy water on her front porch. She made her children and everyone wash their feet before they came in or they could not enter the house. It was quite sad actually... severe OCD.

Oh I just love aprons and smocks and wear them frequently. Maybe I am just sloppy. ;)

Reply to
Phaedrine

The Basmati rice I buy comes in a 10# burlap bag with a zipper across the top and handles sewn on, like a tote bag.......the rice is in a plastic bag inside. These have become quite the item around here for school and project bags.

Val

Reply to
Val

In the old days (early 19th century and before) boys were "breeched" ie put into trousers at about 5-6 years of age. Until then, boy and girls both wore similar clothing - frocks, had long curly hair etc. This I think was probably more the case in well-to-do families and also marked the transition of the boy from the nursery to the schoolroom. The girls would then have a governess and the boys, while sharing a governess for some lessons, would also have a tutor (male) to teach them things considered suitable only for men - Latin, Greek, swordplay etc.

Reply to
Fey

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