204 Handicrafts some of us didn't do

We had such a good time in writing class today at the Public Library "Writing family memories." The instructor asked each of us to bring in something that either we had made or something crafted by a family member.

Some of the women had knitted, crocheted, decoupaged, painted ceramics, embroidered, cross stitched, and sewn for themselves and their children. One woman's great grandfather had been a tailor and his wife was a seamstress. She brought in a maroon velvet suit he'd made for her great uncle, and she had a photo of him wearing it when he was 10.

Another member of the class had written about her project of decoupaging wedding invitations for about 25 years, and brought along her box of supplies, including the stained gloves. After not knitting in years, another has taken it up recently and is loving it and showed us a lovely wrap she is working on. She told of sewing her children's clothes in a bandana fabric that matched her maternity top and then taking them on adventures to get them out of the house. "I never lost them," she said. The youngest member of the group--the only one who still has children at home--showed us a lovely fabric hand bag she had just finished when her husband took the children for an outing.

I was never very crafty--don't like to measure or do detail, and that seems to be essential. But like a lot of women my age I did learn to sew, learning both from my mother and from 4-H projects. A month before I got married, I bought a sewing machine for $50 and I still have it--it goes forwards and backwards, but nothing else and I probably haven't used it in 15 years.

So I brought along and passed around a selection of my old Simplicity and McCalls patterns--my 1960 wedding going away dress (blue silk), a ruffled red wool for a New Year's Eve party in 1964, the dress I made of flocked white organdy to match my daughter's baptismal dress in 1968, bell bottom pants and tunic I made in bright lime green in 1969. a midi in brown wool tweed and vest made in 1970, a school dress for my daughter made in 1973, and a denim wrap around jumper made in the early 80s.

Next week we have to write a story about the items we brought in.