Week 49: Homemade

I’ve written before about sewing when I used the Stretch and Sew method on stretchy knit material. I did a lot of other sewing from the time Renee, my oldest daughter was a baby to helping her out with making her second marriage wedding gown.

When I was having my three babies I made several gowns out of a very soft flannel. This one became a classic in the family as it was passed down to all the babies and grandbabies. I think it actually made it to a great grandbaby but I don’t have a picture. These little gowns were like baby blankets and were so well loved and well used. I also made a navy blue dress coat and hat for toddler Renee but then I lent it to a friend and never got it back. That coat even had white hand stitched borders on the collar and cuffs.

My mother-in-law, Alice, was an excellent seamstress so she made many maternity outfits for me and my sister-in-law, Christine. The style back then was the big tent top that billowed out from the expanding tummy. We tried to camouflage the tummy which really didn’t work! Alice kept us girls in maternity clothes and we gave her 6 grandkids!

As the kids grew older and we moved into the 70’s I made a lot of the girls clothes including the classic bell bottom pants, hats and shirts. I was proud of all the clothes I made for the girls. I don’t think they had any bad feelings about wearing homemade clothes. Maybe they will chime in here and let me know. Now we look back and get a kick out of the stylish clothing we wore.

For the guys I made leisure suits of stretchy polyester. They were fashionable at the time but I don’t recall that they wore them a lot. Maybe they didn’t really like them. I did make a lot of knit T-shirts which were well worn and enjoyed. Jim always picked out the material for his shirts and he wore them out so I know he liked them.

The plaid seersucker jacket was one of my favorites….as I look at the pictures I think plaid was really big in the 70s!

I continued to make clothes for myself into the 80s after we moved to California because it was easier to find the pattern and make the fit for a tall, long-waisted person. After I started working I began to buy more outfits but I always enjoyed the uniqueness of an outfit I made with the material I chose.