I've discovered my sewing machine.

I inherited from my Grandmother an old Singer sewing machine with built in cabinet. It has sat in my front room, being used as an end table, for ten years or more. I haven't sewn anything more than a hem since my freshman year of high school. I attended a jr. high and a year of high school in a small town in Wyoming which had a very good Home Ec department. As a result, I learned to cook and sew in jr. high and high school. These are skills everyone should know a little about.

Any way, while we were on our trip in Williamsburg, I broke down and bought the girls the colonial girl dresses they sell there. The problem was that the dress was not long enough for my oldest daughter who is quite tall for her age. It came only to below the knee, instead of to her ankles. It really bugged me that the dress was not historically accurate being so short.

My first step was to unpick the double hem and make it a single. For some reason, the hem at the bottom of the dress was a separate piece of cloth folded over. So I removed it, unfolded the cloth and sewed it back on to the bottom of the dress. (Luckily the dress also comes with two seams which could be easily removed to lengthen the dress.) I guess in those days they planned ahead.

The dress still was not long enough. I took myself and the girls down to the fabric store and looked for matching material to make the dress longer. We couldn't find anything even close, so we looked a eyelet trim instead. We found a wide, old fashioned looking eyelet that added another 5 inches to the dress.

After figuring out how to load the bobbin, I sewed the trim to the bottom of the dress. I then sewed the trim to the inside edge of the sleeves. I improvised a "shift" to go under the dress by modifying an old white lace nightgown.

I had some white material laying around the house from an aborted project from the previous year. I decided to improvise an apron. I basically sewed a pillowcase like I learned in jr. high. At the open end of the pillow case I ironed in pleats. I single row of stitches across the top held it in place. I cut another piece of clothe into a wide sash and hemmed the edges. I then positioned the pleated edge in the middle of the sash horizontally, folded the sash over and sewed around the edges of the sash/waist band. Now the apron and the ties were connected.

The ensemble looks pretty good and old fashioned. My friend at the DAR tells me the eyelet trim at the bottom is not historically accurate, but there are only a handful of people in the United States who would know that.

I promised I would make the other embellishments for the other girls by Halloween. The whole process took me a few hours, minus the trip to the fabric store. The girls are now excited about learning to sew. I think this is going to work out much like when my oldest daughter learned how to crochet.

I'm excited about doing more sewing. Being worried about making a mistake while following someone else's pattern had stopped me from doing sewing in the past. Because I was improvising, there was no "wrong" answer, so I wasn't stressed about it. Sewing costumes is a great place to start to learn to sew. I think I will give the kids material and just let them "play" with the machine.

And for myself, maybe I will break down and buy a pattern next time.


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