The joys of a wife who sews

[Penguin]

Just got back from the gym and I noticed something as I was getting dressed. What I noticed was all of the things that my wife had mended.

My shirt? One of my favorite shirts. Beautiful flannel and the most comfortable thing I have ever worn. Only trouble is that they had a problem with putting on the buttons at the factory and my wife has had to redo the stitching on at least half of them before it stopped happening at every washing.

My pants? Had a pencil sized hole in the back where I had leaned up against something while in the test cells. She patched it up and you really have to look hard to see where it was.

My gym shorts? Had them so long the under armor logo has mostly worn off. Maybe 8 years old? Anyway they are perfect in every way but the stitching around the butt came unraveled and she redid it perfectly.

And there are a bunch of other things in my closet. A great woolrich chamois shirt that got a rip in the sleeve on its first wearing years ago. It sat in the back of the closet for years until she saw it and patched it up. A couple pair of jeans that she has given new life to by patching them up. An old heavyweight flannel shirt that I use when working on the autos, it ain't fit for anything else. But it had lost its stitching under the arm and she put it back in working order for me. And a bunch more.

I think I might have to give her a raise with all the money she has saved me.

Will

[Thumper]

From what I've seen with the younger wimmins these days ... sewing is becoming a lost art.

My ex-wife was the best I've ever seen. She made all her own clothes ... almost had to as she was 4' 10" and weighed 93 pounds! (and YES ... we looked like Mutt & Jeff!)

If she saw a dress she liked in a magazine, she'd lay a bunch of newspaper on the floor, DRAW her own pattern freehand, cut it out and use it to make the garment. I swear I don't know how her clothes always turned out so well. ('Course she kept mine patched up also)

She was the same with cooking. If I saw something in a magazine or even on a quick TV commercial and mentioned that it looked good ... I'll be darned if she wouldn't have it sitting on the dinner table the next night. There was no internet in those days ... she'd simply LOOK at the dish and somehow (no clue how) ... she'd cook that same dish and it was ALWAYS good. Now that I think about it, cooking is also becoming a lost art with most girls these days.

[Penguin]

Wow that is impressive. Freehanding sewing patterns is something I have never even heard of before. Freehanding meals is something I do sometimes myself. My wife gets a bit irritated when she asks how to make one of my dishes and I can't tell her because I just made it up and don't really have a recipe.

Hedi likes sewing. Especially quilts. She just took it up a few years ago and has made some wonderful ones. Even made one for my mother's christmas present this year. Mom really likes it. It impressed me. Quilts are a lot of work.

Will

[BarryBobPosthole]

Back when Thumper was younger, the wives chewed on the deer hides until the skin was soft and supple.
BKB

[Thumper]

Bite me Okie-Boy!

Willy, she was Thai and I bought her a Singer sewing machine in Thailand. We didn't have running water and electricity (at least not always) in our house in the village, so it was one of those pedal type sewing machines. It was NEW ... not an antique, and I didn't even realize they still made those things. I suppose there's still a market for them in 3rd world countries. When I brought her to the States, I bought her a new, ELECTRIC machine and she was in hog heaven. She made EVERYTHING she wore ... well, except for the "unmentionables" (that's a term you don't hear anymore!) ... as she was so small, the only clothes that would fit, were in the childrens section. Problem is, those clothes didn't have room for any boobage.

My grandmother made a quilt for me when I was a kid. It was always on my bed until I started driving and then it took up permanent residence in my car. (came in handy when parking with the GF on those chilly nights). When I went to college, it went with me. I'd hate for my grandmother to have known how many times I got laid on that thing!

I left it at home when I went into the military and have no clue whatever happened to it.

[Penguin]

I'm not sure that having sex on a quilt your grandma made doesn't qualify as communist or something. Should be if it's not.

Amazing what we have gotten used to in the country that would be considered extravagant in a large part of the world. My own grandmother still had an old wringer washing machine when I was growing up. She had it sitting outside most of the time and filled it up with a spray hose.

Will

[Buckrub]

Bill..............this actually hits a very big nerve with me. A soft one.

Having todo with nothing, my wife spent about 14 years of her life taking care of her brother, then her mother, and I mean 24X7XForever care, HARD care. The worst kind there is. She's an angel, but the side effect is that she has no friends, no time. Lately, she has finally gotten BACK into the sewing arts. I am so tickled.

Her grandmother was the kindest, most gentlest of humans, and my wife was the only grand DAUGHTER in the family. Her grandmother sewed and she passed it on to my wife. Her grandmother could take a burlap bag and make a wedding dress. Heck, she did almost that, often. We have in our house a redone ..... I don't know what it is called...... a kitchen!!! It's on wheels, and it's a all-in-one unit that rolled around and had a built in flour sifter, potato storage, you name it. I'll take a picture of it if you want. I digress...........Her grandmother was a result of the time when every human did EVERYTHING that they could do, in order to subsist. She had 3 girls (to the dismay of my wife's grandfather, thus he named 'em all boy's names), and my mother in law was NOT the one that got the sewing gene!! But it passed one generation and my wife got it. They are very much alike........quiet, unassuming, highly intelligent, soft spoken, and unhappy unless they have someone to "do" for.

But my wife could always sew. Enter a teaching profession, and later a debilitating illness, and she sort of had no time for it. Then her family needed her, and she really had no time. In the meantime, my oldest daughter is like me, can't sew a button on. But the middle one? Well, she can. She even got a degree in it (Fashion Design) from a college that specializes in it......and started her own wedding dress business.....after making her own wedding dress for $178.00 (later offered $3,500 cash for it). The company didn't quite make it, though she dabbles in it still..........

Her two daughters are the only grand DAUGHTERS of mine at all. One is smarter'n you are, I swear...........and I mean that literally. The other is a space cadet, and lovable, and a skate boarder! Won't wear matching socks. But guess what?? It's the second one (the middle girl of a middle girl) that is now starting to knit and crochet (one has one needle, one has two, beats me) and make stuff and ask Grandma for ideas on color schemes, etc. And Grandma has made each of our 3 kids a quilt for Christmas, and is knitting them all hats, and scarves, and is really back into it, and happy.

and if all that is silly, I'm sorry. And if it's more silly that I typed all that with a bit of a teary eye, well forgive me. I don't even know why I'm like that.

But what you said hit me, and I spilled all that, and ...... well, there you go.

[Penguin]

Sounds like your wife and mine would get along great Bucky. Some women are like some of us men in that they love to build and make things. It is a great thing when you see someone you love doing something that they love. And when it has been denied them by circumstances for a long time? Well that makes it even better.

The passing down of sewing supplies and machinery is kind of like the passing down of tools for men. Something powerful about picking up your ancestor's tools and making things. I know one of the most galling things that has ever happened to me was when my grandpappy's old New Britain socket and ratchet set was stolen out of my truck. It still gives me heartburn 18 years later.... well I better leave that subject.

I know I really love watching my wife work on her quilts. She is always having me hold them up so she can see how they look so far, and asking me about my opinions on colors or materials (as if I know anything of value), and when she gives one away (one of her great joys in life) she is on pins and needles until the recipient gets in touch and tells her what they think of it.

Will

[Buckrub]

I helped my grandmother many years work on quilts. She had one of those contraptions that lowered down from the ceiling.

I'd give a dollar to get our wives together.

P.S.
Cappy has some of the neatest old stuff I ever saw. Just amazing, eye popping.

But I swear.......if that PBS show about old stuff ever walked through our house, they'd go into apoplexy. Old trunks, that old kitchen, an 'icebox', an 1856 Melodian (rosewood), a Victrola, vases, antique singer sewing machines, "stuff"...........just amazing. And we can't even have folks over because it's so hard to make this place presentable.....cause there's so much stuff. Every time someone dies, we get a housefull of STUFF!!!