My Grandmothers Gift

Let me preface this story by saying that I do not really know how to sew. If you gave me a pattern, I wouldn't know the first thing to do with it. Lately, despite this truth, I have been sewing. Little things. Blankets for baby gifts. mostly. In the past I have made a few attempts at items of clothing that were never good enough to wear for more than the courtesy picture. Despite the countless failed attempts, I have this great desire to figure out how things are made and duplicate them.

I realized the other day, this probably comes from time I spent with my grandmother as a young girl. I can remember her teaching me to make a pattern out of newspaper. I can remember her letting me practice using the sewing machine on little remnants of cloth, trying to teach me how to sew a straight line. At the time, I had no interest in sewing. I actually wouldn't have guessed I would have retained anything from those little lessons twenty years ago. But when I finally got a sewing machine, a lot of it just came back to me. I remembered how to thread the machine, to make a bobbin, to reverse my motion. It was a neat experience, the rush of it all coming back to me. Now I wish I would have learned more from her when I was able. I wish I would have appreciated this as an art form. Now we live too far apart for sewing lessons and when I am in town, I have little ones running around preventing any such thing. I really consider this a gift given to me from my grandmother, something she's handed down to me, if you will.

These are a few of the baby taggie blankets I have made.

My latest attempt at clothing proves I'm starting to figure things out little by little. I keep seeing these dresses at the boutiques and on-line that have a monogram in the center of them. They are super cute but also super expensive. I always think, my grandmother could whip those up in no time and then I could take it to get monogrammed. Finally I decided, I could do that! So I gave it a whirl. In this picture, I still haven't gotten the monogram on it. It will go in the center on the chest in the bright green. I'm sure I'll post another picture when I get it back.

Maybe over the years I'll actually learn how to sew. Maybe I'll be able to pass this on to Amelia one day.