February 12, 2012
Jr. High
It was 1978 and I was about to start my 7th grade year. We had moved over the summer and I would be going to a new school with all new kids. The school was an older one, setup more like a high school. All the rooms were entered from inside hallways and the building was huge and quite lovely. It was located in a fairly affluent area and you could tell.
I had signed up for sewing as one of my electives and was so excited to start that class. The room was amazing! It was huge with gorgeous machines and cutting tables and absolutely everything you could ever imagine would be in a real sewing classroom. One wall was all windows that let in loads of natural light. I was in awe and it was the first time I really knew I loved this stuff…
Our first project would be a simple skirt. We were given a list of supplies to obtain and had to have these things the following week. We then spent the first week familiarizing ourselves with everything in the room and our machines and sewing terms and such. By the end of that first week, I was so excited to start that first project, I must have been quite obnoxious about it.
About one block away from our house, there was an old fashion two-story department store, Bergman’s. They of course had a fabrics and notions department. This was still a very popular staple of small department stores like this. I loved to go there whenever I could.
My mom and I went and picked out all of the supplies for my skirt project. I picked out this tiny cotton calico print with a chocolate brown background. It would have hook and eye closures, but no zipper. The pattern was a Simplicity “Jiffy” – which I still have (of course).
The following week, we started our project by cutting our patterns and then our fabric. We received instructions on how to pin and match the notches from the pattern. I remember all of the basic sewing instructions and tips we were taught and how nervous I was to start sewing my fabric pieces together. The machine seemed to roar out of my control and would sew much faster than I wanted it to. This was one of my first episodes of perfectionism. I wanted it to be so perfect, but it clearly was not, which frustrated me terribly. By the time I was finished, I was just glad it was over… that makes me laugh now.
I wore the skirt to school a couple of times, I think I felt obligated to. I kept it for a long time. I may still have it somewhere… I remember examining it years later and deciding it wasn’t nearly as “bad” as I had judged it way back then.
carisewvintage 
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