Home Economics
I am surprised to discover the number of people who can’t sew. And by can’t I do not mean that they think they do it badly. I mean people who have actually never tried to sew a button back on their pants, used moms sewing machine or inherited one from grandma and tried to make something that required only a straight stitch with it – like curtains, which are often four straight lines of stitching.
Who knew that college prep classes would bring about a declining population of people who can sew and change the oil in their own car. That’s what I imagine anyway, from my own life experience. I didn’t take home economics, or auto shop because I had to take French and Chemistry. Making lasagna and tuning up the old whoopdee would have been a lot more fun and cost effective (at the time). I would have loved to have spent the period after lunch sewing my own perfectly fitted prom dress. But alas, I was taking Calculus.
I cursed my parents. (Sometimes I still do.) My dad made me change the tires and the oil in the car before he agreed to take me for a learners permit. My mom made me hem my own pants. I am now shocked to discover the number of people willing to pay to get a pair of pants hemmed. Seriously?
I don’t say this in mockery. I just didn’t know. I knew that everybody didn’t get an old Singer for Christmas when she turned five. That’s the if I give my kid this thing seven years before her peers maybe she’ll stop bugging me gene. But surely by twelve they got grandmas machine. Apparently not everybody.
It’s a weird world I live in. I get to say to myself every week, really, other people knew that all along?
Yeah, I suck. I can do buttons and basic hem closures, but I cannot sew much at all. And that resulted from cross stitching mostly. I know how to thread a sewing machine because my mom could never figure it out when she bought a new one. My mom is really good at it, so I just let her do it. I keep saying I’m going to go buy a sewing machine and teach myself, but I never do.
When I entered college, I was shocked at how many girls had no clue how to do their own laundry, much less how to operate the coin operated washing machines and dryers. It was funny. I taught a couple of boyfriends how to make spaghetti and 350 degrees is the basic baking temp, etc. But a lot of kids I went to school with had atleast a part time housekeeper their entire lives and were totally unprepared to do anything without help.
Liz A’s last blog post..I feel like a person
We had required Home Economics classes in 7th and 8th grades which had a cooking component and a sewing component. I made a pillow in 7th grade and a sweatshirt in 8th grade.
I can sew, but not with any great proficiency. I used my mom’s sewing machine growing up, and when I graduated with my Masters mom and dad got me my own sewing machine which has come in handy over the past years. Heck, it even has a basting stitch so I don’t have to do that by hand if I don’t want to…crazy.
I’m much better at knitting, though. I’ve been doing that since I was 6 and now I can do just about anything. I’m going to make a cotton dress for Alex after I get done with the new blanket for James.