My Sphinx
We all meet our sphinxes, our challenges, once in a while. At the moment mine is a Singer 4205 sewing machine. Today I was finally able to make it work :-) the way I imagined it should : helping me give shape and form to fabrics.
I´ve always had a curiosity about sewing. The touch of fabrics and the forms they take. When I was a child there was an elderly lady, Dona Andrelina, who´d come to the house every Saturday and sew for us. I remember sitting by her side, observing her and playing with my dolls. Now and then she´d sew some dolls clothes to me. I keep some to this day. They belong to my daughter´s dolls now.
The years went by and we started buying clothes at the shops. Dona Andrelina passed away, and the sewing machine became an ornament, and was later given away. It was a black, hand/foot operated Singer.
I was never encouraged to learn those things, as my stepmom called them- sewing, knitting, embroydering etc. She considered herself a modern woman and she wanted me to be like that, too. I don´t blame her, it was her way of loving me. She wanted me to be succesful in a career, so that I would be independent.
What she never noticed is that I´ve always been independent. It´s in my nature. So, contrary to the modern woman handbook, I taught myself how to do those things, because I wanted people I love to wear things made by me.
Life is funny, very funny. I was an A student, from first grade to graduate school. I started working very early, so that I didn´t need to depend on other people´s money - so different from my grandmothers. And yet, I envied their ability of creating comfort, coziness and love with their own hands.
It should be about choices, shouldn´t it? What is modern, anyway? Well I chose to spend my Saturday afternoon sewing a beautiful bag for my daughter, made from an old pair of jeans. You should see the smile on her face.
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Ellen R. Sheeley says:
Luciana, I am a bit older
Luciana, I am a bit older than you, but when I was in high school, even though there was never a doubt I was bound for college, my mother sat me down and taught me to sew. I wasn't particularly good at it (or patient!), but it was satisfying to know I could make my own garments--or even just mend them properly--if needed. And I did need to, later, when I joined the Peace Corps.
I've always found needlepoint relaxing, though I never learned to knit. I am left handed, so it was difficult to find anyone who could reverse the motions long enough for me to learn. And I have a great appreciation for quilting, a North American folk art which has, in the last few decades, been taken up by the survivors of AIDS victims to commemorate those lost to the disease.
It's odd to me that so many of us gals who were modern and intelligent and encouraged to get degrees and use our minds are now discovering the joys of working with our hands and our bodies. I find so much satisfaction in growing plants, in painting rooms, in engaging in activities that have a clear beginning, middle, and end. But maybe that is because, more often than not, I am sitting at a desk and working with my mind only. And desk work rarely has a clear beginning, middle, and end, so there isn't the satisfaction of having actually finished anything.
Luciana Lhullier says:
Ellen, you got it:
Ellen, you got it: beginning, middle and end. That´s it! I find it very relaxing. But for me there´s also the idea of not having to go around town trying to hire someone to make curtains for my home because I can´t . I can write a thesis but I can´t make a simple curtain for my kitchen...What kind of independence is that?
Do you quilt? I think it´s a beautiful and meaningful activity. When my first child was born my friends sent me a quilt with children and flags of all the countries of the world. I was so touched by that! You know, the time and love they dedicated to choose the fabrics, puting the pieces together, sewing them all thinking of me and my baby. That was really a treasure.
Ellen R. Sheeley says:
I do not quilt, Luciana,
I do not quilt, Luciana, though I think I could pick it up fairly easily. But I've been given three quilts as gifts, and I think of them as heirlooms. They aren't as personal as yours, but they are handmade and beautiful in that folk-arty way.
There is a cathedral just three blocks from my home. Every time I visit, I check out one of the chapels in it which houses various panels of the AIDS quilt on a rotating basis. One sees the care with which its makers attempted to capture the lives of the victims, the character and the personality of each individual panel, and it does seem as though one walks away with an impression of the departed in a personal, rather charming way. It's just too bad the person for whom each panel was made didn't receive it during his life, for he missed out on the warm feeling you got when you received the quilt for your first born.
Mary Wilkinson says:
Sewing
Hand made is what I always look for but that is increasingly difficult to find! Good for Luciana. Like Ellen, I am left handed but it doesn't stop me from creating the house and the garden! My mother loved to knit and she made some fantastic clothes for me, cotton tops and sweaters etc., I loved to listen to the click of the knitting needles as she sat by the fire at night, counting out the stitches, her lips moving with the numbers as I sat on the floor beside her, rubbing her feet. Thanks for the memories. Mp
Luciana Lhullier says:
Mary, older and experienced
Mary, older and experienced women like mothers and grandmothers or the representation of them, like Dona Andrelina to me, are essential to little girls, aren´t they? I think that when we experience what you and Ellen wrote about your mothers we feel like heirs and keepers of some sort of secret. It´s not in the books. I mean, you can find instructions on how to knit, or sew etc. in books, and that´s what I had to do, but when someone we love teaches us, it´s like : I trust you and I´ll pass on my secrets to you. Your memories are beautiful!
Marina Bortolini says:
I can wonder your daughter's smile ...
My mother has been knitting for me since the cold weather came this year. And it's trully touchy feeling her love through the knitting points. I wish I had inherited her skills, though I know there's time for me to learn from her. Actually I might dedicate some time for that.
Luciana Lhullier says:
Hello Marina! Nice to have
Hello Marina! Nice to have you here! I definitely think you should dedicate some time to learn a lot of things from your mom! (Folks, I´m saying this because I know Marina personally)
Love,
Luciana
jitu rajgor says:
Luciana, like
Luciana, like girls, boys also have to learn from their fathers. It is ridiculous if a person having a M.B.A degree doesnt know how to change a car tire in need, or little things like plumbing, drilling,tree trimming,ironing, or making simple eatables for him.True independence lies in this kind of knowledge and not in earning money only. jitu
Luciana Lhullier says:
Thanks for understanding so
Thanks for understanding so well what I meant, Dr. Jitu! Learning from the previous generation is a practice that´s been forgotten, especially in the West I think, and it´s as vital as earning money, as you said.
Ellen R. Sheeley says:
I am pretty handy (for a
I am pretty handy (for a female), but I do not know how to change a car tire. But, then again, I don't have a car. Still, it's rather lame of me not to know that.
Keiko Amano says:
Sewing Machine
Luciana,
I finally said goodbye to my sewing machine last year. But if I ever sew again, I’ll buy a heavy duty sewing machine like yours. With my old machine, I couldn’t sew heavy material like jeans. Maybe, I didn’t learn enough about the equipment. I crochet and needlepoint on and off since I was in elementary school, and I tried to make a quilt once, but it ended in disaster.
I love crafts, and I love making things with friends. That’s fun.
Luciana Lhullier says:
Crafts are great for friendship!
Crochet is very beautiful. Maybe it´ll be my next challenge. It´s like magic, isn´t it? You have a yarn, then you start moving your hands with a crochet needle and the yarn becomes beautiful and sometimes intricate shapes.