We didn't have a lot of money... we were poor...
To offset costs, my mother would sew. She sewed my dresses for Christmas, Easter, School pictures.
And like any other girl in the 80's, I wanted a Cabbage Patch doll. There was no money for such a gift, 'sew' my mother took night classes and made me one.
Isn't she beautiful!!!
My mother would even have to sew her undergarments back together, buying new was not an option. Sewing was just not a hobby of hers, but a way of life...
Her dream was to take us all to Walt Disney World, however, that dream was just that... a dream. She died before she was ever able to take all of us.
Well, we have now been to Walt Disney World twice and a voyage on Disney Cruise Lines in 2010. Our last trip to WDW included the Mickey's-Not-So-Scary-Halloween-Party. The kids chose Halloween costumes to celebrate such an event in Disney style. The oldest, our daughter, chose to be the Mad Hatter (the animated version, not Johnny Depp version) and the little one, our son, chose to be a Mickey Mouse Pirate.
Now, each costume had to be made, sewn. YIKES!!! This girl did not know how to sew! I never wanted to learn and my mother would have been the perfect instructor. I thought "well, how hard could it really be, you have a pattern, step by step directions, no problem, right???", uhhhhhhh WRONG!!! I studied the instruction manual to my sewing machine as if I were studying for midterms. Teaching myself how to thread the bobbin, needle, how to set the stitches, etc. became a full time job. The pattern for the Mad Hatter costume might as well have been written in Kanji, the wording was 'sew' foreign to me. I Googled most terms, and used YouTube as my personal tutor, thank goodness for modern technology!
It did come together in the end, and she looked very cute... Mad! I finished the day before we left and still had the pirate costume to make. This is the funny part, sort of desperate at the time. With a white shirt I found in my closet, I altered it to look like a pirate and made a black sash for his waist. Finally, I purchased red and white striped material at Walmart, brought it home, laid him down on it, traced his waist down to his ankles with a Sharpie, cut out "the pattern", added elastic to the waist and legs, done!!!
I think Mom would be proud! She would have ewwwed and awwwwed over her grandbabies, and she would have wanted to be there with all of us.
Yes, I am sew very thankful for my childhood. My parents worked very hard and passed that onto us. We learned that God will be with us always no matter what, and if you live your life through Him, you will need nothing more.
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