Gratitude Day #13 - Good Clothing and Fabrics - 13 Nov 2017

Today I am grateful for good clothing that I don't have to make.

My own mom and my sisters were not afforded the luxury of store-bought, factory-made clothing. From the hands of my grandmother, mom had learned how to make pretty little dresses from flour sacks so my sisters could each have at least have something new from time to time.

My mother and her mother worked outside in bonnets. I ran across my mother's bonnet patterns not long ago, and recalled the day she tried to teach me to make one. Being a little smarty-pants, I didn't think I would ever be wearing one, so I didn't pay close attention.

I let history slip by me.

Both of my parents sewed by hand and on a treadle sewing machine. I don't have the one that belonged to them anymore, for it burned up in a house fire a couple of years after mom passed. But, I found one at a garage sale and had to have it.

My dad was also quite the talent behind some of my maternity clothing. He made my dresses and my tops. The only thing that would have been different was the absence of darts. He was too embarrassed to put in darts for me. He also never needed a pattern.

When raising my children, I didn't have to worry about raising the sheep to shear the wool to spin and make their clothing. I didn't have to grow the cotton to run through a gin to turn into thread to sew.

Just before my parents' housefire that took nearly everything (mom had passed the year before), I was going through a trunk that contained a lot of quilts. Dad and I sorted through them, but wouldn't let me take any of them for the fear that my sisters would be jealous.

However, there were four unfinished quilt tops that he did let me take. I put them in a garbage bag and brought them home, hoping to someday finish them.

Years of raising children went by, and I forgot about them.

Then, one day I ran across them in the attic. I brought them out and looked them over, making necessary repairs in the stitching. I then gently washed them up.

I can recall my mom and grandmother sitting by the fireplace putting these tops together with fabric they already had on hand. There is a mixture of calico dress material, dish towels, flannel, and even some of my dad's ties. All of these were cut into various shapes for quilt pieces.

Friend Vicki Taylor had a long-arm quilting machine, and quilted the four of them up into the most beautiful quilts ever. Soon, I took three of them, rolled them up, and put them into smaller garbage bags to present to my sisters for Christmas.

They were the last presents of the day. I brought each one out, and as they opened them up, the exclamations could have been heard into the heavens! They ran their fingers over the fabrics, remembering so many of them.

It was a final present to them from mom.

Today, I am fortunate that clothing is such a no-care material that I can wad it up, throw it in a suitcase, and travel across the country to brink it out wrinkle-free.

I am fortunate to buy coats that can withstand sub-zero temperatures, all while keeping me warm.

I am fortunate that my shoes are not made from things I had to grow or kill, and that there is a left foot and right foot with varying widths.

I have coats that protect me from rain and from the wind piercing through me.

I am able to sew and create clothing, as well as mend them. But, I'm very grateful that it's not something I have to do. I have the skills, but appreciate others' more.