The prompt for Week 20 of #52 Ancestors is Textile, and it brings to mind my mother sewing clothes for the family when I was a child.
Mum did a lot of sewing, with most of our clothes when I was a child being home made. She had an old Singer treadle sewing machine that she used for all her sewing, which stood proudly in a corner of the main bedroom. It only did straight stitches so buttonholes were sewn by hand, and took a fair degree of coordination to operate the foot treadle as she sewed.
As a small child I remember being fascinated by this machine, and would sit and watch as my mother sewed shirts, jackets, trousers and more. Even many of our school uniforms were made by mum, and costumes for school plays and special events were a favorite.
As I grew older my mother gave me sewing lessons on the machine, but I never really got the hang of it and preferred to help lay out material, pin and cut using her assortment of paper patterns. A regular treat would be to accompany mum to visit fabric shops and choose the material for my own clothes, and many an evening was spent hand stitching button holes and buttons to complete the garments she had made.
As mum grew older the treadle sewing machine was used less and less, and it has now been several years since it was last used, but I still have the machine at home, its cast iron frame a familiar memory.
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