Sew SO

Wash on Monday

Iron on Tuesday

Sew on Wednesday

Market on Thursday

Clean on Friday

Bake on Saturday

Church on Sunday

My grand mother and my Mother had these towels. They were made from flour sacks. Flour sacks are now available in box stores AND even in grocery stores. We found a broken set in Mrs. Johnson's house in the late nineties. It is hard to know why some of the days were missing.

As a child, I wondered what people did if they needed to use Monday AND Tuesday on Monday. The answer is simple. These towels were used, hung up and used again after they dried. Most kitchens had a towel bar of some sort, most of them where three fingered.

Many girls had to hem and embroider a dish towel as a home economics project in seventh grade. And like all seventh graders, a piece of unbleached muslin was purchased along with floss and needles, and a hoop. The idea was to hand hem the towel and embroider the design, which, as I remember, was something furnished in class. A full set of patterns cost 10 cents; not a hard ship for the school system.

The teacher's name was Mrs. Pound. She wore a lot of black including her police matron shoes, had fat ankles, and wore red lipstick. She wasn't the kind of person you could get close to.

I am trying to remember if we were taught how to do the stitches. I think we must have because I was really good at making French Knots although the pattern, as I remember, did not call for them. I just know that taking a big muscle sort of person off the farm and putting her into a bitty stitch project did not go well. I am having images of the finished project; it was done with as big a stitch as I could make without her telling me to rip it out.

Home Ec appeared to be one semester of sewing and one semester of cooking. The second sewing project was to make an apron. It was to be made with checked gingham. My choice was black and white with red trim. The apron had pockets. I didn't have much interest in that either; Mother finished it and was not pleased she got a C+. After Phyllis ran the needle through her finger in class, I lost interest in hurting myself.

It must have been in eighth grade when we were to make an outfit. For some reason, my fabric was bought in Minneapolis. It was called Indian Cloth it frayed. It had weight to it, weight enough that the machine had to be reset. The skirt was sort of a mocha brown and the top was tan. The pattern was our own choice. I suppose the pattern was more complicated than it should have been.

As you remember, the Home Ec room had tables. We spread the fabric out on the table to cut it. Well, I had my top pattern cut out, which was under the skirt pattern. When I cut the skirt, I cut right through the top. This could be amended by Mrs. Pound by putting a pleat across the bust.

We were not allowed to take our work home. There was no grace here. Somehow I managed to get the garments finished and hoped it would hang together until after it was modeled.

Some of the girls in the class really did nice work. There garments really looked wearable. Mine? When I got home, I put it in the burn barrel and did not sew again until I was an adult. Nor have I embroidered dish towels or pillow cases.

Tomorrow: The cooking side of Home Ec class.

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