A day of this and that

 

Sunday, I began working with a new sewing student.  I taught her how to run my sewing machine. She made a Barbie pillow/bean bag and a sleeping bag for Barbie.  My student has a little sister. you can see the sleeping bag and pillow rolled up together  ready for Barbie's adventures.  Yes, you are seeing beautiful top-stitching. I know top stitching is not part of a usual first sewing lesson, but my student seemed up to the task.  She has good hands.  I’m excited to see what she will be making.

 

I don’t think my student had realized that if she wanted to she could learn how to make clothing. Once she realized that she seemed REALLY excited. next week we will make  a Mother’s Day gift for her mom. I’m not telling what we are making, in case Mom is a reader.

 

I finished a gift for a friend. it’s a scarf I had dyed a long time ago. I used lace as a stencil and spray painted.  it’s a lot of look for not a whole lot of work.

Lately, I have been understanding why ladies of yore used to employ laundresses. I’m still working on getting all of the linens we used during Passover washed, dried and ironed. The Seder table cloth is still in the middle of being darned. I ought not have used the passive voice there. I’m doing the darning.

We  switch all of the pretty  decorative lines we have around the house just before Passover. I figured that I own so many cloth doilies that I might as well use them to line the dessert platters rather than using paper.

So now I’m ironing.

And ironing. Today I ironed a stack of assorted napkins including cut work from the 1950’s, wonderful hemstitched linen, linen damask , greenish 1940’s linen /rayon damask and 1940’s starburst damask in lavender/white.   I have a few more table cloths to do.

 

Spray starch is my new best friend.

 

 

My mother did ton’s of ironing. I remember her ironing my twill play shorts when I was a little girl. All of my father’s shirts, handkerchiefs and our dresses and blouses all got ironed by my mother.

 

My mother used to send out the fancy table cloths to get done. The weekday ones were heavy homespun and didn’t need to be pressed. There was a basket that was always full of ironing that needed to get done. it was never empty. I don’t know if either of my sisters iron.   I know that I do lots of  it each week.