by Jeanne Quinn

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: January 11, 2009

Once upon a time to sew one's own wardrobe was something short of being exceptional. Whether sewing was taught in home economics in school or at your mother's knee, it was an accomplishment of which to be very proud. Then along came the 60's and women's lib; mothers went off to work to 'be fulfilled' and children, little girls mostly, were no longer taught the fine art of joy of making your own clothes.

It wasn't just that mothers no longer had time to sit and sew although that was part of it, but fabrics became extremely and to buy and ready made garment was cheaper than sewing. The first cheap clothing came in from Taiwan and it was very well made. The cottons were quality and it seemed redundant to buy a yard of fabric for more than the price of buying a ready made blouse. Slowly, department stores dropped their fabric departments. True, some stores dedicated only to fabrics remained, but they too soon branched out into other commodities.

Only someone truly dedicated to wanting to make ones own clothes continued to sew., but it didn't take long for that next generation to get caught up in the wonders of the work world and domesticity, ie: sewing, went by the boards. Computers came along and later cell phones, all so fast, quick and easy that to just sit and concentrate on anything became a thing of the past.

Today there is a real effort to get back to hand mades and although knitting and crocheting have made a major come back, sewing still is not 'right up there' being revisited. True, it takes a bigger, more expensive 'sewing machine' in most cases and true, the price of patterns has skyrocketed, if you can find patterns. Simplicity, vogue and McCalls are still in existence, but it's trying to find the store that carried them.

In some instances, the budget stores like Walmart have come along and just about driven the small fabric shops out of town and now even Walmart has cut back on its fabric sales and patterns. They discovered that to sell fabric is not cost effective because the store has to have someone on staff to cut the fabric, which is often not of very good quality anyway; cheap yes, quality, no, so why put the time into making something you can probably can buy ready made at a cheaper price rightthere in Walmart.

The question that comes to mind is where did the little girls with all that creativity go? Thanks goodness for the resurgence of DIY because maybe someone will come along and do for sewing what Kaffee Fassett has done for needlecrafts.

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