by Colette Georgii

Created on: February 09, 2009   Last Updated: October 30, 2010

My mother began teaching me sewing when I was about four years old. She first started by teaching me how to darn socks and how to embroider. I was a natural and quick learner at sewing and did a lot of that kind of sewing till I was about seven when my mother started teaching me how to sew on the sewing machine. She also taught me how to use and read patter

My mother was always amazed that she didn't have to tell me to rip something out and do it over. I saw my own mistakes and would rip it out over and over again to get a perfect result.

When I was eight, I also amazed my mother when I made a whole dress without her help. I used a pattern, read the pattern, followed the instructions all on my own. The dress was a blue flowered dress made out of feedbag material. In those days, out on the farm, our feed came in large flowered bags. The material was cotton but had a thick linen-like look. The dress had ruffles down the front, so I even made ruffles by just following the pattern instructions. I made the dress on our old singer treadle machine.

As a child I was sick a lot, so in school the teacher was teaching us how to make aprons. Well I missed school for those sessions, and didn't have a sewing project to display with the other girls' projects, so I brought in my ruffled dress. The teacher eyed it with a frown on her face and made no comment. I was sorely disappointed. I thought she did not believe that I made it, although I had the highest grades in the class and was always rank one throughout my elementary school years.  

In the years following I sewed up pot holders and made crazy quilt patterns into potholders. I was about nine when my dad would take his used furniture and antiques to the regional farmer's market. I decided to hang my potholders on a nail sticking out of a post and put a sign on them - 50 cents. I was surprised that people came along and bought them.

When I was 12, I started designing my own clothes by just cutting them out freehand - no measuring. My mother showed me off in my new designs to the neighbor farmers.

I stopped sewing for a little while and when I was 14, I got some nice plaid woolen material from my mother for Christmas. I decided to make a suit this time. It was a skirt, vest, and jacket. This was a sewing project of perfection. Everything was precise down to the bound button holes. I was really proud of those bound button holes that I learned how to make by reading my pattern instructions. This became my favorite school

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