Thread: Remember when?

Do you remember those little "machines" that measured the fabric and how fabric was torn instead of cut with scissors?

Do you remember when your mother shopped at JC Penney they wrapped her package in brown paper and tied it with string that came in a heavy metal string holder? She paid the clerk in cash. The clerk put the money in a tube, pulled a rope and the tube sailed upstairs to the cashier who made change and sent the tube back. Margarine came in a plastic bag, white in color with a color bubble you popped. Then if you were the lucky child, you got to knead the color through the margarine to make it yellow. Back to quilting--anyone remember the quilt frames up in the living room? The neighbors would come in for several days to gather around the quilt until it was done. There was a lot of talking and laughing and my mother had much good food to serve and us Kids hoped for leftovers. Then there were the quilts made from tricot, pale pastel colors with intricate quilting designs. My memory was that the nylon tricot was slick and tended to slide off the bed. My mother's church group used to hand quilt quilts for people to make money for church activities and charity work. They charged $25.00 to quilt a quilt.

We only had scissors to cut fabric with? Up until a few years ago I didn't use anything but.

Sewing machines only sewed straight lines?

I sewed on a treadle through college even though Mom bought me a Singer "touch and sew" which never worked right.

Electric irons were only "dry"

Dry iron... Dampened clothes and rolled them ... Then still used a soda bottle with holes in top to sprinkle.

We "made" starch at home.

Stay-flo (?) starch . It was in a bottle and blue. Wash, rinse, dip in diluted starch and hang on the line.

Cotton, wool, silk, and linen were the only fibers available for fabric? (also jute for burlap)

I think I can go back almost that far.

Fabrics and thread came with a "boilfast" label?

I remember boil fast on thread. Will have to look through the old spools.

Pieces were cut out one at a time - templates were not made of plastic - cardboard, metal, paper

Cardboard and paper glued to sandpaper so it didn't slide easily are what I remember. I bought a metal template at a quilt show a year ago just to have it.

One thing about using a sprinkling top for a bottle, you could get all the water out! The pump sprayers seem to quit about halfway through the bottle.

LoL! I guess I am an old soul. At 41, I still do things like marking and cutting without my rotary cutter, recycle cereal boxes for templates, I never put water in my iron, just use a spray bottle if it needs it, wash a tub full of fabric in the tub then hang as much laundry as possible out on the line. I have a lot of vintage fabric that still has tags from Woolworths, TG&Y and Sears. Sometimes I'd rather do things the "old way", keeps me grounded I reckon. Great thread!

I used to cook and starch pillow cases, shirts and little girls school dresses, needed some to stiffen some doilies recently and contacted Argo corn starch and received the recipe.

When I joined a quilting group in Orlando in the late 60's, one of the ladies boiled the quilting thread in paraffin wax to make the thread slide through the layers easier. I hadn't thought of that in years!

I made my first quilt 5 years ago and I did it with cardboard templates and scissors!

I loved our old wringer washing machine....if I could find another in mint condition I'd buy it! I also remember boil proof buttons (still have some) and 'blue' bags to put in with the whites. Last time I heard of someone using 'blue bags' was a guy I used to work with in the early 80's....he had a pedigree Old English Sheepdog and they used 'blue bags' in her rinse water before showing her. Apparently it made the white in her coat brighter

We had "bluing" that came in a bottle. Mom just squirted a some into the second rinse water.