http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...130994-46.html
THE LINK to the pic of the measuring meter. I have lots of memories of those things. My mom sewed of course. I don't believe she quilted but she sure did sew. She would take us 3 girls and my little brother to town on rare occasions. The little town I lived in didn't have fabric - we were lucky to have a small general store/hardware and some grocery. So going to the big city (maybe 2,000 people compared to 300) was a trek. We all would get in the car - no seat belts or car seats for us. My brother liked to either sleep on the floor with his head on the 'hump' or sit up with Mom. The town was probably 20 miles away so this was a BIG trip. Town had a JC Penny and a Dittmanson's for fabric. Sears had a mail order and we got stuff that way most of the time. But mom liked to feel the fabric... must be where I get it. First we picked out a pattern we liked. Mom of course had final say, but we would get to sit and look at patterns until she was happy. Then, we would each get to choose a piece of fabric with a bit of help from Mom, of course. Dad and my little brother would go look at hardware or something while we made a day of it. Usually I got stuck with green because don't you know red heads look good in green - my brown haired sister got pink or red and my other sister, the blonde, got blue. Not all the time but mostly. I can remember getting fabric choice narrowed down to the 39 cent stuff. Ok so Mom would get a big pile of fabric and then we took it to the measuring table. It was an old wood table with the measuring meter on it. The clerk would run one side of the selvage through that. Then it had a cutter built into it. She would calculate the cost of the material. When she would lean on the meter, it nicked the fabric. Then the clerk would pull it out of the meter and tear the fabric from that little nick. We never got much store bought clothes. I probably remember them more than the home made clothes - socks and underwear came in a package from Sears. No embarrassing moments in the store that way - well, not until Mom decided to buy bras for me... (eye roll) sorry guys. Then we would go home and Mom would wash and then 'straighten' the fabric. I would get one end and she would get the other end. We would pull on opposite corners to make the fabric go straight across. It worked just fine. Then she would spend a day or two getting the patterns ready. She was pretty fussy about getting the patterns cut out and then making sure they were going to fit right. Then she would turn the dining room table into a cutting table. She would get it all cut out - I don't remember much about that when I was little - I was left to watch the younger kids while mom concentrated. Later I learned. She would skimp when she bought the fabric (maybe it shrunk) Anyway she always had to really work to get the pieces on the cloth. She would turn it this way and that way and another way to see how little material she could get by with. Scraps were dear too. She rolled them up for later - NOPE my mom NEVER made a quilt that I know of. She would use the scraps for other things though. Then when they were pretty small we either got to play with them or she gave them to Mrs. Clark to make into a crazy quilt for the Lady's Aid to tie for the needy.
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