What a great story! So glad you reposted it or I would never have seen it! Our mothers and grandmothers were so good at making repairs, making over and making do. I wonder if our own children will say the same about us someday.
My mother wasn't confident enough in her sewing to make outerwear, but she could sew children's clothing like no one's business. I remember her buying yard sale fabric and curtains and fitting the pattern pieces into those odd sizes and shapes and sewed some really sweet summer clothes for us on her old treadle. I grew up in WI, too... and as cold as those winters were, the summers could be brutally hot... so those sun dresses and shorts sets she made us were perfect!!