I learned to sew in Jr. High.....now they call it middle school. I made most of my clothes through out high school and did alterations for college classmates and dorm mates....gave me the extra spending money. Of course that was when the hem lines were going up! It seems to me that sewing and cooking classes aren't offered much any more in schools. I signed up for my first quilting class about 15 years ago and couldn't wait for the class to start so I had my friend help me do a log cabin Christmas tree wall hanging.

Yes, in HS, but that was YEARS ago LOL Do they even still teach "Home Ec"? I never sewed much after that at all. I just started the last year getting interested in sewing/quilting. I need to probably take a class in both.

Yup..took home ec all four years of high school..hated it then but it was a easy a and back then the a is what it was all about!!

Yes in High school.

yes i learned to sew in high school. we went to jr high at the high school it started 7th through 12th. I had home economics and loved cooking and sewing. I made a yellow dress that buttoned down the front with a gathered waste. Got a b+.. Not bad for a first project.. somethings we just never forget.

Yep, I did...My first sewing project was a skirt, then made clothes throughout high school and into my 40's....Now I just quilt, crafts, ect....

no, I already knew how by the time I got to home ec. I watched my mom cut out patterns and such, she passed away young when I was a kid. Lucky me, that I could pick that up by just watching her, and years later retain it like I did.
That also went for cooking,baking. Just took after my mom. I think she would be proud.

Yep - Jr High. Made clothes for myself and my little sisters for years. Made my own holiday dresses, new years eve formals, graduation dress, etc.
Talking about the hemlines going up and up.....I had a boyfriend whose mother worked in a dry cleaners at one point during that time. I had made myself an empire waist, dark blue or purple velvet dress for Christmas and took it to her to press it for me. It had those puffy sleeves that had elastic at the cuff. When I picked it up, she said that was the first time she had ever pressed a dress that had sleeves longer than the dress! lol
Carol B

Jr. High. Made an a-line skirt. My teacher helped fit it. She said 'You have no backside to work with'. Wish that was still true! LOL

I was sewing by the age of 7-8 so I was more advanced than the other students by the time I got to Home Ec class!

Yes, I took Home Ec and loved it years ago. That is how I learned to sew a little. Wish girls could still have this class. I guess I'm old fashioned but I think some things should not change. We also learned to cook a little, good manners and also good poster to help make you look thinner. LOL. :mrgreen:

i started sewing when i was 8 in 4-H---yes- i did sew in home ec in school but sewed more in 4-H; made all 3 of my brother's 3 piece suits for Easter when i was 13...pants, vest and jackets. made my first quilt in 1976- but then continued to make clothes while my kids were growing up- did not become an avid quilter until about 2004....now getting me to mend something takes an act of congress :)

no by the time i was in jr high or high school home ec no longer existed as a class.

i taught myself to sew. i just bought a machine one summer and got down to business.

Jr High for me. I'd been cooking for years but not sewing.

No. I began sewing in 4-H when I was 9 years old. My first project was a "tea towel" with the hem sewn in by hand.
Then I made an apron with three pockets in the front. Helped my mom do mending, etc. By the time I got to Jr High and Home Ec, I picked out a tailored jacket and skirt to make.

Love to sit at my sewing machine and make stuff, just don't have enough hours in the day.

I learned to sew at age about 8 and so was also ahead of kids in my sewing classes and made pink and black pj in 8th grade and had to wear them in style show in front of school that was around Elvis and pink and black so in style and in 9th grade made green and white check dress with 4 widths of 36" fabric in shirt and teacher wanted me to baste in the hem before I whipped stiched it and I told her that I had been sewing for all those years and I was not going to baste in hem on just straight width of material so she said ok as long as I got it straight and I made an "A"

I just passed home ec. Loved the cooking, soap making but hated sewing. The nun told me never ever try to become anything in the sewing field. She did tell my father that my future children would never have decent clothes. Happily my kids did have decent clothes cause once I had a family I enjoyed sewing for them. Here in Queensland, grade 8 students do have a short course in sewing and cooking. Students can go to year 12 doing a hospitality course.

I basically taught myself to sew. My grandmother sewed doll clothes with us when she visited (on a machine SHE bought to keep at our house LOL) and my parents didn't sew at all. They redid the curriculum while I was in middle school so I missed the sewing class.

I mostly learned to sew when I was a color guard instructor sewing flags all night between competitions. Cut my teeth on lame' and ripstop nylon!

(Tip on sewing lame': wear a mask. Those fibers will decorate your lungs very nicely otherwise.)

My mother sewed my sisters and my summer clothes when we were young. We used to have a library by us that had sewing lessons every week, and I went for years. Sewed most of my own clothes when I was younger and thinner. I went to a small Catholic High School that was above a church. Only about 200 girls in the whole school. We had sewing Freshman year, and that was it. Easiest A I ever got. We had no cooking classes. I tell DH that is why I don't cook to this day. Luckily, he loves to cook, and does about 95% of it.

I sewed 6 years in school and hated it. First we sewing with no thread in the needle following the strait lines on paper. That was 1962. Never thought I would sew. I made my own diapers for my kids and Barbie clothes and my own clothes while I was still thin. Five years ago I got a new Pfaff sewing machine and started paper piecing. Right back where I started sewing lines on paper.

My Mom sewed some but I took Home Ec/Sewing in Jr. High and High school. My first project was a very simple pull-over blouse. My last project in high school was taylored and lined wook blazer. Wish I still had it.

I also took a cooking class but don't remember much from it. I really dislike cooking so maybe that is why. LOL!!!

Took Home Ec in HS and almost failed. I wouldn't do thing in the order the pattern guide said to when I knew other ways were faster and saved fabric. Teacher didn't like my being a rebel. Guess I'm still that way with patterns (even quilt patterns). Of course, sometimes it gets me in trouble.

I had sewed before Home Ec and always loved doing it. Many clothes for me in high school and then for my 2 sons up until they were in the 6th grade or so.

Now I'd rather kiss a snake than do any mending.

Mom taught me, but I also had Sewing (Home Ec) in Junior High and in High School. My first project in JRH was a skirt. The teacher scoffed at my choice ... a wrap around (easy) in wool (hmmm) with a liner (that was the part she scoffed at).

It came out beautifully. It was a classic design and held up so well I was wearing it well into my 20's. Until one day ...

I was working in downtown Chicago. It was Halloween. We three girls were wearing funny noses - mine was a pig. People were laughing and us three were eating it up. Until ... one of the girls noticed the people were not laughing at our noses - they were laughing at my wrap around skirt which had become unwrapped exposing all of my back end.

ahhhhh ... memories.

no learned during summmer at rec.center catholic school didnt have home ec back in my day

6th grade I made a pillow. Went fine.
9th grade I had to make a skirt. Dropped yoke, gathered skirt, pockets...it was awful. I sewed the top seam to a side seam and had the pockets hanging off the bottom. The poor home ec teacher just shook her head and handed me the seam ripper, my best friend. I did a lot of unsewing on that skirt!
Our class project was making a trip around the world baby quilt. I loved sewing straight seams without backstitching. To this day I have to force myself to try something different than a pieced quilt with straight seams. I've been meaning to sew pj's for my son for the past two years...I'd rather clean the bathroom.

I helped the teacher teach some of the other girls who didn't know how to sew. I don't ever remember not sewing. My mom and both grandmothers taught me.

they dont teach sewing anymore in school just a bit of cooking and parenting. they have realy dumbed down the education system.

Actually my old home ec teacher is now the quilting teacher of the classes I take. I think I was in one of her first classes when she first started teaching. She inspired me then and she still does!

Yes, that is where I learned to sew. The school I went
to was in a small country town and the school was first
grade all the way to 12th grade all in one building.

My mother taught me to sew, then 4-H, then I took home-ec for one term, but my mother didn't want me to be restricted in my skills so I took woodworking (loved it) and metal shop(hated it) the rest of my high school years.

I was supposed to........... Didn't happen. I'm kind of self taught now.

no they offered it, but I never took it. I learned from my aunt how to sew

Yes, I fought the teacher tooth and nail, but learned anyway. My big sister sewed for me and I saw no reason to learn. When my sis got married, I dug out my required notes from home ec and taught myself from them, with Dad's help. (Mom was a total loss at sewing, Dad had made clothes, including a suit for which he spun the wool.) It was required for girls. Boys got to take shop.

Home ec in the school where I taught until 2000 did not include any sewing, but included some cooking and meal planning as well as sex ed and a bit on budgetting. Still required.

I learned to sew before I got to home ec. I was making skirts, blouses and a dress by 8th grade. Learned on my grandma's treadle. I am 73 so that was a long time ago. Dad helped me cut out a full circle skirt when I was in 7th grade, and mother was in the hospital. WE didn't know about following grain lines on the pattern and it hung in big ripples. LOL

Yes, I remember making a blouse, kept that blouse for years. Don't know what finally happened to it.

Same for me.......

Yep, only for the easy A. Learned sewing, crochet and knitting sitting at my Granny's feet as a very young'n.

yes, in middle school, home-ec class...we sewed and we cooked.

My mom made me take sewing classes in the summer time at our local Singer store too...I use to think it was torture! Now, I'm very thankful.

Oh, goodness. When I was in Jr. High, for one year. We sewed one thing and got to choose between a few different patterns for our project. To me, the lesser of the evils was a guitar-shaped pillow. Did not impart a love for sewing to me. Even then, Home Ec. seemed like a joke to me. When we "cooked", we fried pre-made dough, then sprinkled powdered sugar on it. Please! I was making bread by hand at home, by then. :-/