What was the first thing you used a needle on?
 

Ok, ladies ... how and what got you started in this wonderful world of sewing? I would have to say it was My Grammy setting up the quilting stand in the basement in the summer and she showed me how to had quilt with her for hours... after that, I would sit out under the Oak tree with my sister and and girlfriends sewing barbie clothes from the scraps Grammy left for us and Carmela's moms scraps from sewing clothes... what wonderful memories...

I made my first dress at 9 years old as a 4H project and never stopped sewing. I started quilting in the 70's and have loved it and spent many hours having so much fun.

I sat under the quilting stretched on 4 chairs in the attic during Winter. I loved feeling the fabrics, choosing the colors for dresses in cottons at the General Store. This was when I was in grammar school. Joined 4-H, made a Red Cross Flag on a treadal machine, and 4 years of Home ec in High School. Graduated in Home Ec in college. I guess at heart I am a fabric collector quilting came later. Hugs

I was taught embroidery by Grandmother at age 6. The nuns had taught her at grammar school . I love to do needlepoint, bead work, petit point, also with needles. No shot needles please ! Hugs

I made my clothes in High School..made my wedding dress...and just kept on going...made my daughters dance outfits..during their dancing period...made all their clothes till they hit Jr. High and discovered jeans...I'm 70 now and haven't slowed down a bit...with my sewing.. and quilting...love every minute of it...

When I was a little girl my mother use to sew. I would lean on the table with my head in my hands and watch her sew on her machine. She made me some beautiful things over the years. She made my grammar school graduation dress and my long white high school graduation gown just to name a few items. She did not make quilts! When I was first married I bought a quilt kit for a baby quilt and that was the first thing I remember sewing on my own.

My grandmother taught me how to embroidery when I was 8 years old (a looonnnnggg time ago) and she was an expert. Then, when I was 10, she taught me how to crochet. I still can do both and remember her directions implicitly.

My mother was a seamstress and helped make a living with her work. I don't remember the first time I held a needle but I do remember the first thing I put the machine needle in.... my finger. I was not suppose to touch mom's treadle machine but........

My mother was a seamstress and helped make a living with her work. I don't remember the first time I held a needle but I do remember the first thing I put the machine needle in.... my finger. I was not suppose to touch mom's treadle machine but........

Ok I messed something up sorry.

My Mom taught me to sew on her old black Singer (wish I had that now).She used to make me Barbie dresses and knitted sweaters for them. I still have an argyle sweater that she made for my Barbie- so tiny. I made my graduation dress for my grade 8 graduation and most of my clothes too. I started quilting when my eldest son was a baby, the church up the street had a program to teach quilting and they looked after the babies for free. That was 24 years ago and I haven't looked back. I still like to do cross stitch too. Happy moments come when there is a needle in my hand.

I bet it was sewing a button on as a child. My mother made a lot of our clothes until I was in Jr. Hi...then I didn't want them. I did make a suit for my sisters wedding with my mothers help...that was age 15 I think.

I learned to embroidery probably around 6 or 7 (mid 1960's) and started sewing on a machine at 8 and made clothes, pillows, purses, craft items for a few decades , hand darned oops repaired items for as far back as i could remember... I also remember being 8 and ironing sheets and pillowcases so the creases were just 'so' on the bed... got paid a quarter for a dozen. :) Great memories!

My mom always sewed our clothes, including clothes for our dolls. She "spruced up" coats and dresses that we were outgrowing by adding collars, and by adding trim to faded hemlines when the hems were dropped down, etc, etc etc. At six (in 1946) I watched my aunt doing embroidering. She threaded a needle for me and gave me a stamped dresser scarf to work on. Over the years I sat next to the machine as my mom sewed. The summer before I entered seventh grade, she was sewing away on a baby layette for the baby that was on the way. I asked her to make me a new sundress. She sent me to the general merchandise store across the street and told me to ask my aunt to help me find a pattern and fabric. When I got back, she helped me place the fabric. I cut it and sewed it under her watchful eye. And the rest is history. The quilting didn't start until '95 when I took part in a block swap at work.

I remember the day Kennedy was shot. I was in Catholic school and they let us out early. I came home and my mom was sewing on her Singer and crying and had the TV on. I was in fourth grade. She was teaching me how to sew clothes at that time. Very basic clothes. Skirts with elastic in the waist. I couldn't wear them to school as we had to wear school uniforms but I could wear them to church. She died young and I got her sewing machine and made my kids their clothes for years while they were little. I traded it in (stupid) for a Viking Huskavarna 300 and in 1992 took my first quilt class. Never sewed clothes after that. Been quilting ever since, but only really into quilting the last four years. Before I dabbled. I hate to mend clothes! Rather throw them away and buy new. I mended clothes for too many years. I have an aversion to mending clothes now! Ughhhhh!!!!!!

When I was in elementary school I begged for fabric scraps and needle and thread, and made Barbie doll clothes by hand, no pattern. Just figured out the basics from looking at my clothes and stitched the doll's items by hand. Mom only sewed when she had to make curtains or such. She always hated to sew. Not sure where my love of sewing originated...

Don't remember all the details, but by 9 y/o I was sewing on a machine to make Barbie doll cloths. I didn't really play with dolls, just wanted to dress them. By that time I'd experienced hand embroidery, crochet, knitting. One DGM was from Missouri and sewed cloths for all her GC (14) and quilted. She made a wedding quilt for the oldest before she died, I was the last one to receive a quilt. My mom had me in the kitchen and I trussed a turkey with a needle.

My Mom would draw pictures of apples on a cloth so I could embroider them when I was 5 or 6 years old. I always loved fabric and sewing. In 7th grade I took home ec and started sewing all my own clothes. I just brought my Mom's singer sewing machine home - it was what I learned to sew on. It was like greeting an old friend! Now I sew on a new Bernina 830. Since I retired I sew practically every day - when I don't get to sew for a couple of days I get crabby!!

I just found some practice cardboard cutouts with holes that would be the first things that I put a needle into. Then my mother taught me embroidery, but i didn't do too much. I started quilting and sewing about the same time. Mom taught me some sewing and I took sewing in school, and my grandmother showed me how to hand sew quilt blocks.

We were allowed one store-bought outfit a year. Mom made the rest of our clothes. Not like today's kids, who require a new outfit for the whole first week of class. We wore older stuff, too.

I started with the paper dolls that had the holes on the sides of the clothes to run the cotton threads (used for tatting and crocheting) that came in a small box. My grandmother crocheted and tatted and taught my cousins and I how to crochet and tat. My grandmother on my mother's side tried to show me how to use her treadle. Could never get the treadle to work forward. I was always backstitching or something. People got impatient with me though. Taught myself how to embroider. just seemed so much easier. If I lost a pattern I would trace an object onto the material. I tried but oh well. No I'm doing it my way.

My dear sweet Aunt Abbie taught me how to crochet and knit when I was about 5 years old. Made lots of afghans. I took one sewing class in the 10th grade. Didn't start sewing clothes until my kids were in grade school. I made dresses for them. Made a bridesmaid dress for my daughter to be in her sister's wedding. Made curtains and a few easy robes. I was in my 20's. Then didn't sew again until a few months ago. A friend told me I should make a quilt. So, here I am, 70 years old and quilting. LOL

Sewing in school was a fiasco. I HATED everything about it. Then I found quilting and LOVE almost everything about it.

My DGM, Elsie, my DM, Ruth and DSis, Susan were all seamstresses. I came up watching them but in my early years never did much sewing. Not until I was instantly hooked after watching Alex Anderson almost 15 years ago. And now my house looks like I threw up a fabric store.

Love those three! They never did get to see what I do now, Which is sad but every quilt I make has their influence in it which is a good thing.:D
peace

I learned to embroider when I was 5. My mother wouldn't let me use the machine until I was 7. On my 7th birthday I made a doll from an old sheet. She was as big as I was and wore my clothes. I went on to sew like crazy. For my first day of school for 6th grade I did my first set in sleeves and button holes.
My first "quilt" was a series of 4 inch patches of scraps from all the clothes and costumes I had made for myself, my sister, and my mother during high school. I used these patches to cover my embarassingly tattered wool blanket so i could take it to college.

I learned to knit first as a very little girl, and then played on my grandma's treadle, no thread, when I was still little. And then took sewing in elementary school. On treadles. Fun. I think we sewed a gym bag or something little.