Remember when?
#41
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Spring Hill, Tennesee
Posts: 497
I remember my mom boiling starch on the gas range and adding tiny blue bars of wonderful smelling wax called Sateen. She said it helped smooth the ironing of all the white only linen. She ironed everything.
#42
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Spring Hill, Tennesee
Posts: 497
I bought my mother a rotary cutter and she was afraid to use it. She wouldn't use a computer sewing machine because "it was too complicated" I showed her it was very easy to push a button and watch it stitch. She eventually came around. I still have her White Rotary treadle. She always hand quilted because they hadn't invented walking feet and she didn't want the machine to "scoot" the quilting. She won a lot of ribbons at the local fairs though.
#46
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Posts: 939
#47
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Round Rock,Texas
Posts: 6,135
My first quilt was cut with scissors, used a pencil and a cardboard template that got smaller as I went. I'm very impressed that the quilt went together as well as it did. It'll never die, its made from Weaver's K cloth.
I sew quite often with a featherweight or treadle machine, no big hole in the throat plate to eat triangle ends.
I sew quite often with a featherweight or treadle machine, no big hole in the throat plate to eat triangle ends.
#48
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Heart of Colorado's majestic mountains!
Posts: 6,026
I love these trips down memory lane. I did all of those things mentioned above. It was just part of life. I do appreciate modern stuff like automatic washers (I do not like front loaders) and dryers. However, I still sort clothes and wash lights together and darks together. I still iron clothing because I like to iron and like the sharp look of creases in pants and the pressed look of shirts. As far as quilting is concerned I really like my rotary cutters and mats and acrylic rulers and templates. But, I think one can go overboard with items that do not have multiple uses. Fun topic.
#49
Super Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Central Wisconsin
Posts: 4,391
I only use distilled water in my iron; when I want to use steam. It is cheap enough: about a dollar for a gallon. Since I have quite hard water, I don't want to put that into my $20.00 iron that I've had for about 20 years. Works well.
Do you remember curtain stretchers? My mother had them in the 40's. I had to help put the curtains on it, and picked my fingers way too many times. They were frames as big as the curtains, and could be changed to fit different size curtains. After the curtains were washed and rinsed, they were put on the frames, which had little nails sticking out about every half inch all around the side. We put the four corners onto the corner nails, and then had to push the edges onto each nail all the way around. Every half inch. Didn't like that at all. All the curtains (six or eight of them) were put onto the stretcher and then they were left to dry. Then when they were put back on the window, they hung straight.
#50
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Once an Iowan, always an Iowan, but now suburban Chicagoland
Posts: 508
I still have a "sprinkling bottle"...I prefer sprinkling, rolling up and chilling my husbands shirts...he cannot tolerate starch and my method gives a pretty good looking shirt... I have a sprinkled shirt now...in the freezer!...he had a heart attack and triple bypass...not recovering speedily..so that shirt will wait..
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12-03-2007 03:09 PM