DonnaMiller

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.

DonnaMiller

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.

cindi

Oh, yes!! I remember it all! And I remember using one of these when I was making clothes and pressing with that "dry iron":
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southernmema

Yes! I certainly remember all!

paoberle

And your hands hurt like heck before you finish cutting!

paoberle

Boy, does this bring back memories.

purplefiend

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.

quilterpurpledog

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.

maviskw

Too bad! The dry irons are not available.

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.

kathidahl

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..