My Mother: Seamstress and Craftswoman Extraordinaire

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #38

By Tonya Graham McQuade

It’s been quite a while since I wrote a post for my blog. The last one featured lots of descriptions and examples of how my mother taught me to love Christmas, including through her baking, gift giving, Christmas card sending, scrapbooking, special crafts, and travel-inspired ornaments. In this post, I want to talk about another way my mother Dorothy has shown us all a lot of love through the years: through her sewing. 

Starting when I was very young, my mother used her Singer sewing machine and her sewing skills to sew clothes for me. In those early years, they often involved matching outfits, as seen in the following photos - dresses, jumpers, nightgowns, shirts, and scarves were all part of her repertoire.

Matching Nightgowns

Matching Jumpers

Whether my mother was primarily motivated by economic reasons, enjoyment of sewing, or a desire for us to match, I’m not certain. Perhaps it was all of the above. I do know that, in kindergarten, I desperately wanted a fancy dress that fit over a full, puffed out slip like my friend Sandy wore. Instead, I got a brown, floral plaid sort of skirt to wear over my puffed slip, and it certainly did not live up to my vision. This, I suppose, marked my first rebellion against my mother’s sewing.

Through the early grades of elementary school, the main sewing I remember my mom doing for me was sewing strips of material to the bottoms of my pants to make them longer once I had outgrown them. It sounds like an awful fashion choice now, but this was the 70’s, and it was a common enough practice not to make me feel too out of place. In another 70’s fashion statement, she embroidered the backs of blue, button down shirts for the whole family; and when I was in third grade, she sewed me some black, elastic band pants and a short-sleeved blouse out of material with rulers all over it (not my favorite) to wear in the school fashion show. Her efforts didn't stop with the sewing machine. She also crocheted me a couple sweater vests in elementary school - you know, the granny square kind? Definitely a child of the 70’s!

Third Grade Fashion Show

She also frequently made Halloween costumes - or at least parts of them - for my brothers and me. Here's one memorable set of costumes - I think I was a gypsy for at least a couple Halloweens because I liked being able to wear big earrings! LOL. Cam went for the soldier look, and Andy made a great little "Raggedy Andy."

One of my mom’s most ambitious sewing projects when I was in elementary school materialized during the Bicentennial, when she sewed our family matching red, white, and blue flag shirts, as well as Colonial outfits, which we wore in our town of Antioch's Bicentennial Parade. I got a Betsy Ross dress, and my brother Cam got a George Washington suit. When Antioch hosted a George Washington look-alike contest that year, he won the first prize of $100. That was a huge amount back then! I was pretty sad they didn't host a Betsy Ross look-alike contest!

Our Bicentennial Colonial Family - 1976

My mom taught me to do some of my own sewing in those early years, helping me to embroider some pictures, sew a quilt for my Barbie dolls, and crochet a blanket (which still sits unfinished in my attic - I keep telling my husband I'll finish it someday). In fact, the first time I was in the newspaper was when my mom hosted an AAUW meeting at our house when I was in second grade, and while she was teaching me to crochet, a reporter snapped a picture. I don’t know why the AAUW members were crocheting at the meeting or why a reporter was there (maybe I should ask her sometime!), but I still have the photo.

Learning to Crochet at an AAUW meeting
(American Association of University Women)

When I was in 6th grade, my mom made me two noteworthy dresses: one I wore with my friend Monica in our school talent show when we played a piano duet; the other, I wore for my piano recital. I think both of these outfits I wore only for those events - at least I can't recall wearing them another time. I have to wonder now if I thanked my mom for the time she put into these creations.

Turner School Talent Show - "Lady of Spain" Duet (I think)

Piano Recital

I shied away from my mom’s sewing creations in junior high and high school, limiting her efforts to hemming my pants if needed, but I learned to use a sewing machine in my 8th grade Home Ec class. I even had to learn to sew a zipper on the dress I made for our 8th grade fashion show! My mom attended that with me - there, we got (I believe) our only formal portrait of just the two of us other than at my wedding.

Later, I inherited my grandmother’s sewing machine, and the first summer of college, I pulled it out and went on a sewing spree, sewing several pairs of shorts and a couple sundresses. Since then, my sewing machine has only been out a couple times: first, to sew a "Sneezy" costume for my daughter for the play Snow White; and second, to sew some beanbags for my husband’s cornhole game. He was surprised I still knew how to use the sewing machine!

With Anna in her "Sneezy" costume that I sewed for her

My mother, however, kept her sewing machine in active use for many years, sewing MANY Halloween costumes for my son Aaron and daughter Anna, as well as for my nieces Katharine, Greta, Alice, and Violet. Two standouts in my mind include the "Luke and Leia" combo the year the kids wanted to dress up as Star Wars (and, ironically one of the neighbors dressed up as Darth Vader), and the "Daniel Boone and Kirsten the American Girl" combo the year that Anna was very into her American Girl history books.

Darth Vader, Princess Leia & Luke Skywalker

Daniel Boone & Kirsten the American Girl

My mom also took on what she considers her biggest challenge of all: sewing the costumes for Anna when she was cast as Belle in a production of Beauty and the Beast when she was in 4th grade. This involved sewing the white and blue pinafore-style dress Belle wears at the start of the play, the dark cloak she wears when she goes out looking for her missing father, and - most amazingly - the extravagant yellow gown she wears when she dances with the Beast. What an undertaking! 

The Blue & White Belle Dress my mom made for Anna

Anna in her beautiful Belle gown - 4th grade

When Anna was turning “Sweet Sixteen,” she decided she wanted a 50’s-themed birthday party. My mom sewed her a darling red poodle skirt. She wore the same skirt again when the Sadie’s Hawkins dance at school had a 50’s theme. Then, I wore it for a dance performance in Los Gatos High School's “Fractured Follies” (our teacher talent show). Perfect!

Dressed up "50's Style" for the LGHS Sadie Hawkins Dance

My mom also sewed baby quilts, pillows, and crib ruffles for Anna and a quilt for Aaron. His was Noah’s Ark-themed; hers, Precious Moments, in multiple colors. She sewed a matching quilt for Anna’s doll bed and rocking chair, as well as reupholstered the rocking chair that was mine when I was young to match the Precious Moments theme. In the photo below, you can also see Anna propped up against a pink, blue, and white blanket my mom crocheted for me.

Other creations of my mom’s also regularly found their way into our home. One of the most memorable was the ark she and my dad made for Aaron when he was two. My mom hand painted male and female sets of animals that she and my dad cut out of wood - including two Barney’s. LOL. Not sure how they would have reproduced, but Aaron was a huge fan of Barney at the time, so they were a big hit.

Noah's Ark with lots of hand-painted animals

She also sewed Aaron's ring pillow and created Anna’s flower girl basket when they were in my brother Andy’s wedding, as well as later when they were in my wedding to Mike. For our wedding, she crafted lots of wedding favors as well, which included small vases filled with flower seeds, enclosed by pink netting and a bow, with a paper cut out flower on a stick saying, “In the Garden of Life, Friends and Family are the Flowers in Bloom.”

Our house features many other of my mom's creations as well: paintings, hand-crafted dolls, drawings, and photo books describing her travels. On my wall still hangs the piano embroidery she did when I was taking piano lessons. Every Christmas, we hang her hand-sewn Christmas stockings on the mantel, place the matching Christmas pillows on the couch, and hang her hand-crafted and hand-painted ornaments on the tree. 

Embroidery of Young Girl Playing Piano

Sadly, my mother’s sewing machine now sits idle, too difficult for her to use with her advanced rheumatoid arthritis. I know she feels the loss. Still, her creations abound in my home and in the homes of others - and I hope to someday see my own grandchildren put on some of the Halloween costumes she has sewn through the years. Every costume - from Betsy Ross to Belle, to Luke and Leia, Daniel Boone and Kirsten the American Girl, and Marty McFly in the Old West and a "teeny-bopper" in the 50's - brings back a flood of memories. I’m sure each of my nieces can say the same, as they, too, have worn many of Grandma’s handmade creations.

Mom's painting of Stargazer Lilies - 
the main flower Mike and I chose for our wedding

Yes, my mother has been a seamstress and craftswoman extraordinaire for all the years I have known her. What a gift she has given us by creating and showering us with so many treasured heirlooms over the years!