Post by Velar Fricative on Oct 21, 2014 16:23:56 GMT -5
Honestly, I didn't know Halloween costume-making was a thing until fairly recently. We always wore store-bought costumes. I wish I had pics of me in my plastic 80s Wonder Woman glory to show you guys.
In any case, I'm not big on Halloween so I'm happy to buy a costume and call it a day. Thanks a lot, Baby Boomer Mom!!!
All I have to add is that store bought costumes were the bomb when I was little (to me at least). So much so, when I was being a little brat my parents took it away from me and then handed me a white t-shirt, some blood makeup and my brother's Freddy Kreuger mask and that was my Halloween costume.
Oh yeah, and the only sewing I can do is a button, unless it doesn't need to look nice then I can do pillows and hems and stuff. MIL just shamed me for this last night too.
Post by Dumbledork on Oct 21, 2014 17:02:50 GMT -5
I only know how to fold a fitted sheet because I volunteered at a nursing home when I was a teen and the leader demanded we all learn to her standard.
The handful of times my dad has watched me fold one, he's always shaken his head and muttered "Why don't you just ball it up and throw it in the closet like rest of us?"
I can do basic sewing, enough to make a blanket or fix DDs worn out dress up clothes. I learned how in home ec. My mom could sew, but she never did. I would take things to my mom to have her fix a button or a hole and it would sit there for months. DH is better than me by a long shot though. He learned from the Boy Scouts and his military dad.
I think homemade costumes are awesome too. Mine were mostly homemade as a kid. But my own kids have never had one and probably won't so long as their mom has a career.
I think people just don't NEED to know those things becaus our disposable society has created ways for us to buy clothing so cheap. We don't darn socks with holes, we trash them and buy new ones. We don't make clothing because besides not knowing, it actually costs more to buy fabric and notions and a pattern than it does to buy a dress at Old Navy. I totally believe that people even buy new shirts rather than sewing a button. I bet a lot of people, and definitely not just millennials, wouldn't even know where to get a new button.
I do know how to sew because multiple family members sew as a hobby, so i grew up around it. I'm definitely way better at quilting than clothing though but I know enough to get the basics done. I'll consider it one of my special skills when the shit goes down, zombies come, whatever it is that means children in Bangladesh can't make our Capri pants anymore.
This, exactly. If I want something really special or really unique, I'll sew it myself. I'm pretty good at sewing and I enjoy it, but it's almost always more expensive than just buying something new (and much much more expensive than buying something used), even without taking into account the time it takes to do. I hate to label a real skill as "just a hobby for rich people these days", but that's what sewing has become because of the trade/economic realities of our time. There was a time when people would take their clothes to pawn shops when they needed cash, because clothes had real value. Today, Goodwill receives so many more clothes than they can re-sell that they send a ton of them overseas and a ton just get recycled.
Yes, you can still save yourself money re-attaching buttons... but re-attaching buttons just isn't that sexy and I see why people aren't that interested in learning just that much sewing.
I'm 30, my mom's 55, and according to the Google, we're in the Millennial/Boomer range respectively. My mom is actually the only SAHM in my family in 4 generations (The women in my family have always worked). She can sew better than either of my grandmothers (My father's mother actually couldn't sew a button if her life depended on it-oddly, her H could sew anything like a champ) or any of my great-grandmothers, and I wish I was joking when I say her ability to do laundry has reached "urban legend" status in the neighborhood I grew up in. And despite what I might say to my therapist, she actually is good at being a mom.
Meanwhile, she never actually taught me or my siblings (2 sisters, 2 brothers) any of these skills growing up. I can't explain the sewing, but I know the laundry was because she didn't want anyone touching "her machines" for any reason.
Regardless, I learnedany and all "domestic" skills I have because I wanted to, not because I had to. And while I absolutely must credit her with "ALWAYS double thread your needles" (Which I totally agree with, HELLO?!?!??!?!?!), I seriously learned way more about sewing from the mandatory-for-everyone 6 weeks of "Home Ec" in 7th grade and being involved in musical theater than I did from her.
But maybe that's not fair to say, because I've definitely learned how to prioritize what is and isn't worth "saving" from my mom. Replacing a button or fixing a popped seam? I can, and will, do it with gusto. Darning a sock? Fuck that shit, socks cost $8 for a 10-pack at Walmart.
Post by irishbride2 on Oct 21, 2014 21:38:50 GMT -5
I just want to add that my mother is a domestic goddess who worked full time. i don't know how she did it. I mentioned earlier that she cooks and sews...but it goes beyond that. She has a freaking machine to help iron sheets because she needs them to be THAT PERFECT. I am a fitted sheet baller, however. I roll it right up into a ball and shove it in the closet. Sometimes, I have to race to close the closet door so it doesn't fall.