first embroidery

when i was a kid, my mom had this book on the bookshelf, "child's book of sewing". it was one of her books that she had as a child. i pulled it off the shelf, and looked through it, and then i was hooked for life. i was a huge reader as a kid too, so i don't know if i had read all the other stuff in the house already, or if the sewing already appealed so much that i read it! anyway, the book is really cute, it has these cute illustrations and the print is interesting, kind of big and like someone handwrote the text. it says 'sewing' in the title, but what it actually shows is how to handsew and some basic embroidery stitches.

it shows you what tools you need to handsew, and it had some projects like a sewing card to practice stitches, and several projects that were made out of felt, since it is easy for little hands to hold on to. you can click on the photos to get a better look.

i did most of the projects in the book, i made the sewing card, and there was a bookmark, a coin purse, a bunny bean bag and a sewing kit. i still have all of them but the sewing kit, i might have given that one to my mom back then, but i could not find the bean bag or the coin purse...i think they are stored with the baby blankets and school drawings of my now-grown children! but here is a photo of the sewing card and the bookmark i did...as you can see, i was only seven years old! my mom helped me to make the sewing card. she had to help me trace it out of the book, and then paste the paper to the cardboard, and poke the holes for the stitches to go in. i like that it has her handwriting on it for the names of the stitches. it has become a little smudged and worn, and the lettering is faint, but still readable. i remember having a horrible time getting the blanket stitches right! here is also a little potholder i embroidered too, with a cute little parakeet. i also already liked cooking back then! i think that it took so long to embroider the potholder, that i decided not to use it to actually use it for cooking! or maybe my mom just would not let me, so it would not get spoiled. that's good, because it is still in pretty good shape after how many years? o.k., let's NOT go there! but i did embroider a lot after that, and as a teenager, i had lots of embroidery on my jeans, and sewed hats and tops to put embroidery on...well, i did grow up in the 60's!