New Clothes

Some kids looked through the Sears Catalog when they wanted new clothes. Not us. Our clothes where homemade. 

We went to the fabric store. Us girls made a beeline to the specially designed table that had a slanted top with a lip on it to keep the books from sliding onto the floor. There on the table were the dream catalogues. Simplicity. McCalls. Butterick. Vogue. We scanned the pages of the pattern books, keeping our fingers between the pages we liked most until we ran out of fingers. Our eyes looked all the way from matching short and top sets, to pants with lots of pockets, pretty dresses, skirts, blouses, and ball gowns. We even looked in the Vogue pattern book though Mama couldn’t afford one of those.

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If we found a pattern Mama approved of, we would be allowed to thumb through the big cabinet drawers and pull out the pattern. Mama always read the back of the envelope to see what notions were suggested and the amount of fabric needed for our selection. I don’t think any of the garments Mama made were sewn just like the pattern and instructions given. We often liked the sleeves of one pattern, the neckline of another, the collar of another, extra pockets, etc. 

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My Grandmother made us girls some of our summer play clothes. She made matching shorts and tops and put some kind of trim on it. I think my favorite outfit was made with black and white fabric and trimmed with red rickrack. It was special to get clothes that she made just for me because it meant I didn’t have to wear hand-me-downs. I sometimes got hand-me-downs from my brother as well as my sister. 

Even today when I walk into the fabric department, I find myself glancing over at the pattern books. Sometimes I even sit a spell and look though the patterns. By the time I’m done, all my fingers are stuck between the pages.