One desire God has been stirring up in my heart in recent years, is a desire to learn lost life skills that our grandparents used to have and have gotten completely lost in our modern culture. It only took me some online researching to realize that this "awakening" desire to return to the basics seems to be reaching a lot of people, from all different walks of life.
To me, this "awakening" came right after I had my daughter, and realized I had very little skills to pass on to her generation. My grandma knew how to do so many things, and even though I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with her during my childhood making bar soap, cheese (from the milk I had just milked myself with grandpa), bread and even some basic knitting and crochet...it still didn't even scratch the surface of all the skills grandma had! She also happened to be a professional sewer! Turns out my mother also had a professional training in sewing and made beautiful outfits for herself during her young days-something I only found out recently! But that was not all...my mother also happened to be a great artist, who did painting, ceramic work and wood work. Other than my mother's cooking skills, and again, very basic knitting and crochet, very little was passed on to me!
Probably because most of my time (once reached puberty) was spent outside of the home, either in school or with friends. I spent very little time around older women, and when I did, it was mostly just filling them in, in whatever new was going on in "my life" (that I wanted to share of course). So generation gaps became so large, and I guess most people my generation could resonate with this, that life felt more like a "double life"...the one you live at school with your friends, and the one you live at home. Of course the biggest part of my life once I hit puberty, and the one that consumed most of my time, energy and thought, was the one at school and with friends, life at home was mostly for eating and sleeping. Not very conducive to learning life skills or fostering close knit relationships with our elders.
So once I had my first daughter, a yearning for these missed on skills overtook me, and I began searching for ways I could learn them. And lo and behold, I found out a close friend of mine actually had a sewing group that met at her house periodically, and she had a few beginner sewers that she was teaching at her home! The best part was that you didn't even need to have a sewing machine to participate, she would let you borrow hers :) I was elated!
Thus, this little zipper bag was born:
To me, this "awakening" came right after I had my daughter, and realized I had very little skills to pass on to her generation. My grandma knew how to do so many things, and even though I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with her during my childhood making bar soap, cheese (from the milk I had just milked myself with grandpa), bread and even some basic knitting and crochet...it still didn't even scratch the surface of all the skills grandma had! She also happened to be a professional sewer! Turns out my mother also had a professional training in sewing and made beautiful outfits for herself during her young days-something I only found out recently! But that was not all...my mother also happened to be a great artist, who did painting, ceramic work and wood work. Other than my mother's cooking skills, and again, very basic knitting and crochet, very little was passed on to me!
Probably because most of my time (once reached puberty) was spent outside of the home, either in school or with friends. I spent very little time around older women, and when I did, it was mostly just filling them in, in whatever new was going on in "my life" (that I wanted to share of course). So generation gaps became so large, and I guess most people my generation could resonate with this, that life felt more like a "double life"...the one you live at school with your friends, and the one you live at home. Of course the biggest part of my life once I hit puberty, and the one that consumed most of my time, energy and thought, was the one at school and with friends, life at home was mostly for eating and sleeping. Not very conducive to learning life skills or fostering close knit relationships with our elders.
So once I had my first daughter, a yearning for these missed on skills overtook me, and I began searching for ways I could learn them. And lo and behold, I found out a close friend of mine actually had a sewing group that met at her house periodically, and she had a few beginner sewers that she was teaching at her home! The best part was that you didn't even need to have a sewing machine to participate, she would let you borrow hers :) I was elated!
Thus, this little zipper bag was born:
What an awesome feeling it is to create something out of nothing yourself! I guess that's why I enjoy cooking so much. But this was something completely new to me, and I had no idea that in one evening, I could get some pieces of fabric and a zipper, and turn into this cute, functional little zipper bag!
I have to thank my sweet friend Leslie, from Things My Mother Taught Me for opening her home and sharing her time and skills with those of us that are less endowed with such expertise!
Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present: My very first sewing project ever! -with some help of course :)