Sewing Lessons

A, my dear #1 daughter, has been asking me to teach her how to sew. I'm willing of course, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. The process is simple enough but the devil is in the details and I couldn't figure out how to remove enough details to keep it truly simple. So, I kept putting it off.

Then, I watched a video about the lace makers of Lefkara, Cyprus. You may have seen Lefkara lace called Lefkaritika. It's not a traditional woven lace but an embroidered lace. True Lefkara lace is made in a labor intensive process by spending countless hours making tiny stitches that pull and manipulate the linen cloth until it has a lacy appearance. Because I've dabbled in embroidery and many other handicrafts in my life, I know the incredible amount of time and skill it would take to make something like this. The problem in Lefkara is that traditional embroidered lace is a dying art. Traditionally, the skills and patterns were passed down from mother to daughter, but nowadays, the daughters and granddaughters are leaving the village for larger cities and other professions. Embroidering all day isn't their only option to earn a living. The ladies in the video I watched were all aging without anyone to take their place. It made me feel incredibly sad.

So many things are dying art forms. The skills I possess that make me a bit unusual were considered necessary for caring for a family two hundred years ago. Sewing wasn't a hobby. It was how you clothed your family. Knitting gave them socks to wear instead of being a way to pass time while riding in the car. Canning and other methods of home food preserving insured your family didn't starve. The things I do because I find them interesting and enjoyable were a way of life a few lifetimes ago. I personally feel that many of the problems in our society come from a loss of connection whether it's a connection to others or, in this case, a connection to the origin of the things we take for granted.

After the video ended, I felt an incredible burden to pass my knowledge on to my girls. I want them to realize that things don't have to come from a store and that they mean more if they don't. I want them to understand what quality is. I want them to appreciate the time and effort it takes to make something. With that in mind, A had her first sewing lesson on Friday afternoon. She made a little bag. She sewed up the sides and I attached the handles. It was so simple really, almost nothing, but she's so proud of it. She asked if I could help her make a dress next but I told her we should probably work on a few more simple projects first to perfect her skills. She's already planning another bag as a present for my mother's birthday complete with hand drawn pictures on muslin cloth. It's fitting really. Sitting beside my mother as she made dolls, my five year old self learned to sew many years ago.

Next up on the list of understanding where things come from, homemade butter and perhaps homemade bread.