MamaBlogger365 – Dropped Stitches by Sarah Dawn Lenox
My grandmother was a great seamstress. My mother sewed, too. My last sewing project was a high school home ec assignment, more years ago than I care to think about. Sewing wasn’t anything I enjoyed or saw much purpose in pursuing. Although I always felt a little guilty about it, like there was this thread of maternal creativity and skill and I dropped the stitch, so to speak.
Fast forward many years, and I decide to take on a small home decorating project that requires a little bit of sewing. I break out my old sewing kit (yes, my mother sent me to college with one, and I still have it) and begin muddling through this project, slow but steady.
Next thing I know, my daughter, the one for whom if it’s not happening on a screen, it isn’t interesting to her, sidles up asking what I’m doing. So I offer her a piece of fabric and thread a needle for her, showing her a quick stitch (the only one I know, really). She folds over the fabric and zips out a little pouch, utterly delighted by her new skill. “I wanna make another one,” she says, looking at me expectantly.
So, while maybe I’ll never be a great seamstress, or even passable sewer, I can still re-attach a button, and I can be the conduit that carries the thread forward – from my grandmother to my mother to my child.
Sarah Dawn Lenox is a freelance writer.
Mamazina Magazine supports the Museum of Motherhood’s MamaBlogger365 project, coordinated by Mamapalooza.
