Waste Not . . .

 

When you were in seventh grade, the first year of junior high school, you had home economics class for two back-to-back periods each week. You'd have this required class for the next three years, and the first third of each year was where sewing was taught. The home ec teacher was a witch and all three thirds of the year were deadly. Miss T was the one who early on said to you more than once, "You'll never be any good at this."

The other memorable thing she said was, "Don't waste fabric!" When you placed your pattern pieces on the "material," you  couldn't cut until she inspected to make sure that each piece was as close as possible to the next. There was a lot of repining.

You survived the three years of home ec, earning no higher than a "C" in any report period. And after that you swore off sewing, cooking, and all the other things you would never be any good at.

Then, when you were about twenty, you went looking for a particular piece of clothing you couldn't live without. You needed a camel-colored jumper and none was to be found. But your mother, an excellent seamstress who couldn't understand your aversion to home ec (she never met Miss T), offered the use of her machine and went with you to pick out fabric. It had been a good many years, and your skills were rusty, to say the least. So you accepted your mother's guidance, cleaned off the dining room table, laid out your fabric and began to pin. Almost instantly, your mother was at your elbow. "Don't waste fabric!" And you dutifully moved your pieces until they were barely touching each other.

Neither Miss T nor your mother ever made a quilt (well, so far as you know in the case of Miss T). You never knew what they did with those tiny, irregular pieces of fabric. You knew they had both lived through the Great Depression, so you cut them a break. But when, many, many years later, you made your first quilt (Eleanor Burns, Log Cabin, Quilt In A Day), you just knew that the ghost of Miss T was watching you and would swoop down at any minute.

Years later your interest turned to paper piecing. "It wastes fabric," you were told. You paused. You thought about the bags and bags of fabric scraps you've given to Ruth over the years. You thought about the multiple Rubbermaid tubs of fabric left-overs currently residing in your studio. You did it anyway. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Then one day, even as you were trimming and pressing, you got a text message from your friend. Kathy had written, "Favor? I have been using my fireplace a bit and teeny snips and pieces of fabric are great fire starters. Would you save the unusable scraps for me? I do pick up."

At last your mind is put at ease. You know now that when you meet St. Peter and he says, "So, you fed the hungry and you comforted the dying. But what about all that wasted fabric?" you can say, "It kept Kathy warm."


"

Comments

Janet O. said…
Great story, Nancy. Our Home Ec classes were not quite as many hours as yours, but it appears that the teachers were trained in like manner.
Loved the ending. So satisfying.
LizA. said…
Oh my — Miss T could have been my mother! But, I did pass Home Ec with flying colors. In fact, I was allowed to sew anything I wanted since I had been sewing my own clothes since 3rd grade. When they were lined up for help with the teacher she would send them to me......

Keeping Kathy warm — 😀 we won’t talk about the bins of scraps I just can’t throw out. And they’ve tripled after making 1800+ masks.....sigh.
Quiltdivajulie said…
Omigosh - what a perfect solution! I had Home-Ec in sixth grade with a teacher very much like yours. Thankfully the mental scars from that year have faded and I now waste fabric with abandon in order to fill my crumb boxes (although I am more likely to toss the tiniest bits these days). Wonder if Kathy pays postage for mail-order delivery?
Anonymous said…
7th grade home-ec: required cotton apron, A-line skirt with zipper, huck towel embroidery, gingham sampler, and a white sauce that always burned : )
Robby said…
I must confess, I outright refused to take HomeEc. That was for girls that didn't want a career. My parents, who both had careers, agreed I could take a foreign language instead of HomeEc. BUT, I had to spend at least a year in a 4-H group that did cooking and sewing. I acquiesced as my mother and I both knew that her trying to teach me in her limited free time wouldn't be good for either of us. I remember cursing my entire way through my fair sewing project and vowing to never sew clothes again. I did make blue ribbon brownies though! Still do, in fact.
Kay Taylor said…
There may be other things I learned in Home-ec, but I'm not sure of anything in sewing except - I can -by gosh- put in a zipper!!! I must have ripped out and put that zipper in a dozen times (along with most of my classmates) but I can absolutely.put.in.a.zipper!!!
I love the posts where you share then and now stories. This one has a great finish! I know Becky of the Quilting Twins also uses scraps as fire starters, they must work well :) I can see me telling an unruly piece of fabric, “Watch out or you’ll be heading to Kathy’s house!”
kathyz said…
7th grade home-ec -- half the year sewing and half cooking. Still have the pleated yellow apron with pockets and the pin cushion. Cooking tho -- that was the witch. I remember bran muffins -- soaking those bran sticks in milk til they looked like drowned mealworms. What 13 year old needs bran muffins? And they burned. Thanks for bringing back those memories!
Ronda said…
You are an awesome story teller! My 7th grade Home-Ec teacher must have been Miss T's twin. On the cooking side of Home-Ec, we were required to eat everything that we cooked. This day's menu item was grape tapioca. I told the teacher that I didn't like grape flavored ANYTHING and tapioca gagged me. She said, "You WILL eat it!". So, I cooked the grape tapioca and sat down at the table next to the teacher and after taking one bite of that awful pudding, I promptly threw up on her. She never made anyone eat what they didn't like after that.
Barbara Anne said…
In 7th and 8th grades we had only one class period and had one semester of cooking, and one of sewing. We made a skirt in 7th grade and a blouse in 8th. We made a syrup from scratch which I thought was almost magic and that my parents really liked. Mom used that recipe for the rest of her life.

I never liked ironing clothes but enjoy ironing my quilting fabrics. Go figure.

Hugs!
Margie said…
My favorite home ec story was actually my daughters. In the 70s she made me a “hippy” sort of dress that didn’t require any fitting. When I opened my Mother’s Day gift I was amazed. “How did you get this done in such a short time?” “ You just follow the pattern directions and don’t ask Mrs. Lovelady any questions. When one of my friends asked for help, the sewing teacher pinned her sleeve in the collar of the dress.”
Bridget said…
I learned to sew in 2nd grade from a teacher so I have a different perspective. I loved everything about it! My mother didn't have the least idea how to sew. Which is good in a way because she had no idea if you were wasting fabric or not! She also had no clue how to use the sewing machine she had...she thought I was building a rocket every time I made a project. That's good for the ego too! Home ec wasn't a required class when I reached HS but the teacher was smart enough to offer sewing for boys. they could make puffer vests, gym bags, tents. The Home ec class was always packed!
AnnieO said…
My 7th grade sewing teacher was Miss Cotton (really!) and she cared a lot more about sending girls to the office for talking in class than making us efficient seamstresses. I remember making a skirt with an interfaced waistband--somehow I cut off the overlap at the back zip and improvised by making skinny ties to close the waist. I thought myself very clever, but Miss Cotton made me tear it all out and make a whole new waistband per the pattern instructions. I was so mad! My high school teacher was much much better and really taught us skills. I have not made many clothes since becoming a quiltaholic, but my seams are always finished when I do!
Judi said…
Home Ec was no better in the UK. I remember knitting a cardigan, making and embroidering an apron and making a gingham skirt that was so gathered you could have made a two-man tent with it (talk about wasting fabric!)

I think the initial attraction of making quilts was that they didn't have to fit anybody - whatever size my quilt turned out was just fine!

Do you think Kathy would like some more scraps if I bring them in September??
Susan said…
Your mother did try some quilting with me, but her years of sewing clothing could not keep her from sewing a 5/8" seam, and we ripped more seams than we actually finished sewing. Dementia sewing is not a productive thing.
Nann said…
I echo your home ec story. I was in 4-H in 5th and 6th grade so I already knew something about cooking (7th) and sewing (8th). Both years the home ec teachers were terrible -- especially the sewing year. 55 years later I have a different perspective: those teachers had insane class loads. No wonder they were short-tempered. Despite the trauma of the junior high experience I cooked (a little bit) and sewed (quite a lot) in the succeeding years and to this day I enjoy the former and am obsessed (of course) by the latter.