For those of you who have been following my blog posts for a while, you know I come originally from a garment making background. It’s all my mom’s fault…somehow she got her tomboy daughter to fall in love with sewing. Check out this post to hear about my start. I’ve even had a couple of emails from followers asking about it in more detail, so for them, here you go!

Considering how much of my own garment sewing I did throughout high school, there are very few photos to offer as evidence. Definitely showing my age here, but I was in high school in the 1970’s when plaid skirt and vest outfits were all the rage, raglan sleeve t-shirts and elephant pants were in style, and prom dresses were either long and silky (think Disco) or prairie inspired. All you have to do is watch “That 70’s Show” and you’ll see my fashion life from back then. How many of you can relate?

This first photo is from my sister, Barb’s, grade 8 graduation when I was in grade 10. I made my dress and my mom made Barb’s. One of my grandmas was appalled at how low the v-neck was in this dress…she thought I should have been more demure like my sister. Get a load of those mushroom haircuts!

While at Seneca College studying fashion design in the early 1980’s, I learned an incredible amount about the technical aspect of sewing. That’s where my love was, learning about couture finishing methods, properties of different fabrics, and proper fitting techniques when pattern drafting. My teachers said I wasn’t a very good designer because my designs were too saleable (I thought that was the point!), but they did say that my talents fell within technical sewing and pattern making.

We were exposed to so many incredible fabrics and techniques and were taken on excursions to all the amazing fabric and notions shops around the Queen and Spadina area in Toronto. We learned how to work with suedes and leathers, how to hand paint yards and yards of white silk, and hand-roll a lapel in menswear tailoring class. Because anything handmade takes a long time, we were one of the few courses where students stayed at the school until long after midnight to complete their projects. Our final pattern-making exam was 8 hours long. Even though it was a tough, in-depth course it was a wonderful experience and I learned so much.

Each year the graduating students put on a fashion show and people in the Toronto fashion industry were invited to attend. They also voted on the top garments made by the students and I was fortunate enough to have been awarded Honourable Mention for my pleated, hand-painted silk dress. Many of us received job offers as a result of these shows. I received one such offer as a pattern maker, worked there for a couple of years, but hated it because it was so boring. The leather outfit I made (below right) looks like it could have been in a Duran Duran video…LOL!

After completing college I was asked to make a few garments for a couple of small scale fashion shows…definitely small scale because they also asked me to model them! The black dress was made from a beautiful knit jersey, and even though it was a very simple design the drape of the fabric made it seem more lux. I styled it with high black pumps, large, shiny, chunky earrings and my mom’s red leather belt from the early 1950’s.

It was at this time that I started to think about doing more patchwork, and that made me think about doing a patchwork dress. On one of my trips to Spadina I found three coordinating loosely woven cotton fabrics that I thought would work really well and proceeded to draft a pattern. Yes, those are Y-seams and other ridiculously difficult seams…what was I thinking?! The seam ripper was used a few times, but all-in-all I was incredibly proud of that dress. How many of you remember wearing double belts? And check out the short, spiky hair!

Then there’s the wedding dress from the late 1980’s…poofy sleeves, sequins and beads, lots of volume and big hair! Again, I found the gorgeous fabric on a trip to Spadina, drafted the pattern and got to work. Fabric, tulle, lining, interlining, beads, sequins and other notions cost me a grand total of $200 which is about $530 in today’s currency. I also made my sister’s maid-of-honour dress.

Once my daughter, Kate, came along it was so much fun to make things for her. I made a couple of reversible outfits, a few rompers, and some dresses. The first dress, below left, was made of a beautiful blue velvet, the bodice of the dress below centre includes three foundation paper-pieced hearts as well as bands of those fabrics at the hem. No, I did not make Alex’s vest and tie…they were gifts from his Grandma. The third photo shows Kate wearing her favourite lady-bug dress, with lady-bug buttons on the flower, and Alex is wearing his dinosaur shorts. I think Alex’s shorts were so big that he got 3 or 4 years out of them!

It’s been a very long time since I’ve actually made a garment since I’ve been so focused on quilting. The last wedding party I made dresses for was when I was very pregnant with Alex almost 30 years ago. The ladies picked up their dresses and only a week later my water broke! That was a little too close. I still do alterations and mending for family and close friends, but I draw the line at changing out zippers in jeans…I have my patience limits.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my walk down memory lane, even if it’s to laugh at my hairstyles over the years!

My Early Sewing Days