[Fearless Females #18…Special Talents]
My Grandma Lassalle was a bit of an old fashioned person. Anything she could make with her own hands she did.
She was a craftswoman with a needle. She tatted, sewed, embroidered. All fine work she did up until her 80s.
When I was a child, she made pajamas for all her grandchildren every Christmas. She sewed two sets for all 14 grandchildren! She worked on them most of the year, then promptly lost at least one set on Christmas Eve. One year it was my pajamas. They didn’t show up until February 😀
All her furniture had lacy doilies spread on them. Her table cloth was tatted too. I can remember tracing my fingers along the intricate patterns. I never learned how to tat, but she taught my middle sister.
She was also a fine embroiderer. This is something I share with her. I learned when I was young. I don’t recall if I ever worked on anything with my Grandma. However, I do have a set of the day of the week dish towels she embroidered for all of us.
I knew that my Grandma loved to sew. I remember one year we were signed up for the craft project of the month club. One month the project was a little plastic sewing machine on a wooden frame. I made it just for her.
I imagine her sewing skills came in handy raising six children during the Depression. She kept active with those skills long after those troublesome years turning out many different items which she used every day. I wish I had inherited her ability and patience with the needle. Those skills went to my middle sister, who now has my Grandma’s old sewing machine.