My Sewing Inspiration

Who inspired you to sew? Someone asked me the other day. My inspiration, like many others, was my mother, but my mother is like no other. What makes her so special is her determination, patience, creativity, generosity, and I have never met anyone who can sew like her.

Growing up during World War II in England, my mother’s house was bombed on Christmas Eve. Luckily, she, her mother, and brother were in the Anderson shelter so all survived, but a few days later, she and her brother were evacuated into the country.

Their new home was dreadful. A mean lady took them in for the money. My mother was forced to look after the old lady and a houseful of dogs and cats. The few toys they had were confiscated and food was severely rationed. Any extra money my grandmother sent for food, my mother and her brother never saw.
When the lady died, my mother and her brother finally found relief and went to live in Lancaster Castle with a bunch of other children, some nuns, and prisoners.

You see, Lancaster Castle also operated as a prison. In fact, back in 1899, only 30+ years before, children had also been imprisoned here with adults, but to my mother and her brother, life suddenly opened up to them and the world never seemed so exciting.

They had almost nothing, but my mother and her brother would escape into a fantasy world by creating art with everything and anything at hand. They painted with berries and dead caterpillars and fashioned murals out of shrapnel. My mother even once found an old yellow raincoat and discovered when you cut it and placed it right sides together, it stuck together. She made doll’s clothes for dolls she didn’t even own. Who knew this was the beginning of her sewing career?

Tomorrow – Read about Coming to America – my mother’s journey to Hollywood to design costumes for the stars.

p.s. - Who was your sewing inspiration?