Archive for Grandmother’s Wisdom
The Life of a Garment
Posted by: | CommentsAs I was pulling up my underwear yesterday my hand went through it as the elastic pulled away from the fabric with a soft ripping sound. As I looked at the damage in the mirror, my first thought was on what they would become next. Another part of me simply said “Throw them out!” Here is a perfect example of what used to be and what is now.
Long ago and far away, when I was small, worn garments were sorted by fabric and type. They were all useful still, just in another form. Would the collars and cuffs get turned on a dress shirt? Would the soft cotton knits become polishing cloths and dust rags? Would the old clothes be washed and folded neatly to be ready for the rag man? Could this dress be made smaller for a younger sister or turned into doll clothes? This may sound very frugal and time consuming to us now; and yet I wonder if there are not some good ideas for these strange times as well. Let me just touch on some ways Grandmother reused a garment.
We got chicken feed in calico cloth bags during and, for a time, after the War. When the feedbag was empty the seams were carefully ripped out and these one yard lengths of cloth became curtains, aprons, napkins or a child’s dress. Fancy church and party dresses became pieces for a special quilt. Linen was eventually turned into fine quality writing paper, and everyday clothing became rag rugs. We always had a rag bag to grab out of for wiping up spills, washing the car, and polishing our shoes.
The best pot holders ever were made from the cut-off legs of jeans, filled with a thick square of old cotton mattress pad and decorated with apples and pears cut-out of bright colored napkins. You never got burned through these no matter how hot the pot or the oven. Sweaters and flannel shirts with stains, or holes in the elbows, became mittens or glove liners. Big sheets became small sheets and table cloths became placemats or napkins.
Now that I am again thinking about what I buy and whether I need it, my rag bag has taken on new life – no more paper towels! Cloth napkins are more common again – no need for paper napkins. In the garden the tender plants prefer to be tied up with strips of cloth ripped off an old cotton t-shirt rather than a plastic and metal twist tie. All natural fiber cloths can also be composted.
So the life of a garment starts out decorating our body, becomes a different piece of clothing or a useful household item, then a rag or a garden tie and finally returns to the soil as compost. It could also become paper, filler for quilts, or a rug. So when you buy clothes, realize you are also buying something for the future, something that can be so much more than just a pair of pants!
A Laundry P.S.
Posted by: | CommentsI learned as a young girl that when I hung the clothes on the line, everyone left me alone! I loved the time to myself with the bird songs, the breezes, the lovely clean smell of the clothes and how it looked when I was done. The order of well hung clothes blowing on the line gave me a feeling of pride in my work.
Some of my family always thought I was far too concerned with the way they were hung, and the order I put them in. I did have all the towels together, all the t-shirts, all the socks, etc. In the small picture this seems obssesive. What only becomes apparent when you follow the whole process is that as I took the clothes down and folded them, everything was already sorted, the socks could be balled and so they were ready to go in the drawer.
I kept this practice up as a Mother since it gave me a time outside alone, which I treasured above all else with five children at home. It also gave me a sense of order and beauty none of them would mess up. Looking at the neat rows of clothes drying on the line and smelling so good is a satisfaction I still smile over and remember all the way back to the time I was barely tall enough to reach the line, so I used a stool. Sweet memories indeed!
Laundry!
Posted by: | CommentsLast week my daughter and her two children stayed with me while getting ready to move across the country. It was a wonderful experience and allowed me the pleasure of their company before their departure. I also realized up close and personal some of the differences in understanding and knowledge between my childhood and theirs! Let’s start with basic awareness about laundry.
These days, it seems, if you wear something once, it goes into the dirty clothes pile. There is no place to put those things that can be worn again because they are not really dirty yet. The exception might be outer wear – jackets, sweaters – only sometimes! It seems a simple thing to just wash everything, and on one hand, it is!
Years ago there was so much more to think about before putting something in the wash. Clothes wear out faster the more often they are washed and whether they are dried outside on a line or in the dryer, the sun or heat also takes its toll on a garment. The use of water was also part of the equation. Many of us had wells and being careful of our water use was part of life. Ceptic systems, common before sewers, were also fragile and if you didn’t have a grey water system, you monitored the amount of water that went into it or it overflowed into the yard. Cost of detergent figured into it, amount of electricity used, time to hang the clothes on the line and then take them in before the dew fell, and so forth.
It sounds like alot of bother now. And yet it created the web of connection between all things, the knowledge of our actions being so much bigger than just ‘throw it in the wash’ and somehow it will magically appear back in our drawer! I have a vivid memory from 4 years old about laundry.
I loved wearing dresses and had a favorite dress above all others. I was very careful of my clothes because I didn’t want my favorite dresses turned into rags before I outgrew them. My Mother would make me change my dress after three days, not because it was dirty (as she was fond of saying) but because she was tired of seeing it! Then after she washed it and hung it on the line, I watched it drying in the back yard while I was playing, and occasionally felt it to see when it would be dry. I remember standing on tippy-toes to feel the hem so I would know when it was dry and could be taken down to iron. I knew the entire “trip” my dress took before I could put it on again at a very young age!
I want my Grandchildren to know this about their clothes and their lives. I want them to be aware of the connection to ‘all that is’ a sock has, or a dress, or a pair of pants. We can return to the place of remembering and create a sacred connection to the earth through these small things. This is how we will clean up our planet as well. Wear things that are not dirty more than once. It’s a start!
