Here’s what Mary Brooks Picken has to say about it in her book published by The Singer Sewing Machine Company in 1949.
When you sew, make yourself as attractive as possible. Go through a beauty ritual of orderliness. Have on a clean dress. Be sure your hands are clean, finger nails smooth--a nail file and pumice will help. Always avoid hangnails. Keep a little bag full of French chalk near your sewing machine where you can pick it up and dust your fingers at intervals. This not only absorbs the moisture on your fingers, but helps to keep your work clean. Have your hair in order, powder and lipstick put on with care. Looking attractive is a very important part of sewing, because if you are making something for yourself, you will try it on on intervals in front of your mirror, and you can hope for better results when you look your best.
Again, sewing must be approached with the idea that you are going to enjoy it, and if you are constantly fearful that a visitor will drop in or your husband come home and you will not look neatly put together, you will not enjoy your sewing as you should. Therefore, 'spruce up' at the beginning so that you are free to enjoy every part of any sewing you do.
I think things have changed! 
How do you prepare?
prepare? we are supposed to prepare??? The closest I get is glasses on, cup of coffee nearby, and that's about it...
ReplyDeleteI agree tea in hand , TV on and I'm off.
ReplyDeleteI have been getting ready to sew all wrong for all these years. Sweats are not what I should be wearing. Makeup - my husband would wonder where I was going to be going if I put makeup on just so I could sew.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giggle!!
this was cute to read! My how times have changed!
ReplyDeletebetty
I could just visualize all these preparations and just couldn't stop laughing!! By the time I got myself presentable.....I wouldn't have any time to sew!! I can't sew in my pajamas if I feel like it!
ReplyDeleteI love this!!! I especially love the Lucy picture. When I had a house (lol) and got to sew, I am a pajama girl!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove it! Mary Brooks Picken is my sewing hero. Good music and a cup of tea, and I'm ready to sew! Oh, and most likely AFTER my kiddo is napping or in bed for the night!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Michelle, that was certainly good for a laugh. When I prepare to sew I wash, dry and iron fabric, then I lay out the pattern, cut, thread machines and I'm ready to sew. Hair is usually in ponytail outta the way, hands are always clean, cup of tea, jeans or pjs whatever, no clean dress though. lol
ReplyDeleteFirst I light a fire in the wood stove. Then I wait for the loft to warm up. About an hour later I go out with my coffee and spend an hour looking at my fabric stash. I let the dogs in and out about 6 times during all of this. Then I get down to sewing. But I have to decide which machine I will use! Then I have to find the rotary cutter and ruler and the pins and the thread and the needle. Oh and haul some wood and take off three layers as the loft warms up. No time for all that fuss with my hair and make up. Once in a while I will put on a little mascara so the dogs know that I love them....
ReplyDeleteHa Ha! Right. I ALWAYS do this, don't you?
ReplyDeleteShows I don't sew clothes. No makeup, don't care what the finger nails look like, just concentrating on sewing. I wonder what kind of machine that Lucy was attempting to use?
ReplyDeleteDon't we wish?! Around here it is frantic/panic time - whenever I can grab a second and an inch of space.
ReplyDelete