My Mother, Custom Clothier

Does your mother have an amazing talent?  One that you took for granted as a child?  One that you cherish as an adult?  My mother’s talent is sewing.  The term “seamstress” did not seem to do justice to her talent.  When I looked for something more suitable, I settled on the term Custom Clothier.

One of my mother’s less creative endeavors involved sewing about a hundred ballet shoes during the 19 years I studied ballet.  Last fall, I started teaching ballet and needed a new pair of ballet shoes.  I’m sure my mom would have been happy to sew the elastic, but it seemed somewhat pathetic for a 36-year-old woman to ask her mother to sew her ballet shoes.  Luckily, the shoes came with one side of the elastic already sewn.  All I had to do was sew the other side.  I thought to myself, “I can tie a knot, and I can thread a needle, how hard can it be?”  Every Monday night after I finish teaching my ballet class, I look at the red marks on my feet where the elastic has been digging into my skin.  I take a moment to appreciate the hundred ballet shoes that did not leave red marks on my feet.  

My latest reminder of how much I appreciate my mother’s talent happened last weekend when I was getting ready to have my picture taken for an upcoming performance.  I needed to cut a slit on each side of my costume so that the skirt would turn better.  There were two separate layers to the skirt; a flowered pattern on top and a solid blue lining underneath.  My son was over at my mom’s house, and I had about 15 minutes to cut the slits.  The first mistake happened when I attempted to make small cuts where the top of the slits should be.  I accidentally made a 2 inch cut on the right side of the dress.   I successfully cut the lining on the left side.  The second mistake happened when I accidentally cut a front seam rather than a side seam (of course, this was the TOP layer of the skirt).  I put the dress on to evaluate the damage.  Yep, gaping hole on the right side and a misplaced slit on the left side.  I took the dress off.  In my desperation, I decided that the hole on the right would be less noticeable if it gradually got bigger.  I picked up the scissors and angled the cut.  A rational person would have realized that more cutting = a bigger hole.   After cutting the correct seam on the left side, I put the dress back on.  Now the hole looked like a wild animal had attacked my right thigh.  And, the accidental slit in the front was going to be impossible to hide.  My mom showed up right then with my son, and I went downstairs to show her the damage I had done.  She assured me that she could fix it, but she was leaving town and wouldn’t be able to fix it for several days.  I had to have my picture taken in this shredded dress in 2 hours.  After I got my son down for his nap, I attempted to use a needle and thread to cover up the damage as much as possible.  I turned the gaping hole on the right into a little lump that could easily be covered by my hand.  Then, I put a few stitches in the front slit so it wouldn’t fly open.  When I got to the dance studio, my instructor informed me that I wasn’t supposed to cut the outside skirt at all.  As I processed the fact that I now had 3 major gashes in the outside skirt that I needed to fix, I started madly texting my mom.   My plea, “PLEASE HELP ME PUT IT BACK TOGETHER.”  Her response, “I’m sure I can fix it.”  

Mom,  
Thank you for saying you could fix it without judging me. 
Thank you for sharing your talent with me for the last 37 years. 
Thank you for making my childhood easy and carefree. 
Thank you for being my mom. 

My mother made my wedding dress.  It was beautiful.

My mother made the tutus in the pictures below.  These pictures were taken before digital cameras, so it is difficult to see all of the detail.  They are the two most beautiful tutus I have ever seen!