I bought this cute little pattern some time ago at a quilt show. A friend of mine made a comment at the time that I didn’t have a clothesline so why buy a pattern to make a clothespin holder. She was right… despite really loving the way quilts smell when they are dried outside… I simply have the kind of debilitating allergies that prevent me from enjoying the pollen they bring in with them (these are the same allergies that deprive me of the smell of a good campfire).
But there was something about the little dress and the clothespin holder that really struck me. Although I did not truly grow up sewing at my mother’s knee (not that she didn’t try) she did make all of my dresses by hand when I was little. I was the best dressed little brat I knew. Every holiday I had a new outfit. My mother is such an accomplished sewer… she once made my Dad an entire suit. A SUIT people!
She learned from her mother and grandmother. My Great-Grandmother used to sew her clothes and aprons. The quality of her sewing was so well known that she used to supplement the household income by sewing for the neighbors. When all the children and grandchildren moved out of their house they received a few gifts from Grandma… an apron and a clothespin holder among them. She made them all on her treadle sewing machine… which currently lives in my log cabin. I also have quite a few of Grandma’s aprons here at my house.
My own grandmother tried to teach me to sew, knit, crochet and can every summer. I think she started over again every single summer hoping something would stick… or maybe she was just trying to keep me busy helping her so I didn’t get out of her site (smart woman). I have dedicated several patterns to her over the years. It’s a very special relationship… the one between a grandmother and granddaughter and she has left a lasting mark on my heart.
Unbeknownst to me, my mother bought the same pattern for the same clothespin holder. She was probably struck by her many memories of her grandmother as well when she saw and purchased it for herself. A few weeks ago she pulled the pattern out and made the clothespin holder for me out of 1930’s fabrics and she surprised me with it. She assembled it much the same way she made some of my old doll dresses (Yes… she made my dolls dresses too… before it was cool to have a matching dress with your doll). Here is my mommy.
I am not sure what I will do with it. I still have clothespins although I don’t hang anything outside… but it’s too cute to hide in the laundry room. I could hang it near my desk and put mail in it. I could hang it in my sewing studio. What would you do with this lovely little clothespin holder if it was lucky enough to hang in your house?
Check out the Grandma’s In the Kitchen Apron pattern that I designed for the four of us… the four generations of women who sew and cook and do it all with LOVE.
