Early Outfits, 1973 (Volume 002)

 

Sarah Lynn Swiney, 12, grade 8, 1973

That front jumper yoke was no easy matter, for a 12-year-old!  The bodice was lined, and the skirt was a half-circle.

I got the turquoise necklace on an Indian reservation somewhere in Wyoming.

I am on the right.  I have no idea who the photographer was, or why I was sneering at him or her.

Some of the First Things I Ever Sewed (from Volume 001)

From Volume 001 of my scanned photos.

We were visiting Uncle Howard, Aunt Evelyn, and my cousin Janine near Arthur, North Dakota.  Rhonda is up to her usual tricks, hiding herself immediately behind me.  I'm wearing a jumper and blouse I'd made.  I was about 14.

Sarah Lynn with Sparkle, Rhonda with Uncle Howard's cat, and Janine with Blossom Belle Brisbane.

Daddy and me at the park in Ft. Morgan, feeding the ducks and the geese.  Janice made me the red polka-dot dress, and it was a much-loved favorite of mine.  One day not long thereafter, Loren, who was selling sewing machines at the time, brought home a Singer sewing machine just for me.  He taught me how to thread it, how to clean and oil it -- and he rummaged up a piece of leftover red polka-dot fabric and helped me make a triangular headscarf, lined with blue silky stuff.  He showed me how to sew blue grosgrain ribbons on the corners for the ties.  

You cannot imagine how delighted I was.  My sewing career was off and running!  It was 1968, and I was 7.

Here's Victoria wearing that same red scarf, a good 35 years later:

There I am with my little Sunday School class of 4-through-6-year-olds.  The dress I'm wearing is double knit.  I was 13, still using the Singer.

This is possibly the first suit I made myself.  Of course, it would be plaid, and it would have an inset waist, and it would have curved fold-back cuffs.  I didn't worry about the difficulties of any particular pattern; I simply picked what I liked best, and then determinedly worked my way through it.  I was 14.

Pictures from 2004

 Victoria took these pictures in 2004.

Caleb

Aaron in the shirt I made for Joseph in 1989

The stripe on Caleb's shirt is a border print, one of many Janice gave me.  He loved that shirt, but one day he tried shinnying under a barbed-wire fence, got the shirt caught, and tore a hole right in the printed stripe on the back.

I patched it with a dab of stripe I had saved for some unknown reason, and it was hard to tell anything had ever happened to it.

A Few 6-Month Dresses

 

Victoria Maurine Jackson, 6 months, Aug 24, 1997

Dorcas Anne Jackson, 6 months, Jan 4, 1983

Hannah Lynn Jackson, 6 months, Aug 28, 1981

From 1983 through 1992

 In no particular order:

The only thing I made in this picture was Keith's sweater, cut from a sweater of Larry's.

Miscellaneous Old Photos

 

Dorcas & Teddy

Hannah and Bobby's wedding, June 25, 2000

I sewed Victoria's flowergirl dress, my suit (which looks sort of like a couch cover, in retrospect), and Lydia and Hester's candle-lighter dresses.

Dorcas, 6 months, January 4, 1983

Victoria, 17, senior pictures, 2014

Victoria, 6 months, August 24, 1997

Victoria, 6 months, August 24, 1997

March 1999

I sewed Hester, Lydia, and Victoria's dresses.

Fourth of July, 1992

Joseph & Teddy, July 4, 1992

Hannah & Keith

Dorcas on her tenth birthday, July 4, 1992

November 1992

November 1998

Christmas Suit 1992, etc.

 

Victoria Maurine Jackson, 2.5, Dec 1999

Hester Yvonne Jackson, 10, Dec 1999

Sarah Lynn Swiney, 12, 1978

Larry & Lydia Jackson, Christmas 1992

Lydia dress was made with leftovers from my suit, below.

Sarah Lynn Jackson, Christmas, 1992

This is the suit I was sewing the night of September 14, 1992, when Larry called from Central City to tell me Daddy had died on their way home from Grand Island.  Thankfully, Larry was driving.