Teenagers and sewing

I was very encouraged this morning to meet a nine year old who had made the lovely skirt she was wearing and the dressed soft toy she was carrying. Maybe a future "Sewing Bee" contestant?

I can sew on a button, and hem if absolutely necessary, but I find it unspeakably boring. I once got a school report for needlework that said I “must remember to end off my threads”. What can be less interesting than that?

My sons can use a sewing machine and do essential sewing. They learnt at school. I don’t know whether my grandchildren can sew or not.

Jeannied

People without hobbies are boring.

That may be but it does not need to be sewing! I my 3 adult daughters and my grandchildren (4 girls 3 boys) all love cooking, and the grandchildren enjoy baking too. My love of cooking came from my mother and grandmother who had lived all over the world and taught me how to cook different cuisines and to use different spices a love which I have passed on and which combined with our love of travel and emersion in different cultures.
I do agree that basic mending is useful and we can all sew buttons on, put in a zip and patch and mend tears; those are basic maintenance tasks which it would be useful for everyone to know, beyond that making curtains or clothes is a matter of taste and personal preference. I do not enjoy sewing and enjoy painting, but lots of others would find that tedious I expect

Jeannied

People without hobbies are boring.

Really?

Some people can be bore endlessly about their boring hobbies!

Just like you Faringdon59, I made my dresses and skirts from 14 years old. My mother had an old treadle machine and I learned early how to use it inspite of my DM hardly being able to sew on a button. Her skill was knitting. Fashion was expensive tgen but then people wore items longer than one year, or as some do now, longer than a night out. Basic sewing skill is useful for all, buttons come off, seams unravel, hems need sorting out but as others say, people are just not interested nowadays.

Here’s another Gran who can’t sew! I’ve managed nearly 75 years without this particular skill. Lovely hobby for some - just not for me!

Only one of my nieces and none of my GC can sew. She can also knit and crochet. She's no academic though and has no interest in sports. Everyone is different. She is helping me with remaking a dress I bought some years ago and never wore, which is fun.

At the moment I probably have more in common with her than my GC - although one GD appears to have inherited my love of literature and history, so that's something to look forward to.

Ilove both sewing and knitting but find the cost nowadays makes it a very expensive hobby. I do knit, but find that it’s much cheaper to buy clothes now, even from high end shops. It can easily cost in excess of £40 to buy a pattern and fabric

I think it’s something that you have to enjoy doing, I did sewing in school and made a smock top which I wore when pregnant on my first child, but I didn’t enjoy it so why would I expect my granddaughters to.

Clothes are too cheap now but only because they are made in China either by children or by prisoners. Quality is poor, the seams come apart and items cannot be repaired or altered.
I learnt to sew from my mum as most girls did (I was able to then teach my daughters and sons).
I hated sewing at school as it was so slow and boring having to get everything checked before moving on.
My GD's go to after school sewing club.

I hated sewing or knitting as a child with a vengeance and my interests run to drawing, painting and writing.
I have a basic ability to do simple repairs, sew on buttons or badges and I’m happy with that. Each to his or her own.

I remember reading about poor Charlotte Bronte as a governess being loaded with unnecessary sewing in wealthy families which she hated, as it was the thing to do.

Interestingly, the late Duke of Windsor did needlepoint, taught to him by his mother Queen Mary. Apart from that, he seems an uninteresting chap.

Our kids (who are now in their 30s) were not taught sewing at school, because the school decided they could not handle the expense of replacing and maintaining the machines. They were instead taught a bit of ‘textiles’ as part of their design technology classes. I thought it was a tragedy. I taught them the basics at home, but I remember so clearly the fun of comparing first garments with classmates, and my lovely arch file full of my examples of machine fell seams and understitched facings.

As a teenager I made most of my clothes as it was cheaper to do so. Now fabrics are relatively more expensive as are patterns, while ready made clothing is much cheaper. The last thing I made for myself was my wedding dress in 1985, although I made some clothes for my daughter when she was small using left over fabric offcuts that had been left over from earlier projects.
I still sew, but mostly craft type items using hand sewing. Schools only teach a limited amount of sewing techniques as girls now study resistant materials - formerly woodwork and metalwork - as well as cookery. In our day girls only did cookery and needlework. Sewing Bee has revived interest in sewing for some but I suspect most of the viewers are from my generation.
I worked as a Learning Support Assistant in a secondary school usually supporting students with physical difficulties in these practical classes. One of the young Art teachers had been timetabled to do a particular class involving sewing small applique cushions and she was really pleased to have me in her classroom as she didn't have strong sewing skills and I was able to support her with all the other students as well as the disabled student I was assigned to. Most students couldn't even thread a needle or tie a knot on the end of their thread! The teacher admitted she would have struggled without me as she was totally out of her comfort zone.

Haven’t read through the comments yet, but will put in my two pennorth.

I’m in my early 70’s, hate anything to do with sewing or knitting. I gave up needlework asap, much to the relief of the teacher.

Ashamed to say I can barely sew a button on.

So it’s not just today’s teenagers.

(I never mastered the sewing machines at school).

My mother made many of my clothes until I was 10 or so, they were quite beautiful, miniature copies of fasionable adult '50s clothes, including one lovely dress with a fitted dropped waist and a completely circular skirt. She always made my summer dresses using fabrics from Liberty, Dickens and Jones, John Lewis and our local market. I've no idea where you could go now to buy dress fabrics at reasonable prices.
She was also a whizz at alterations - she'd been apprenticed and done alterations in department stores before she married. She used to take the waistbands off skirts and trousers to adjust the fit to perfection. She regularly took out, shortened and replaced the sleeves in most of my father's new shirts as he had a large neck size but short arms.

Yes I can bake, cook, sew, crochet, knit and even make bobbin lace (a disappearing art form). To my mind if the grandchildren can cook a basic meal, sew on a button and turn up a hem that is all they need. I'm talking male and female! To make anything now is incredibly expensive.

Jeannied

People without hobbies are boring.

That’s a very strange thing to say! You could at least have said ‘I THINK that people without hobbies are boring’!
Not everyone thinks like you do, thankfully!

As a teenager, there was a weekly (or maybe monthly?) jumble sale at our local church. My friend and I would go along, buy something glamorous for hardly any cost at all. We would do some cutting/sewing and then we were ready to go out to a local live music hot-spot, looking utterly gorgeous. This was in the mid 60s. Much to my regret, I didn't keep any of these creations. I do still sew. I don't think of it as a hobby. It's just what I do.

Petra..I donated an old sewing machine to TWAM today what a worthwhile charity.

I did needlework at school in both junior and secondary schools as most of us did at that time (1970s). I learnt to embroider many different stitches. Sadly, sewing and knitting are not my fortés, although my mother and grandmothers were excellent knitters and one of my grandmothers made many dresses for us when we were children; often with the most exquisite smocking. All three ladies knitted beautiful outfits when I had my three babies. I was so lucky. I also treasure two tablecloths that each grandmother made for me when I was engaged. One is embroidered with hyacinths and the other with more summery flower so l alternate them according to the season on an occasional table l have in my living room.

I did one term of sewing at my grammar school but I taught myself to sew using my Mum's old treddle sewing machine. I made skirts and simple shift dresses because clothes were relatively much more expensive. I used to make all our curtains, having progressed to a whizzy electric machine. Nowadays I mend the occasional button or hem. I really need to shorten one of my newish dresses as it sits at a very unflattering 'just below the knee'.

Well, I don't know about teenagers but I'm 75 and I can't really sew either.

I went to more than one school. Junior schools did hand sewing and secondary schools we used treadle sewing machines. I was useless at both. I still can't sew a button on properly and always take clothes to my local dry cleaner to do these minor alterations.

It is true that probably these days it is just as easy (and cheaper) to buy clothes than make them. However, when I watch the Great British Sewing Bee I think how wonderful it would be to be able to make such unique, interesting and well-fitting outfits. I find shop clothes - even when quite expensive - to be very dull and uninspiring.

I often think I would like to do some sort of free hand embroidery. I do painting and drawing and it would be nice to do some sort of contemporary embroidery - though I'm not sure I will ever get round to trying it out!

We learned hand sewing and embroidery at junior school, which I enjoyed.

I spent one miserable year at senior school doing Domestic Science, cookery and sewing, making a shapeless night dress.

Thankfully, after that year, I did Latin instead!

That doesn't mean I can't sew, because I was making my own clothes from age 14 or 15 and my DC's clothes when I had a family, plus home furnishings. But I rarely sew now.

My DD took up sewing a few years ago and has made herself, her daughters and her niece some lovely clothes. She has also made a lot of toilet bags not just for me but for other people and family. I always used to make my curtains and cushions and dresses for my daughter when she was little. My grandmother always made my and my sisters clothes, but I can remember one day when I was about 15 I begged my mother for a shop bought dress! I still darn socks (and even holes in the toes of tights) but I never got the hang of crocheting, even though my mother tried to teach me as she was expert at it. But knitting was okay.

I think we are now really well into a throw away age. Despite all the ho hw about the planet and limited resources.

All the teenagers l know would never sew anything at all.

Including a slight tear or putting missing button an a blouse. They cant thread a needle. Never mind sew.

One told me it is beneath them to mend clothes. They will just but new replacement clothes. And give the rest to the local Charity Shop.