Sewing Inspiration I

I have loved the posts that I have seen that are based on our heritage as it relates to sewing, so I decided to write my own! I have some amazing people in my life that have served as my inspiration for sewing!

Aunt Uarda was a professional seamstress, who sewed from 1950-1989 at a Woods Manufacturing Co. branch in Dublin, TX, with the headquarters were Waco, TX. Her starting pay was .75/hour which increased through the years to about $6/hour. She sewed clothing based on contracts that her company had. This American apparel ranged from making Army Raincoats (sewing on rubber...yikes!) and pants, both kids (Billy the Kid) and adults which also included different styles of blue jeans. Her contract also served Sidron of Dallas and Nardis of Dallas which were very expensive labels at that time. Later, Panhandle Slim took over and the factory made western apparrel. The jeans/pants contract came at a time when her kids were having hard times. That Christmas, she made each of her 6 grandchildren 4 pairs of jeans! She bought some of the fabric on her own and obtained some of the fabric pieces from scraps at the factory bins. She cut her patterns out at home, and went to the factory before and after hours to use the factory machines for personal use, per the company policy. When she brought the finished jeans home, her husband commented on how they looked "factory made", to which she replied, "They are!" She also made her daughter Jamie's wedding dress and her all of her granddaughters' bridesmaid's dresses. When the Dublin factory closed down in early 1980's, she bought the factory serger and is still using it!