Sewing education.

The next step in my sewing-knitting education was Home Economics class at school. In Russia it was government approved curricula for everything. There were no electives, all classes were required. And home economics was a requirement for girls. For boys there were classes in woodwork, some metalwork, such things. It all started in fifth grade.

I loved it. I was teacher’s pet. I could sew, knit and embroider. Since my school didn’t have cooking facilities (some schools did), we didn’t do any cooking. 

The curriculum was quite intense. I don’t remember everything, but we alternated between sewing and knitting. First, it was an apron, and a garter stitch scarf. Then between sixth and tenth grade we did gathered skirt, knitted hat, shirt blouse, mittens, socks, straight skirt, summer dress without sleeves, sheath dress with sleeves, light unlined jacket. Don’t remember if we did a sweater. 

There was no textbook for this class. The teacher would give instructions; we took notes and followed instructions. We measured each other, then the teacher draw the pattern on the blackboard and we draw our patterns on a huge sheets of graph paper; everybody to her personal measurements. Then we did fittings with the teacher’s help. We learned along the way. There were also a lot of instructions on how to put things together. By the end of high school (tenth grade back in my time) any girl could put together a decent simple skirt or blouse even if she hated sewing. I wore everything I made at school to shreds.

Later, after I finished the university, I decided I want to learn more about pattern drafting. I took classes “for housewives”.  It was four semesters. We met twice a week, at night, after workday, for three hours a night. Once again there were no books available, only tons of instructions from the teacher.  Taking measurements; detailed pattern drafting; how to convert set in sleeve into a raglan, dolman, batwing sleeve; pants, skirts, blouses, everything. How to do collars, pockets, cuffs, buttonholes, etc. And fittings.

It was very demanding. There were a lot of homework assignments and in order to be allowed to move to the next semester all homework had to be done and accepted by the instructor. If one skips classes or doesn’t do homework to the teacher’s satisfaction – the money paid for the class is lost. One can take the class over again, but one would have to pay again. It was no lazy weekends for two years. But I had very good base patterns for myself. Fitted to perfection and I knew how to convert the base pattern into whatever I wanted.

Grandma was very old by this time and couldn’t do much sewing.  I had an opportunity to move out of my parents’ home, and I bought my own sewing machine.  It did zigzag! And buttonholes!  It was a big deal for me.

Unfortunately, I left my notes and patterns behind when we moved to the US.