Sifoddling Along

By Marilyn Carnell

An Ending
When I was very young, about the time of the end of WWII, the family of a good friend who died, asked my mom and her two sisters to make a shroud for the burial.

Of course, they agreed, but it had to be constructed that night. Fabric was in short supply, but they found a piece of lavender (a color my grandmother called heliotrope) satin or silk and gathered in my Aunt Etta’s bedroom to cut and sew the garment. I was a mouse in the corner with orders to be quiet and be good.

It was then that they discovered that there was not enough fabric. Panic. Stores closed. What to do? They had to keep their promise. They tried to think of different ways to lay-out the pattern, but there was simply not enough material. They were nearly hysterical. The room echoed with nervous laughter. They my practical Aunt Fannie had an idea. They could make the back of the garment from another fabric. After all, it would never be seen. A quick trip to her house to retrieve some muslin that would complete the project.

Great sighs of relief when it was finished and ready to be delivered to the funeral home the fist thing next morning.

I was only an observer, but it left me with a lifelong aversion to the color lavender.

A Beginning
I recently decided I wanted to start sewing again. I was feeling more energetic and had tidied up my craft room and was reminded that I had many boxes of fabric, sorted by color (no lavender).

My serger hadn’t seen much use since making a gazillion masks to donate in the early days of COVID and I found I could not thread the notoriously finicky beast. After a few attempts, I decided it was time to splurge and buy a self-threading one.

At the store, I was told about a group that makes layette items for newborns in need. Every baby deserves a good start in life, and that mission appealed to me. It echoed a program pioneered in Finland in the 1930’s. Every baby there gets a box of supplies.

I attended a meeting that night where a group of women marked and cut out pieces of fabric to make kits for others to sew. I was given directions to make a diaper bag.

I made every mistake possible from choosing a pretty purple rayon fabric that was so soft it required quilting to reinforce it, to realizing that a folded over finish was too thick for my sewing machine to handle, thus needing a special binding. I finally got it finished and it will soon be on its way to meet the needs of a new baby in the New Year.

Happy New Year!