A Nun’s (Sewing) Story

My mother always told me that the nuns taught her how to sew.
You know what that means, don’t you? Every garment must be as neat on its back as its front, each running stitch identical. All dresses are lined; every pleat is tailor-pressed. If you can’t make a proper French Knot, you might find a ruler-toting nun placing one around your neck.

But my mom always laughed when she talked about her Catholic dressmaker days. When she made outfits for my dolls, she never got around to putting snaps on the backs. She remarked that my high school Home Ec teacher seemed like “an awful old frump,” and finished my final project for me, drinking a beer.

Was there more to this sartorial nun-training than met the eye? Before my mother died a couple years ago, she opened up on a number of topics, including some schoolgirl memories I’d never heard before.

She grew up, as “Betty Jo,” one of five in a Depression-era, Irish-Catholic ghetto in St. Paul. The church was the center of social life and cultural identity. A nun might be someone a young girl would look up to.

“Not all of the nuns were old, either,” Mom told me. Her sewing teacher was the youngest novice, Sister Marie, who adored— adored!— fashion.

When Betty Jo couldn’t decide on a plaid skirt or a middy blouse, Sister Marie pushed those patterns aside, and pointed to a Vogue magazine cover: “What about this?”

It was a one of those sexy Lauren Bacall numbers, a siren dancing dress.

“Sister told me she had some red silk she would give me, if I would make it.”

“She had four yards of red silk stashed in a convent?” I asked.

Mom rolled her eyes at me. Clearly I had no idea of the treasures secreted in nunneries. “Well, that was in the days when I had a nineteen-inch waist,” she said, as if that was an explanation.

“Did you have the pattern?”

“Oh no, we couldn’t afford that!” She got a cross look, like she might cut the story short because of my stupid questions, but the morphine softened her a little. “No, Sister Marie took my measurements, and drew a pattern from the photograph, just freehand, on old parish newspapers.

“It was like Coco Chanel trapped in a convent!" I said. “She lived vicariously through you!”

“I never thought of it that way, Susie, she was just so sweet.” My mom turned the pages of the photo album I brought to her lap.

“What about these hot pants? Were those her idea, too?” I said, pointing at a black and white snapshot of my mom in a polka-dot two-piece.

“Oh yes! We called those short-shorts! Look at how crooked they are!”

It seemed like every outlandish high school costume had been some inspiration tracing back to Sister Marie. Kitty-cat ears with a tail, massive fairy-tale capes, huge shoulders, peplums, and tight skirts.
“Is she the one who taught you to embroider, too?” I asked. I’d brought pillow cases to mom’s nursing home bed that were in tatters, but they were the roses and bluebirds-of-happiness on white sheeting that my mom and I had sewed long ago, when I was little.

If there is anything that is saved in one’s personal history, it’s handmade garments, or linens, that hold the most sensual memories. When your parents are gone, you’ll sleep wrapped in that cloth and dream of them.

“Yes, she did,” my mom said, answering my question. Her voice got whispery. Our conversations were brief in the last months of her life, and this had been a big one. “She taught me—"

She looked past me, as if Sister Marie was checking her from the inside out. “She taught me... how to stitch... a perfect French Knot.” Her cheek turned to the pillow, and closed her eyes, a little bluebird wing still visible under her chin.

Sister Marie’s Perfect French Knot:

French Knots are classy, perfect little rosebud knots that you can embroider as part of pattern, or all by themselves.

If you like to write things with your embroidery, the French Knot will dot your “i’s”  and your exclamation points!

Start by buying new cotton or silk embroidery thread; don’t dig an old spool out of Grandma’s sewing box. Thread and fabric are made from living things; you can’t expect them to stay strong forever.

Cut a piece of the embroidery floss as long as your forearm. There are six strands to each floss. Separate them into two lengths, with three strands each.

This is the special part: Take a piece of beeswax-- a tea light candle is fine-- and run the embroidery thread through the wax, so it leaves a fine residue. You won’t even to see it, it just feels ever-so-slightly tacky.

Why? Because this is the way to keep your thread from twisting and knotting up on you, the bane of every hand-stitcher’s existence. You can do this with any and all hand-stitching projects.

Thread a needle that has a big enough eye to accommodate your thread, and is suitable for the material you’re going to be poking! You can use a big fattie for denim, but prefer a slender needle for handkerchief linen.

Bring the thread through your fabric exactly where you want to knot to appear.

Hold the thread down with one thumb and tightly wind the floss three times around the needle. —Like winding a yo-yo. Make three wishes or say a Hail Mary! (My illustration shows two twists, but I prefer three.)

If your twists are too loose, the knot will be floppy, and if they’re too tight, the knot will come out. This is where the practice comes in! It’s like learning a drive a clutch; once you’ve got the feel, you’ll do them perfectly forever.

Still holding the thread, take the needle back to your starting point and pull it slowly back through the fabric close to where your brought the needle through the first time. You want each needle-prick a hair apart.

The floss will slide through the wrapped thread to make the knot. Depending on how tightly you wound your thread, that’s how big your Frenchie will appear.

Photo credit: Elizabeth and Susie Bright, Berkeley 1963. Dresses, both of them, by mom.
The embrodery graphic is an uncredited ubiquitous one I see all over web sites and sewing classes.

This story first appeared in Craft 03.

Comments

[Steve]

Susie, I love this story about your mom! It means a lot to me that you recorded it.

[susie Bright]

Oh Steve, you're my only friend who remembers my mom in her last days at the nursing home, so I'm sure you can hear her voice clearly in this story. To me, because of the morphine, or maybe just her dying experience, she told me stories she'd never said a word about before, and she had this uninhibited quality... that I liked! Lots of childhood memories that she would have been quiet about before.

[Steve]

Yes, and she so appreciated skills like the ability to make a perfect french knot, as well as well-made (and tailored) clothing.