August 26th, 2008 by Sandy

It was heartbreaking for many it was announced that Hancock Fabrics had filed for bankruptcy in March 2007. Fabric stores have been falling by the wayside for years.  With most Walmart Stores giving up fabric, JoAnn's be so heavily into crafts, many small outlying areas only had Hancock's left to shop.  So many of the stores closed that we were left to wonder what would happen in the future.

The good news is that Hancock Fabrics announced on August 1st that it had emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after succesffuly restructuring its business operations. Hancock has secured $100 million in financing from Commercial Finance Lending.  In addition, Hancock issued $20 million of secured notes and warrants as part of a debt offering. Read the rest of this entry »

August 11th, 2008 by Sandy

While cleaning out the attic of my mother's house, I found an old dress stuff into a bag. I was amazed when I pulled it out and found a beaufiful lace and silk gown. It was very yellowed and had rust all over the side from zipper. I realized as I looked at it that my mother had likely made it. In fact, I knew it was hers (well, besides being in her houses) because I had a photo of her in it. I couldn't wait to get home and dig thru the photos to find it. I was so excited wehn I finally did find it, but I wish it was a close up. I never realized how tiny she was until I saw this dress. I measured at the waist and it was 23 " around! I don't think my waist was EVER that small.
 

My biggest problem though was the condition of the dress. I took it down to Fabricque, a wonderful local fabric store that carries the greatest fabrics. The owner, Lora confirmed that it was silk and recommended that I soak it in Biz. She said that she had cleaned some $600 a yard silk lace with Biz and had no damage to the fabric. So I bought some Biz, went home and soaked the dress. It was really scary to put the dress in the sink of soapy water. I watched it carefull and had to change the water several time as it kept getting dirty. Of course, that meant the dress was getting cleaner also. After about one hour I finally did a final rinse. I really couldn't believe the difference. The dress was so beautiful! Read the rest of this entry »

August 6th, 2008 by Sandy

My mother graduated from a vocational high school in 1942 and majored in sewing. Can you believe it? Certainly not in today's world. Her claim to fame in high school was the expertise she gained on the buttonholer. That experience and knowledge kept her working during World War II because no one was faster.

Let’s back up just a little though.

Sewing was always her first love. When she was 5 years old, she saved her money (25 cents) and bought a small doll. Her first real garment sewing was for that doll. As you can see by this photo the doll has seen better days. It looks so much better than when I found it in a shoebox a few years ago in my mother’s basement. It was literally black with soot. Prior to my mother moving it to her house it had been in my grandmother’s basement for many years next to the coal furnace. After lots of searching I managed to find someone locally to clean it. I was so happy because everything was left intact.

You can see the handiwork on the garment in these photos. Now remember, she was only 5 years old so I think she did a pretty good job. This was completely done by hand and all of the clothes she made that way until she was about 10 years old. When she was 10 years old my grandfather bought her a used sewing machine. Timing on this was good because it was before the depression. Their dresses were made from anything she could find including old dresses from her own grandmother. She saved any fabric leftover so she could make doll clothes so even her doll had a matching dress.

She made all of her clothes and made many look-a-like dresses for her and her sister. I was always told that that my aunt didn’t really like that idea too much, she wanted her own style. My mother is on the left in this photo and my Aunt is on the right. Can you believe she made these at that age?

I 'll have some more photos during the next few days.  I have some great photos of some clothes she made even her prom dress.