Five Minutes Of Pattern

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks- 

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-pattern

I remember being a little girl of about nine or ten, accompanying my mom to the fabric store. Back in the day there were lots of fabric stores and there was always an area set up with big conference style tables where you would start your hunt for just the right thing. 

There were enormous catalogs to peruse...McCalls...Simplicity...Butterick...these were my favorite, and we'd spend a lot of time trying to find something I loved that my mom would be able to sew. Choosing the fabric was my favorite part of the experience and sometimes I'd want a particular material, but my mom would explain it wouldn't work well with the pattern we'd chosen

We'd settle on something then go home to lay out the pattern and cut the pieces of material to fit. She'd pin and sew and I'd try on, and it was fun to watch it all come together. My mom loved buying fabric and had a couple of trunkfuls she never made into anything, but couldn't part with either. Sometimes when I think of my mom I picture her at her sewing machine. She didn't have a dedicated room but she made it work, sometimes in the dining room, sometimes in my brother's room after he went off to college. 

I learned to sew somewhere along the way, mostly by watching and my mom teaching, but also in Home Ec in junior high and high school. Is that still a thing? I learned to follow a pattern, but I didn't stick with it and don't own a machine anymore. 

I have a lot of friends who quilt so I know there are still fabric stores out there, but they seem few and far between now. Do you still choose a paper pattern or is everything somehow digital in the 21st century? Do you sit in a store in a too big chair and turn pages in a too big book until you find the dress that calls your name? 

Do you lean over your mama's shoulder and beg to press the pedal and guide the fabric through the machine? Does she lean over yours as she helps you hold it straight? 

Do you grow up and write a blog where a word sparks a memory?