My hero, me, and Holly Hobby


I’m what’s known in the stitching world as a “sewist.” This term was coined because saying you’re a sewer looks like…well, you can see what it looks like. Other than writing, sewing is my very favorite productive thing to do. I make quilts, I sew for the children’s hospital, I put together Christmas things I’m not sure anyone really wants but they take because I think they know a piece of my heart comes with it. I spend way too much money in fabric stores and my stash is…oh, it’s mountainous.

It hasn’t always been so. I hated (and was terrible at) home economics, hated my mom’s treadle sewing machine, and never, ever, EVER wanted to sew anything.

Ahem. At some point in early marriage-parenthood years, a friend gave me an ancient electric sewing machine that went forwards and backwards. Sometimes. And…I don’t know, there was something about it that drew me. I began sewing, teaching myself in fits and starts.

Segue to Christmas of 1975. My daughter Kari was nearly four, and she loved Holly Hobby. No, I mean really, she LOVED her. She had Holly Hobby wallpaper, dolls, and dishes. I wanted her to have a long Holly Hobby dress, too, but couldn’t find one within the Santa budget. I did find some fabric, though. Yellow, with Holly Hobbies all over it. It was so pretty and I bought it. Cut it out wrong and bought some more.

Of course, there was never enough time to go around in those days, so I ended up on Christmas Eve, sitting at the dining room table and making the dress while Duane assembled little-boy toys and watched television. Long after the toys were assembled, I was still sewing. The machine was giving me fits. I was exhausted. Tears dribbled on the fabric.

Duane, who watches television every waking moment—I’ve always said if I had a rival in our marriage, it was a remote control—turned it off at about ten and came to sit at the table with me. “Can I help?”

“No. Thank you.”

“Coffee?”

“Oh, yes.”

I sewed and drank coffee until midnight, re-sewing where the machine skipped stitches. I gathered. Ripped out.

“Here. Open this.” Duane thrust a package at me. It was a little sewing case, the tools inside including a sharp seam-ripper. I made good use of it. Cried some more. Sewed. He sat with me.

“Why don’t you open—” he started.

“No. Thank you.” He was trying to make me feel better. I knew that.

We drank more coffee, being careful not to spill any on the fabric. I sewed, ripped out, wept.

It was after 2:00 AM when he folded the dress in tissue paper, put it in a box, and wrapped it in Holly Hobby wrapping paper. We stacked the sewing mess into a corner—we’d need the table in the morning—and went to bed, sleeping like the dead for the three or four hours until the kids woke.

The dress fit Kari. It was beautiful. I still have it. I also still have the sewing machine that was under the tree the next morning, the one my husband wanted me to open the night before, although it’s a spare machine now.

I still have Duane, too, and I have never forgotten how he sat at that table with me until the wee hours, laughing and talking and handing me tissues. That was the real present.

Comments

  1. OMG! What a sweet story! What a sweet man...yes, a hero! Can you make me one on your machine? LOve your writing!

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  2. Thanks, Em. You gave me a great start to my day.

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  3. Oh, Liz. Your post brought tears to my eyes. What a beautiful story of love. Love for your daughter and the love of your husband.

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  4. Thanks, Sharon. I love the memory, especially at this time of year.

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  5. Beautiful, Liz :) He's a keeper :)Lovely story of motherhood too.

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  6. Thanks, Toni. They are both keepers!

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  7. OOh, Liz, you just made me a little teary! What a wonderful memory. I, too, am a sewist.. At least I try...and I'm about to finish my first BIG project - a quilt called Quilted Village. Some day we're gonna hafta go fabric shopping! PS: was a Holly Hobby fanatic, too - complete with wallpaper, bed spread...you get the picture. Wonderful story - thanks for sharing!

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  8. Liz, what a great story! I'm so not a seamstress! I have a sewing machine that Husband bought me 35 years ago and it hasn't seen the light of day in at least ten years. There's a hat I'd like to crochet--it's darling, but I have to learn how to crochet first...

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  9. What a sweet post, Liz. Your love for your daughter and your hubby's love for you is very evident in the things you do for each other. Thanks for sharing. :)

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  10. OH, Liz!
    I'm bawling my eyes out. What a sweet man. I love him...sigh.

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  11. Thanks for stopping by, everybody. I've so enjoyed revisiting that night.

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  12. Ah darn it, you made me all weepy-eyed. This is an awesome story, Liz. Thank you so much for sharing.

    I had a Holly Hobby house when I was little. The little stove's burners came off with a tiny little tool and the bread came out of the little pan. I remember everything was detailed and realistic. (The kind of thing that would be labeled choking hazard now days) I loved it. I'm glad you kept the dress, and the husband. ; ) Both are priceless.

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  13. Count me on the teary-eyed. Wonderful story. I am not and never shall be a sewist. Everytime I've tried the machine runs away with my fabric--I think it's a conspiracy, they're trying to escape me.

    Even in my family of hobbits, I stitch-witchery our hems--because nothing comes in true short :)

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  14. I loved your story. I have two daughters, 18mths apart and I used to make them dresses every Christmas. They weren't all that great but it mattered to me, like I think with you, that I actually made something from scratch. I don't sew much now but I do make little things that are all my own work everysingle Christmas!

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  15. Great story! I loved Holly Hobby when I was a kid. I think I had a Holly Hobby beddspread.

    I can sew just well enough to think I can sew. I usually stick to Halloween costumes and things like pillows. I have a dress I made when I was first married. now that I think of it, it was very Holly Hobbyish. I will never wear it again, unless I go to a pioneer day or something. But I made it and it will always be something I'll keep.

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  16. I loved Holly Hobby, too, and was glad Kari did. Thanks to everyone for stopping by today! Anxious to see what D'Ann has in store for us tomorrow.

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  17. I can see a button, and that's about it. I made a pair of shorts in home ec once. They were about ten sizes too big and one leg was longer than the other.

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  18. lol, Shawn! I made a gathered skirt in home ec--all the gathers were in back; it looked like a bustle!

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