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Home Ec Skills|3.26

I am so old that when I did it, the boys did woodwork and metalwork and the girls did cooking and sewing :crazy3

I was so bad at sewing I coerced another girl to sew my skirt for me so it didn't fall apart during the "fashion parade". Ironically, sewing my daughters' clothes became my favourite pastime many years later!
 
AnneofAlamo said:
My favorite class was home ec! I loved it so much! I would tell my counselors, I don't want to go to college, I want to be a mom and homemaker! I love sewing, cooking (and ironing...I used to take in other people's for pay) I can iron for hours...LOVE the smell!
Sewing is so expensive now. It is cheaper to buy new.
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@AnneofAlamo You are sooo right! a "fat quarter" at Joann Fabrics is now $3.00!! I've begun to scour Goodwill for designer garments and I take them apart and refashion them or just use the fabric. I' m into Altered Couture.
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I took Home Ec in 8th grade/last year of middle school. The first semester was cooking and the second semester was sewing. I vaguely remember the cooking as in I remember the kitchen area, which I was fascinated with for some reason, that there was a kitchen that looked like home in school. LOL I don't remember anything I learned to cook in class. I remember one of my sewing projects, which was just basically a rectangular draw string bag. I kept it for many years as it was a great size.

My Grandma and my Mama taught me most Home Ec activities. I learned how to cross stitch when I was 11, and I have my first project, which was a posy of violets. I gave it to my Granny for Christmas and after she passed, it was returned to me. My Grandma tried to teach me how to crochet, but I could never get it somehow. My Mama taught me how to hand sew, put on a button, etc. I learned cleaning from my mom and alternately from my step-mom. My step-mom was somewhat of a bear about cleaning and so now I have loads of picky things I do because I learned to see them when I was cleaning for my step-mom.

I still cross stitch regularly and will be starting an embroidery project soon. My Mama has made some amazing pillows, aprons, etc., doing embroidery stitches and I want to try my hand at some other stitching. I know how to do some basics, but I want to learn the more fancy stitches.
 
I had home ec in 7th grade (1983-1984, in San Diego, CA). I don't think it taught me anything I hadn't already learned from my mom. She was a prolific seamstress, sewing a lot of clothing for all her children and grandchildren and friends' children, and was a good cook too.
I've become a decent cook myself -- I can cook without a recipe -- but I didn't persist with sewing and those skills are very rusty.
I learned to cross-stitch from my aunt around the age of 12. My first project was a tiny owl about an inch or two tall, which hung in a round wooden frame on my wall for many years. I'm not sure whether I still have it. When we painted our walls in this house in 2011, we didn't hang anything up for a while, and never put up any of the old things again.
I learned to knit twice. First was around 2009, in a class at Joann's Fabrics store. My biggest accomplishment then was a small washcloth. Then I got busy and forgot about knitting until something inspired me to take it up again in 2017. I think it was because a friend in my homeschool co-op offered to teach any of us while our kids were in their classes. She became my mentor as I followed the lessons in Knit Purl Hunter's Building Blocks and created a fabulous afghan that is one of my favorite things now. I got rather obsessed with it and completed a 20 square afghan the following spring. (You can find scrapbook pages about it in my gallery.)
It crossed my mind that taking up knitting again right now would be a good way to pass the time, but then I remembered I don't have much yarn. Anyway, I'm currently obsessed with weeding out my old photo files and that's taking a lot of time.
 
I did Home Ec in high school - in those days it was mandatory for girls ( I think or I didn't want to do History and/French) it's too long ago. I learnt to cook from my Granny which is ironic as my mother learnt from her mother in law (my German Oma) so we had totally different cooking styles and recipes. We learnt to sew and knit, to darn and replace buttons etc. last year I took crochet lessons and that's been fun. I do love being an empty nester/ stay at home Mom - have no idea what you call that now. I love having supper ready for my people. I love eating and trying new recipes. Thankfully we have a cleaning lady that comes in twice a week (except during lock down) so even though I know how to clean toilets and windows etc, I don't have to.
 
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