Instructional books like Erin Bried’s How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew (published in 2009) underscore how, in the midst of today’s technological boom, the domestic arts have suffered a blow, writes Linda S. Haymes in Family.
Yes, this book really does have a section titled “Save Your Shirt: How to Sew a button” followed by another — “Measure Up: How to Hem Your Fancy Pants.”
There was a time when these were lessons pretty much universally taught at home by mothers and grandmothers or in schools by home economics teachers. But more and more of today’s generation is missing that memo. When a hem opens and sags or a button slips from its unknotted thread, what can they do to avoid walking around in ratty clothes? Buy new ones?
That’s where Arkansas Extended Learning Center’s sewing clinics step in, teaching youngsters how to make a stitch in time. See Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more.