My first sewing exercise was to remove a strand from the hessian sacking every 5 rows or so, and then with needle with coloured wool, weave the thread through the "spaces".
My sister's Dolly (made from old calico) liked her new bedspread 
Stawka, you were richer than us.......we didn't have matchboxes.
DEB
I posted this in a facebook group last night because to me it seems along time ago, Angela Bishop should have told me to sell helicopters I reckon LOL
The little girl on my lap is doing her hsc and is 6 ft tall and my teenage daughter is now a mother of 3. I think it was around 2003/4
sweating so much in my mini lengh school uniform on the plastic school bus seats that it looked like id w e e ' d on the seat 
i used to jump up quick and wipe the seat with my bag
few years later having a permanent burn mark on my belly from the seat belt buckle ( boyfriends cars )
having no phone at all in the house a nice neighbour used to let us use theres
walking everywhere or catching the bus or train
bonfire night WITH fireworks lol
Ooak, what a saucy girl. Mini length school uniform!
Good Catholic girls had to kneel on the floor, and if the dress didn't touch the floor,
the nuns caned us.
Oh, and the tie, blazer and a beret had to be worn on the way to and from school,
no matter how hot it was.
My paternal Grandmother taught me how to knit, crochet, sew a straight seam and darn socks. Also how to unravel an old hand-knit jumper and reuse the wool, or unpick the seams of an oversized dress and wash and iron the pieces to cut out a smaller dress for a girl.
All that teaching during WWII came in very handy when my first husband left me in 1963 with five children and no money to care for them. I used to go to OP shops and get some clothing for 40 or 50 cents a piece and reuse them to make clothes for my children.
How times have changed? I don't knit, crochet or sew for the great-grandchildren anymore. Their mothers want easy care, wash and wear clothing for their children. No hassles with handwashing or ironing in this modern world.
Handmade with a lot of love has no value anymore.
Erica 
@twyngwyn wrote:
I was going to say elastics. We spent hours playing that every day. No wonder we were fit 
