About a week ago I went to pick up my gramma at her apartment to bring her over our house and on the way there ofcourse we were chatting. I don't quite remember how we got into the topic about her knowing how to sow clothing but we did. She then told me that she was self thaught to which I responded, "Seriously, you mean nobody thaught you or you didn't go to school or something?!"
Let me give you a little background on my gramma so you can understand why I was so surprised. She pretty much made all my sister's clothes when they were little and lived in Mexico. I hear stories about how my sister's had a friend who was more well off and always had new clothes and since my sister's couldn't afford new clothes my gramma would make them the exact type of style of clothing for them. They tell me how most of the time my gramma's clothing would come out even nicer and they would be the center of attraction at functions and stuff. That's not to show off but more to give you an idea of the quality of work my gramma would do.
She has also been asked to make several wedding dresses, including my own sister in law's dress. It was beautiful. She has made almost all her skirts through out her life time. Her age now stops her from being able to make much clothing anymore but she can still pull out great pieces when asked too.
This brings us back to our conversation. I asked her how she had learned.
She said that out of necessity, of not having money to buy her kids clothes, she found herself needing to make them. She said she started off by just undoing the article of clothing and then tracing the outline of it onto the fabric, cutting it out, and then sewing it together. She continue to sow and to better her techniques. She can't quite remember how she perfected her craft or how she learned the right way of fabricating pieces, but she does know it was all by herself and her desire to learn. She made sure to learn from others by watching, from books, ect.
I can't express how amazed and proud I felt for my gramma at that instant. BUT I also felt so ashamed and small next to her. I mean how often have I said " I wish I could learn this or that, but I can't cause I don't have the money to pay for classes." or "I don't have the time." I started thinking about my generation, and how lazy we have become. I mean yes we are two different generations but we truly have more advantages then their generation. We have everything at our fingertips to learn anything we want. I mean all we have to do is google it or go on YOUTUBE and it'll teach us anything we want. But if we're not taking a class we think we can't truly learn something. I guess it motivated me to start learning all those things I want to learn even if I can't learn them in a class setting. Like photography or drawing................the possibilities are endless. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing paying for classes to learn something, I would still do that in a heart beat. I'm talking about the ability to use our time efficiently and our ability to be able to learn more than we are learning currently. To know that we can self teach ourselves many other things, hobbies, and interests. I hope one day I can be talking to my grandchildren and tell them that their Abuela learned to play the piano on her own or to grow an awesome garden all by herself just by reading books!
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