We did a bit of sewing and knitting while we were in the infants school. We were given 'huckaback' cloth which had special loops in the fabric through which you could stitch coloured thread. You could make simple patterns and it was attractive. We made guest towels and our mothers had to hem the finished item. I wonder what happened to my guest towel - I know Mutti kept it for years.
Learning to knit was painful. We were knitting facecloths and were given instructions to buy thick cotton yarn and thick knitting needles so there were only about 20 stitches per row. Mutti got the instructions wrong and bought really fine cotton yarn and skinny needles. This meant I had to have many more stitches on my needles. Oh the agony of being a beginner knitter - dropped stitches, the stitches being so tight it was almost impossible to manipulate. I think Mutti probably redid my day's efforts every night. Anyway, the 'facecloth' was not a success.
When we got to primary school we had sewing classes with a designated sewing teacher called Mrs Hyslop. There was a sewing room and we enjoyed going there. The boys in their separate building had woodwork and metalwork, also with a specialist teacher.
It is a shame that kids these days don't have equivalent lessons. We learnt some real skills such as being able to put up a hem and to sew on buttons - things that you need to know how to do in real life. Of course there were other things we learnt as well.
During our first lesson we were allowed to choose a piece of fabric and some threads - all supplied by the Department of Education. I chose pink fabric and dark blue and brown thread. I have no idea why I chose the brown, it certainly didn't go with the other colours.
Mrs Hyslop drew beautiful diagrams of what we were going to be doing on the board and we would copy them into our sewing book. We made samples which were then glued into the book - running stitches, hemming stitches, blanket stitch and practice buttonholes, just to mention a few.
Mrs Hyslop was there for all my primary school years. Each year the work became more sophisticated. We learnt to do curved seams and made an apron and then a petticoat and matching bloomers. In sixth grade we made a 'throwover' - a large square of organza that you could throw over prepared food to protect it from flies. We learnt to do embroidery called 'shadow stitching' to decorate the item. My embroidery was good but my machine stitching was shocking. How do I remember? I've still got my throwover and have used it often.
Art was my favourite and we never did enough of it as far as I was concerned. We didn't have an art room so desks had to be covered with newspaper, the paint measured out and jars of water, which often got knocked over, placed on the desks. I usually offered to help and washed brushes afterwards as well. It was always a big task, no wonder none of the teachers were thrilled about giving painting lessons.
Because I was good at art, in about sixth grade, I was chosen to do a mural on the wall of the corridor. Probably considered politically incorrect today I vaguely remember that it was an Australian themed painting with lots of aborigines with spears, kangaroos and other native animals. It took quite a while to paint which meant getting out of a whole lot of lessons, so I thought it well worth while!
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