When Clothes Were American Made

Across the Fence #333

I recently saw a news report on TV about all the products that are now made in other countries. The reporter had a hard time finding any American made products. Clothes are just one example.

I remember when clothes weren’t made in other countries. They weren’t made in factories either. They were made right here in America, in most homes on the old treadle sewing machines. We had one that my mother and grandmother used, to make many items. I can’t ask my mother or grandmothers questions about those days, but my relative, Doreen (Roiland) Nienow was able to provide a lot of information for me. When I sit in the four-season porch, where I do most of my writing, I can see the farm where she grew up. Her grandfather was Syvert Sherpe, brother to my great-grandfather.

Doreen said that her mother, Alma Roiland, received her treadle sewing machine from her father, Syvert, before she was married. She made very good use of it for many different sewing projects. Alma ordered fabric and a pattern from the Montgomery Ward catalog and sewed her own wedding dress that she wore when she married Doreen’s father, Nels Roiland, at the Country Coon Prairie Lutheran Church.

That reminded me of the story Arvella Sorenson told us about her father sewing my great grandfather’s wedding suit from burlap feed sacks. I imagine they died the material black.

Doreen said her mother sewed most of the clothes that her brothers and sisters wore as children, including their Confirmation dresses. Her mother made many outfits for her from hand-me-down clothes belonging to her older sisters. She never minded, because she could re-style a dress and it would look like new. Her mother sewed many pretty aprons and trimmed them with bright rick-rack and bias tape.

She also mended clothing on her treadle machine, including sewing patches over holes in the knees of her father and brother’s overalls. There wasn’t a lot of money to spend on new clothes in those days, so the patches helped to extend the life of an overall. Nels kept his round box of Copenhagen snuff in the right rear pocket of his overalls and eventually a hole would develop, so Alma would sew a new pocket or a patch on the old one.

She taught Doreen how to use her machine and she’d sew clothes for her doll from scraps of calico fabrics left over from her mother’s quilting projects and from sewing other clothes. Doreen enjoyed looking into all the drawers of her sewing machine to find different colored threads and buttons of all shapes and colors.

Her father purchased chicken feed in muslin sacks, and also flour and sugar in muslin sacks. The empty sacks would be washed and bleached, and then opened up to make 30” x 30” pieces of fabric. Her mother hemmed all those clean sacks on her treadle sewing machine and they made excellent dish towels. That story brought back memories of my grandmother, Inga Sherpe, taking old feed sacks with colorful patterns, after they were empty of course, and making them into shirts and other items of clothing that we wore. Looking back, I never thought twice about wearing clothes made from feed sacks.

Doreen said one of her mother’s winter projects was to cut narrow strips from no longer worn dresses, aprons, shirts, and overalls, and sew them end to end and coordinate the different prints and colors. Then she wound up the strips to form a ball the size of a softball. She usually had several carry-all bags filled with the carpet rag balls by spring. Then her mother and father would drive to Viroqua and take them to a lady who had a loom. She made beautiful rag rugs in different lengths. They washed up beautifully and were so useful, besides being pretty.

The treadle machine was kept in the downstairs bedroom in front of the west window. When the cover of the machine was closed, it was a favorite napping place for one of the tame kittens that would spend the day in the house. Her mother placed a soft towel on top of the machine for the kitten’s bed. On sunny days, the kitten would take a nap in the warmth of the sunshine.

I was glad to hear that Doreen’s daughter, Joan, has inherited the ancestral treadle sewing machine, and it’s now in her home. Joan has fond memories of when she was a child and would go to visit her grandparents. Her grandmother would let Joan use the machine and give her scraps of pretty material so she could sew clothes for her doll. One of Joan’s daughters has already put in her request to inherit her great-grandmother’s treadle sewing machine some day. I always like hearing that an ancestral item is cherished and kept in the family. Doreen said her grandpa, Syvert Sherpe, would be happy to know that his gift to his daughter, Alma, would be so useful and treasured for many generations.

Yes, clothes used to be made in America, by Americans, who knew how to create just about anything with their hands and a treadle sewing machine. Our ancestors were talented, innovative, hard-working people. I take my hat, that’s now made in China, off to them!