Sewing and Washing

In the posting yesterday I mentioned that the women cooked the starch that they used on their doilies but mostly it was used for their clothing. I can still remember what the starch smelled like--I thought it smelled clean and fresh--no pine tree scent AT ALL!
After Moms spring cleaning was finished, she turned her attention to our clothing. As I have already told you the lady was a master with the sewing machine and she ABSOLUTELY loved to sew. She could take one of Jerry or Bevs dresses and remake it for me and by the time she was finished with it --you could not recognize it as one of their cast offs. She made all of Mick and Mikes shirts and all of the western clothing that Jerry wore in the barrel racing competition at the rodeos.. By the time she finished up her creations-washed- starched and ironed, brother you were dressed fine enough to meet the President--well, maybe we would just as soon meet the rodeo clown
Do you remember the metal pant stretchers that you would slide into the pant legs and hang on the clothesline to dry? You put the metal pant leg shaped frame into the leg with the front and back being the stretching point.. Naturally the levies were starched --by the time they had dried and you pulled the stretchers out -- you had a pair of levies that stood upright all by themselves--yep could have walked right off if only they had feet!!!
I used stretchers for many years after Freddie and I were married--didn't go so heavy on the starch though -- Mom would have so many pairs of jeans hanging on the line -Daddy's,Mick and Mike along with a few of the girls--then you would see these very full can-can petticoats spread in a circle on top of a sheet to dry ---looked like a band of gypsies setting up camp!
Guess that our washer, dryers, spray starch and steam irons do a pretty good job for us today but the good clean smell of the cooked starch is long gone.