Leora Goff attended Mrs. Connrardy Sewing School in Exira, Iowa, in 1910, hiring out to sew for local families almost four years before she married Clabe Wilson. She made her own wedding gown. Leora’s mother, Laura Goff, likely owned a Singer treadle sewing machine. The treadle is the part at the bottom powered by rocking it back and forth by foot. It spins a flywheel which is connected to the hand wheel at the upper right by a belt.
Leora Wilson had half a dozen children before she bought her own Singer sewing machine, driving a horse and wagon to town to get it after the postman sent a note that her package was too large to bring on the rural route. She kept the treadle busy with new clothes and making repairs.
The machine traveled with them from house to house during the Great Depression, even hiding items their pet squirrel Rusty squirreled away. Did her machine travel all the way to Guthrie Center after WWII? I don’t remember it. But Grandma Leora patched regularly at the Guthrie County Hospital with her Rebekahs group. She was the only one by then who knew how to use their treadle machine.
Right after the war, Dad rented a farm between Redfield and Dexter. Mom enjoyed sewing on a treadle machine for her daughters. I still have a pinafore she made one of us. Pinafore. What a winsome word. This one has lambs outlined with a chain stitch standing in a field of lazy daisy stitch flowers. Mom did the embroidery as well. The fabric has been starched and ironed, maybe with a sadiron. I remember when we got electricity at that house because Mom got an iron that had a cord, about 1950.
The back of the pinafore is open, with a generous bow. It was to be worn over a dress. Little girls in those days always wore dresses. Oh, I wish I had a photo with one of us wearing a pinafore!
I started out on a treadle sewing machine, but when you’re in 4-H, any project entered in the county fair would be judged. That meant that the tension between the upper thread and lower thread had to be perfect so the stitches themselves would be even. They weren’t, and Mom had trouble adjusting the tension. That led to her first electric sewing machine, a White, sold by Sears.
We have an old sewing machine case, without the machine, just because.
I learned to sew on a Singer treadle sewing machine. I was making my own clothes for school and my friends wanted me to make things for them. When I got married the first time, dad gave me an electric sewing machine. A White from Sears!! It lasted a long time and I made many things for me and my children with it.
Thanks, Darlene! I gave up when I had a son. Boys clothes weren’t as much fun, but I still sewed for myself. I’ve got a Sears portable that we bought jut before Guy was sent to Vietnam, so about 1969!
I admire anyone who can sew on a machine. Every time I tried, I’d hit the pedal and the needle and bobbin thread would tangle together something awful!!
GP, I’m impressed that you’d even try!
My grandmother had a treadle sewing machine much like the one in the illustration. I never saw her use it, though, but I’m sure she must have.
Dennis, your comment makes me wonder about Grandma Ruby Neal. She sewed all the time but I don’t remember where she kept her machine. Maybe in a bedroom? I need to ask my cousins!
Love all of this, Joy! My mom saved an old Singer treadle machine from the trash heap – never wanting to waste anything – and at the time she thought the table was worthless and regretted not brining it home, too. Despite all the crazy that Lisa and I endured with Sue, she had a knack for taming that treadle sewing machine and used it for years and years. Thanks for the memories…and I agree…pinafore is a beautiful word…and a reminder of a time when putting on something pretty really meant something. xo, Joy!
Love your sewing machine memory, Vicki!
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My grandma’s Singer and she could make that machine sing.
Thank you, Don. You’ve reminded me of their pleasant sounds! I’d forgotten.
That pinafore is just beautiful! I sewed all my daughter’s clothes when she was little (from hand-me-down fabric).
Thank you, Liz! I started out sewing Dan’s clothes but learned quickly that girls are much more fun to sew for.
My mother had a Singer treadle machine, but I never saw her use it. I believe such machines were standard household equipment when she married in 1930. Her mother brought her own machine when she came to live with us in the 1940s, and she sewed every day. She made her own dresses and owned only one store-bought dress during her lifetime, or so she claimed. It was the one she was buried in. All during my school years, I wore shirts she made. They were of broadcloth and conformed exactly to Butterick patterns for kids my age. Granny did not know how to modify a pattern, so the shirts were always baggy in all dimensions. My father refused to let her make him a shirt, because he wanted shirts to fit, and my mother simply bought whatever she wore. When she died, Granny left 46 patchwork quilts that I believe were somehow assembled with the sewing machine. I recognized vestiges of my shirt fabrics in them. I acquired a couple of them in 1959 and have about worn out the last one .
Keith, thank you for sharing your memories. What fun that you recognized scraps of shirt fabrics in Granny’s quilts!
My wife learned to sew on a treadle machine. In the early 70s, we found an old machine that still worked. Both our daughters learned to sew on it, making their own doll clothes. It now resides in our oldest daughter’s home in Illinois.
What a precious story, Bob. Thank you.
Marleen still sews on the electric Singer she bought with her detasseling money when she was in High School.
Your stories keep getting better!
I am totally mesmerized by this post and in complete awe of those who can sew.
I’m thankful I learned when I was young. Our daughter-in-law doesn’t know how, but maybe her own mother didn’t sew.
I have one of those that I hope to restore one day.
We have Guy’s grandmother’s but it’s in such bad shape. Then he found one in good shape along the street and asked if he could have it, so that’s the one with the little red lamp on it.
When we were kids we went to a restaurant in Maryland that used old treadle machine tables for patio tables. We kids would get under and have a blast with the treadles!
My first sewing class used these old machines. I really liked them. I think one of my grandmothers had one, too.
What a great way to use them! I just learned that my Grandma Ruby Neal’s is now owned by a great granddaughter named Willow Ruby!
Whose Granddaughter is Willow Ruby? It is so great your Grandma Neal is honored with the middle name.
Jacque Beaman! Jacque, who inherited Grandma’s quilting gene through her mother Marian, also ran a quilting shop in Adel for several years. She’s moved to Ames to be near Willow and three grandkids.
Oh, yes! I bought my first copy of Leora’s Letters from her shop. Her family lived just a mile south of Dexter on the east side? Her brother, Bill the author?
Yes, when they were small. They bought a farm SE of your place, just east of the Penn Center Church, where the youngest lives, Ben Beaman. Bill was the oldest, then Dawn, Jacque, and Ben.
We had one of those while I was growing up. I remember my dad using it when I was older.
I wonder what you dad used it for, making things or repairing them.
He repaired things on it, Joy. He was that kind of guy.
When I pictured Grandma Leora repairing things, I thought of handwork, but she did practical things as quickly as she could. She would have used her treadle machine! The one their pet squirrel hid nuts in during the Depression! Thanks for for opening new pictures of my grandmother.
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Thank you, Nancy. The pinafore (it looks new!) could easily be fashionable for a toddler today. I was surprised to see Leora went to a sewing school to learn the skill-and she learned it well! I learned in junior high in home economics class. We had to sew a skirt (mine turned out ugly) and a blouse (super ugly). The teacher also taught many different stiches when sewing by hand, so that’s how I continue to repair clothing today. I have enough ugly clothes. 🙂
The pinafore is nicely starched! I wish I’d tried it on my granddaughter before she got to big to model it, since I can’t fine a phot of my sis or me in it. Leora’s dad wouldn’t allow his older children to go to high school! She still hadn’t married by age 19, so I suppose they thought she should be able to make a living. 1910, story is in Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots. They lived in the next county to the west, Audubon, only six years, but some of my favorite stories are from that time.
My husband just got through refurbishing one those for someone
How nice!