Monday, June 29, 1925

Monday, June 29, 1925
Cool

Felt pretty good and went to Miss McGregor’s store and got pattern and goods for Albert 2 suits and Ned a romper. Made both of Albert’s except for buttonholes in one. Worked out in the yard in the evening from suppertime till dark. Dick okay but a little swelling left.

(Wow, it seems like Grandma went from sick to better very quickly. I can't believe she sewed 2 suits in one day (except for buttonholes on one) AND worked out in the yard.

I suspect she was a better seamstress than most housewives in the 1920's, so I did some digging in the family history she wrote in 1970 to figure out if I was right about that. Grandma graduated from Shortridge High School in 1910, and didn't get married until 1915. So what did she do for those five years?

First she tried college at Butler College (now Butler University) which was at that time in Irvington. She didn't have the money to live on campus so she spent "several hours" a day riding the buses to and from her parent's home on the far northside, and it wore her out, so she dropped out before the first semester was over. Then she spent a few years helping her sister-in-law Ella with her babies until her father decided she should have more to occupy her time and "get her out of her shell", so they got her a job in a millinery store on Washington Street, east of Court Street. In her own words:

"From there as the seasons would change, I would go from the wholesale house to a shop, and after a year or two, I had become a first class "maker" and also had gained some experience selling in Block's and in a small shop on West Washington Street, west of the Statehouse, where I worked until I was married."

So, I think that's where she learned to sew so well, by making hats. I bet she made that hat she is wearing in the picture of her from 1914 in Grandma's Pictures)