Meredith Maney.

I grew up watching my mother sew my dresses for cotillions and make costumes for my brother and for me for Halloween.  We always looked forward to choosing the patterns and fabrics, knowing my mother would work her magic to make it happen.  My mother used to watch her grandmother sew on her old black Singer, and greatly admired her talents.   However, her mother (my grandmother) was a businesswoman and was responsible for the upbringing of four children.  She was not a seamstress. My mother did not really learn to sew until my father taught her after they were married.  My father was one of the youngest of ten children and a favorite of his sisters, so they taught him how to cook and sew in their company.  My father even made three dresses for my mother when she was in the hospital after my delivery! 

How did you learn to sew?

II began sewing when I was nine years old as a 4-H project. Inspired by watching my own mother, I wanted to be able to create things of my own to wear and give to people.  My first project was a simple drawstring denim book bag that was not fancy, but I was still proud of it.  It helped me learn to read a pattern, choose appropriate fabric and notions, and how sew a straight seam.  When I was eleven, my mother gave me a sewing machine of my own for Christmas.  This was also the Christmas my father gave me the newest doll on the market, a doll called a “Cabbage Patch Kid”.  My mother wisely encouraged me to pick out patterns and fabric to make my own doll clothes.  Little did I know that this was also going to be a character lesson, as many seasoned seamstresses already know.  Making small, newborn-sized doll clothes was much different from making a simple book bag, and before long I was frustrated with the complexity of the task I had set my mind to tackle.  At one point, I threw a fit that my mother overheard from behind the closed door of my bedroom.  Appearing in the doorway, she coolly told me to get a handle on my anger, or the machine was going back, Christmas gift or not!  Once she left, I fumed a little while longer, then decided to attempt to sew the doll clothes once more.  After that day, I rarely “sewed angry” again and found that I enjoyed making the things that I wanted or others needed.  I felt a sense of accomplishment in being able to create with my hands anything my heart desired, feeling like sewing was its own type of magic.

How long have you been sewing, and what other sewing projects did you do prior to the March 21 call for handmade masks?

My favorite sewing memory was when, with my father’s help, I made my own evening gown for my high school graduation.  It was white silk, fully lined, off-the-shoulder, full-length dress, with channeled boning.  I remember him helping me pin the pattern out on the living room floor and oh-so-carefully cut out everything in duplicate.  This dress was another exercise in meeting a challenge head-on and successfully completing it with character-building grace.  My father and his loving support is captured in every stitch, and I still have the dress as a remembrance of our special bond. 

What is your favorite sewing tip or piece of equipment? Describe the area where you sew.

That first sewing machine finally gave out after 35 years of faithful service and many repairs.  Its successor, now three years old, has been a joy to sew with and so much more capable than the one I used for so long.  My favorite feature of it has been the myriad of stitches and stitch lengths I can use, which are adjustable at the turn of a wheel.  This feature has been tremendously valuable in the creation of the masks for the project, allowing for tighter stitches and lengths depending on the area being stitched or the fabric being used.  One item that I have looked at with great longing has been a bias tape-making sewing foot.  As many seamstresses who participated in the project know, elastic and bias tape have often been in short supply and in some cases, non-existent.  The ability to take scraps of fabric and make my own bias tape quickly, without having to use an iron and make such tiny folds and pleats and burning yourself, would have been wonderful.  I still think about the late nights sewing in the corner of my basement, mounds of fabric, elastic, and bias type in piles around me, anticipating their marriage into a symbol of love and hope for people I might not ever meet, but that I cared about already.  The dust bunnies of thread grew nightly, consisting of very colorful and clinging to my clothes, my hair, my dog, my chair, and absolutely everything around me.  More than once I have awakened to find stray threads in my bed from the previous night’s efforts.  However, I would not have it any other way.  I feel that others know if something has been sewn with care and love, and I wanted to send not only protection and peace of mind into the world, but also the knowledge to each and every recipient that they were cared for, thought of,  and appreciated.

What part of the mask project has been most meaningful to you?

Sewing to me has been about love.  The love of a mother for a headstrong child who needed to learn self-control and perseverance, the love of a father for his daughter who was about to launch herself into the world on her own adventure, the love as a mother making clothes and costumes for my own children with the same enthusiasm my own mother had, and as a Daughter joining with other Daughters from across the country,  a task force of service to those in need when the time came to provide for others in the midst of a pandemic.

When members in the future look back on our work, what would you want them to say?

I feel privileged to be able to be a part of such a blessed group of sisters, all of us pulling strength and inspiration from our “fore-mothers” across the ages, who rose to the challenge and provided what was needed in the face of adversity.

Anything you want to add about your experience with the Lexington Chapter, DAR?

Having the opportunity to play a small part in such an outpouring of patriotism and love to people across the country was an honor that I will cherish for a long time to come.