Elinor (Anderson) Bardahl and Love of Sewing (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 24) Theme: "Handed Down"

My mother Elinor (Anderson) Bardahl was a woman of many creative talents. Although not what this story is going to be about, she was perhaps best known for her Norwegian rosemaling folk art pieces sold widely and treasured by family members.

Elinor at one of her numerous art shows of paintings and Norwegian rosemaling

Elinor's Rosemaling

She was also accomplished with needle and thread and sewing machine - and that will form the focus of this week's story. Elinor no doubt got her sewing talent from her mother Idella (Edwards) Anderson. And Grandma Della got it from her mother Mary Jane "Mayme" (Wescott) Edwards. Even Elinor's 3X great grandmother Margaret Vought Barton was a quilter whose estate inventory listed several of her hand-made quilts by pattern name. From one set of hands to another, this skill has quite literally been handed down the line. It is sure to pop up somewhere in each generation in a growing web of women connected by blood and by a shared love of sewing.

"Sewing is in My Genes" mixed media fibre art wall hanging by the author 2016
includes photographs of her female line ancestors printed on organza
 and layered over double helix DNA fabric, painted wheat pasted tablecloth and old sewing notions

Wedding Photo for Mayme Wescott and Charles Edwards - colorized

Mayme made her pale green taffeta wedding gown

Stories about Elinor's grandmother Mayme highlighted her excellent dressmaking skills. Mayme's daughter Marion (Edwards) Miller said of the wedding dress, "I have no memory of her telling us about their wedding, but the lovely clothes were kept in a trunk for many years. Her wedding dress was a pale mint green, soft taffeta which she made so beautifully. I remember it well, because I wore it to a masquerade dance when I was 17 or 18. She had quite a time getting me into it as I was more buxom than she had been." 

Marion went on to say, "She loved to sew, made all of our clothes, even coats when we were young, and when she had all of us fitted out, she made clothes for poor children."  Mayme would outfit them to take the train from Montana to Wisconsin to visit her folks, as described by Marion: "She would have us all dressed up so nice.  I can remember the trip when I was seven.  She had made white coats for Ora and me and we had white embroidered hats."

Mayme (back left) with daughters including Della (back right)
Mayme and daughters likely made all their clothing

Sewing was a necessary skill at a time when most clothing was made at home; some women obviously would have enjoyed this more than others. Mayme was clearly one of those who loved to sew. (These days, it costs far more to make one's own clothing than to purchase ready-made disposable outfits. People who sew today do it primarily for expressing their creativity in unique and higher-quality items.)

Wool log cabin wedding quilt made by Mayme Wescott Edwards
for marriage of her daughter Della to Ingvald Anderson 1919

When Mayme and her husband Charles Edwards tried homesteading in Saskatchewan, their eldest child Idella remained in Great Falls, Montana, to complete her high school before joining her family in Canada. Once there, she taught school and fell in love with a young homesteading farmer named Ingvald Anderson. When the rest of the Edwards family moved back to the United States, Della remained to get married. Apparently her parents were NOT pleased with this, yet Mayme created a beautiful log cabin quilt for the young couple's wedding gift.

My mother, the third of Ingvald and Della's daughters, learned to sew from her mother. I recall Mum telling me how her mother required that she and her sisters practice hemming handkerchiefs by hand until they could do it perfectly before she would permit them to sew on her Singer treadle sewing machine.

Grandma Della's thimbles - one decorative, the other well-used
(there was a third one but it had been completely worn through!)

Sewing Head from my Grandma Della's old Singer
that she handed down to my mother Elinor

Elinor came to the Leinan/Stewart Valley community as a school teacher in a one-room country school north of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and, like her mother, fell in love with a local farmer and remained to raise her family there. 

She taught me to sew on that same old treadle Singer sewing machine that had been handed down to her by her mother Della. I was probably no more than 5 or 6, but I loved being able to design and create clothes for my dolls using the well-stocked remnants bin that she kept in her closet. It was a big round wooden cheese tub with lid. She always rolled all the leftover bits of fabric and tied them into neat bundles. I wonder if her mother and grandmother did the same with theirs?

Elinor on left c 1955 wearing  one of her dresses; with friend Eileen and Eileen's daughter Colleen

Shopping for fabric and patterns was one of my favourite shopping experiences as a child. When we went to the Co-Op Store on Central Avenue in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, we would generally aim up the stairs to the mezzanine floor circling the perimeter but open to the main floor below. Being children, we would of course need to use the washrooms in the corner (featuring photographs of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, as I recall) before moving on to the nearby fabric section. Oh, what delight! The pattern books were on one side and the fabric bolts all stacked in rows along the wall. Everything was neat and tidy and very appealing to my aesthetic senses. 

3 of Elinor's children - Sandy on left, John center and Joanne right
Girls are wearing their 1958 Christmas dresses made by Elinor
(they were green with black flocking)

My mother instilled in me a love of sewing, though we also had a 4-H Homecraft Club where we learned a lot of specific skills. I made much of my own wardrobe during my high school years (and well beyond for my own growing family). When I was in Grade 12, my Grandma Della asked me to sew her a couple of dresses, giving me free rein on fabric selection "so long as it isn't some dull old-lady stuff!" How she loved colour!

My sister and I both recall how we would get an idea midweek for some new outfit for a Friday night dance and barely start it ourselves before calling on Mum to finish it for us while we were in school. And she always did. We always had new outfits for Christmas even if it meant she had to make over an old dress of her own or one of her sister's. And we almost always won the Hallowe'en costume contests with her creations; no idea that we came up with ever stumped her.

Others in the community often had her do special sewing projects for them, including at least one bridal trousseau. She particularly enjoyed sewing her daughter Sandy's wedding dress in 1973.

Sandy walking down the aisle with her Dad Ken Bardahl 1973
Wearing the dress made by Elinor

She always took part in community and church activities where she could share her creativity. One of my earliest recollections is of her doing some kind of crazy patchwork stitched onto full sheets of newspaper (removed before quilting) for a charitable project for the church.

Elinor (second from right) in local ladies' group with their charity quilts

Elinor was always full of ideas for creating events. For our family reunion at Waterton Lakes in 2000, she instigated the wearing of historic costumes - and sewed many of them for her somewhat reluctant kinfolk.

Elinor (centre in black and white) with sister Kathryn, brother Bob,
daughters Sandy and Joanne (holding Morgan), Graham

Sandy and Brett with young Morgan

Elinor was a generous grandmother who would willingly share her treasured (and often expensive!) painting supplies to teach her grandchildren how to paint. She was always  there to lend a hand when it came to any craft or sewing projects that were proposed by her grandchildren, several of whom also became sewers.

Elinor keeping granddaughter Angie company - and probably sharing some advice! - 
while sewing on the deck

Angie  teaching a class in Tanzania, Africa 2019

And the web expands. Granddaughter Angie was able to visit Tanzania to share her love of sewing in February of 2019 and commented: "It was the most thankful and grateful moment in my life. We taught them how to make reusable sanitary napkins."

The next generation finds Elinor's great granddaughter Sasha at the sewing machine. When the pandemic hit, Sasha immediately started sewing masks for family. Where will this web expand next?

Sasha designing and  sewing her first quilt 2012

Some Resources:

Miller, Marion Frances Edwards, My Memories, Lexington, Michigan 1978, copy in possession of the author addressed "To Elinor with love from Aunt Marion, Jan. 7, 1986.