Posted on 01/12/2006 8:39:35 AM PST by dhls
You need to know:
Running stitch.
Back stitch
Overcast stitch.
Then you can sew almost anything.
I've heard of some people who put patches on with velcro so they can pull them off later...seems like cheating to me....
Another one for you:
http://www.fiber-images.com/Free_Things/Reference_Charts/handsewing_stitches.htm
I've been handsewing so long I don't remember learning to thread a needle.
I have antique books on how to sew, modern books on how to sew, couture books on how to sew, repro books for reenactors on how to sew, French hand-sewing books, and I keep threatening to make my own for the hamhanded reenactor types who want to do it themselves. But I haven't gotten around to it yet.
All of these books have extensive, if not exclusive, sections on hand sewing.
Bookmarked! I need to brush up on my handsewing skills.
It's a handy skill to have, and it can save you embarrassment as well as money. It has done both for me.
Most people are not aware of what an advance in technology a simple needle and thread represents.
I've made a list of what I think are the principle inventions of mankind, and it ranks right up there in the first dozen.
People often don't realize how important a lot of the basic things like that are.
And people who don't do the crafts and who write the histories often really don't understand why it's important, such as the economic rebirth in Europe ca. 900-1100 was brought about by a few things: A movement to limit fighting between local powers pushed by the church (which helped control some of the chaos) Some improvement in agricultural techniques and such that allowed people in the lowlands to have a surplus of population and food, which let people attend to crafts, and an improvement in weaving technology that allowed for better cloth production of luxury type cloth, which in turn drove trade, including trade with Russia and the east, and helped get the cash economy moving again, and the growth of learning and the advances in architecture witnessed by the building of the great cathedrals, and so on and so on.
But a lot of this wouldn't have happened if the switch to horizontal looms (especially broadbeam looms) fom upright looms, with an improved technology of heddles to make weaving easier, faster, and better.
Basketweaving
Pottery
Fire
Spears
Weaving
Needle and thread
Bow and arrow
Fabric
Record-keeping
Agriculture
Domestic animals
Literature
I've made this list before, and it may be that the order might have changed from my previous list.
The significant thing is not the order, but the presence of certain items on the list.
Some would say, "You need to have art, or boats, or something else."
Art came early, but it wasn't initially all that important to our survival. Boats came early, too, just after pottery, but they were only ways of carrying things across the water, not of getting across. It was a long time until we figured out how to catch fish with them.
How long did this all take? Now that is a good question. I think it didn't take very long at all.
We don't have much indication of what our societies were like before fire, but things progressed rapidly after we acquired that tool.
Culture didn't just occur one place and then spread. It came about in many different places, and that's why we have many different languages.
After the scattered places began trading with each other, societies blossomed by being able to benefit from the developments of others.
That's when civilization began.
Weaving most likely evolves out of basketweaving techniques.
I do believe though, sing pointed sticks/using edged stones are probably the oldest of human technology, with fire following quickly behind.
Container making came early, since we gather food and take it back to camp to process and eat it.
Pointy sticks were weapons in the hands of men, digging tools in the hands of women, but both were needful.
Basketry definitely seems to predate pottery everywhere. Using bast with basketry techniques gives one nets, flexible material, and leads to weaving fabric. Learning how to handle bast also leads to making rope, figuring out how to spin threads and such.
Needles must have really improved the heck out of lacing leathers together. Also useful with some basketry techniques.
Pottery shows some serious sophistication with fire, but before that, people were doing things like heating flint to improve its properties...
Record keeping, though, has an interesting history.
Seems like everywhere that tally systems turned into writing you find two types of writing right away: bookkeeping and religous related (poetry, ritual, etc.) But the need to know how many bottles of oil your olive press made you and how many yards of fabric your servent women wove were really important details.
Without those needs, we'd still be passing down oral traditions by memory and storyteller.
I think we're in general agreement about this scenario.
I am, of course, still quite puzzled about the manner in which the punctuated equilibrium of our developmental pressures functioned to hammer out upon the anvil of survival the iron of our genetic constitution.
Clearly climactic change, migration, predation, and environmental extremes all played their part.
And that doesn't even consider environmental disasters such as Earth-shattering volcanic eruptions. Yeah, we got hammered.
But the survivors had the right stuff. From the aspect of generations of man, I think this all happened fairly quickly also.
Two million, four million years ago -- hominids.
Then, about a hundred thousand years ago, or even less, there we were.
Astonishing.
(Good Night!)
Hmmm... I don't remember that one.
By the way, Friend, has anyone else noted that a short-cut for your screen name is F*DU?
That was posted before my first post on the Undead Thread...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1163131/posts?page=35670#35670
Okay, you're excused.
Of course, if you ever want some entertaining reading material, it's there for you. Those early posts were hilarious!
We had some old friends there, too.
I had just jumped in on that thread (as I usually do) and never bothered to read the earlier posts.
"I've made a list of what I think are the principle inventions of mankind, and it ranks right up there in the first dozen."
I've always thought of the same re the needle. Moroever, I've always thought that the chicken has been a God-send to humanity. It daily feeds hundred of millions of people and adapts itself to any environment.
God Bless the chicken!
Maybe we ought have a a national day dedicated to the chicken?
PS: should that "principle" above be principal or are they interchangeable?
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