31.5.15

Don’t Be A Pin-Up Girl

While a stylist was cutting my hair the other day, he swung the chair around and, as he did, I caught a glimpse of the stylist in the next booth. Having nothing to do other than observe, I noticed that the black slacks she was wearing had been hemmed using safety pins.

As often happens in various situations, I heard my mom’s voice in my head chiding, “Don’t be a pin-up girl.”  Mom believed that after a girl passed the diaper years her clothing should be held together with buttons, snaps, hooks, zippers, and stiches. A broken bra strap meant a trip to the sewing box and the use of needle, thread, and scissors. She did not care if every other teen-aged girl in the world mended her clothing with pins. Her daughter would not be doing that. The rule was simple: “Mending with pins is not allowed."  

Over the years I’ve come across many women who apparently do not own needles and thread. I’ve seen dress fronts pinned behind buttonholes, entire side seams of skirts held together with spaced-out safety pins, straps of things held together with large safety pins bulging beneath outerwear, and various sizes of safety pins securing the hems of dresses and slacks.

Since hemming and sewing on buttons involves such a short amount of time and very little effort or skill, I have to wonder why this tacky method of holding clothing together is so often used (although I do understand the occasional emergency fix).



My mother would have been horrified at these earrings. Combine her belief that the body is not intended for adornment with her dislike for safety pins and . . .   . I can’t even imagine.



~ Earrings - unexpectedboutique

2 comments:

  1. Yes, those baubles would give Ma the heebie jeebies.. You may believe it if you wish, but even I know how to replace a button on a shirt or a jacket, I can whipstitch a hem, and I have been known to put my light bulb in a sock and darn it! Oh, look. I said "darn it" and even Mama can[t object to that. Beyond that, though, not so much.

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    Replies
    1. I admire you, Vanilla. My Hubby married me so he would have someone to sew and mend for him. Yes, the word "darn" was not allowed in our home unless there was a light bulb involved.

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