Next Up in Fiber Nation | Home Economics vs. Hitler: Sewing in WWII

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1. 

   MaryF February 25, 2022

   It is amazing and shocking to me that you could write a book or do a podcast about how proud women were of their work and their sewing, and then be too ashamed of their work to use the word by which they described themselves: seamstress. My mother was apprenticed to a seamstress and worked as a professional seamstress before, during, and after the war at an exclusive dress shop. She helped support our family and gave me many experiences, like piano and ballet lessons, and even my college education, that we could not have afford had she not been a SEAMSTRESS. Instead, your advertiser chooses to use ‘sewer’, a place for wastewater, and you use ‘sewist’, which has no meaning at all. What are you ashamed of in particular? The work itself or the fact that women did it? I am very proud of the women and the work you described in your article; I am very ashamed of you.

2. 

   Georgia Fiorentino September 4, 2021

   I thought the episode was very interesting! As a new sewist, I definitely wish that someone had taught me how to sew in school when I was young but it seems that, despite the fact that most women will run a household when they’re older we are not taught how to do so unless our mothers teach us. I think the negative perception that is portrayed about women working in the home in this podcast episode is a little bit frustrating for me. The women at that time would have been proud to give up their positions so that their husband’s fathers and brothers could go back to work just as they were proud to take up the positions while they were away. They also would have been relieved to be able to have opportunities to dress in those really dresses after all of the time they spent working so hard. I would say that we have probably swung in the opposite direction in our culture now where instead of oppressing women and forcing them to fit a mold full-time bearing children at home as a homemaker, culture (at least in the north and the coasts) seems to slightly look down it’s nose on women who choose to stay home full time as if to choose this path is inferior to choosing work outside of the home. Fashions and fabric magazine was simply reflecting the reality of women’s lives at the time which was women as homemakers mainly. The vast majority of women very likely did not see this as a disappointing reality and most women would have embraced the role.

3. 

   Mechelle Sharp August 5, 2021

   Home Economics vs Hitler. Very interesting podcast! Very! My mother-in-law was a home ec teacher then a government teacher as her career. She was not a frilly person, but a doer and very practical. Her children became engineers and accountants. She also took pride in looking nice and taking care of her home. To each his own, so I will voice my opinion… I worked too, while raising children, as did my mother and grandmother and yet we liked to look pretty and made some of those pretty dresses. I miss home ec in the schools today.

4. 

   Juley Karns June 28, 2021

   I love and look forward to every podcast. My only complaint is I wish there were more.