Sewing in America -- 2 Major Ideas (Part 3)

It's taken me a while to post again because I realize there are two separate ideas here:

A.) Sewing as a lost art (even mending stymies most people)
B.) Limited apparel manufacturing resources in the US

On the Subject of A (let's call it "Lost Arts"):
This Sunday's New York Times Magazine presented an interesting article about our nation's dwindling cooking abilities, and how women's lib, cooking/food lifestyle shows and the packaged food industry have turned eating into theater, cooking into sport, and diminished the daily activity of food preparation. "Weekday meals are hum drum, a drag to shop and prepare for after a long day, so let's nuke/order something and make a REAL meal on the weekend."

I think the same thing has happened to sewing:

The Women's Lib Effect:
I think for girls growing up in the 70's, sewing was old-fashioned, house-wifey, uncool, unliberated. It was a big deal when our district decided that boys AND girls would take Home Economics AND Wood Shop. Having the boys in Home Ec made the subjects at hand into comedy. The boys would goof around (egg tosses, anyone?) and when we were doing sewing projects, the boys would instigate "races" where they would floor the pedals and rev up the machines. The boys aren't completely to blame, though, because the girls happily joined in -- at least the girls who cared about being cool to the boys (which was most of us). Looking back, I feel so sorry for the Home Ec teachers. What they taught was being stigmatized right before their eyes.

I remember in the 90s, when I worked in an office, and a button popped off my jacket. I asked the other women (mostly in their 20s) if any of them had a needle and thread. They furrowed their brows and said they'd never even used a needle or thread. They'd never even sewed on a button. So what do you do when a button falls off? They told me they put it back in their closet and figure they'll get around to it (then throw it out in a few months), or wear it anyway. I described the idea of a Home Ec class and they giggled. I get the sense that when people profess their ignorance to threading a needle, it's a badge of honor that they are not Suzy Homemaker.

Cheap Clothes, Sold Cheap
Why make when you can buy? Why mend when you can buy? Clothing is cheap and disposable. In fairness, it would be a real drag to have to make every single thing you needed to wear, and to mend the heels of your socks when they wore thin, but if replacements were not so inexpensive easily available, wouldn't we do a LITTLE more? Of course the relative inexpensive price of the goods has a lot to do with Subject B (Limited US apparel manufacturing).

Creative Outlet versus Life Skill
Whereas the elevation of cooking to an art form bows to Julia Child and the Mario Batali, sewing has Project Runway and Etsy. Have you checked out the sewn goods on Etsy? They're amazing. Amazing and intimidating. Etsy and Project Runway celebrate the art of design and the craft of sewing, and elevate them to a point where all we want (or can, for that matter) do is admire.

So where should I go with this? Do I have a point of view on how or why to bring sewing back into the American mainstream? Not really. The Times article quotes Harry Balzer, a food-marketing research expert, who comes off as an amusing, crusty curmudgeon, on why peole need to get off their high horses about the Lost Arts. Just substitute "cooking a chicken" with "making a dress" (and the attendant preparations):

“Do you miss sewing or darning socks? I don’t think so... Here’s an analogy,” Balzer said. “A hundred years ago, chicken for dinner meant going out and catching, killing, plucking and gutting a chicken. Do you know anybody who still does that? It would be considered crazy! Well, that’s exactly how cooking will seem to your grandchildren: something people used to do when they had no other choice. Get over it.”

So yes, we do have more choices now. To sew and create. To mend or replace. And that's great; I like having choices. But I guess I would be less indignant if more people would just sew a button back on once in a while.

What do you think? Do you guys sew? Can you thread a needle and sew on a button? How important a skill is it?

"When I was a kid..." doesn't cut it with car seat safety.

I was pleased to read this post on the Kyle David Miller Foundation Blog recently, about how practices that seemed safe a long time ago are now known to be unsafe. Think about how much more we know today, about cigarettes, asbestos, pre-natal healthcare, bisphenol A! I wrote a similar piece as a press release last year, and posted it on the website. Same idea, with data and footnotes. Here it is, in case you missed it: July 8, 2008 "Back in the day..." is no excuse for slacking on safety.

Many people dismiss car seat safety, saying, “When I was a kid, we didn’t ride in car seats, and we turned out fine.” They go on: "We sat five across on a bench seat, no belts... My parents took me home in a laundry basket on the floor of the back seat... I used to ride in the front seat between my mother and father..." (Of course, the voices of those who were not so lucky to have "turned out fine" are not being considered!) While skeptics may use their own childhood experiences as references, they should remember that it’s not just the type or number of products that's different: The nature of driving itself has changed significantly in the past 30 years:

1. There are 300% MORE CARS on US roads now than when we were kids.

According the Federal Highway Authority, the number of passenger vehicles has steadily risen, from 74 million in 1960 to over 231 million in 2004.(1) That means more traffic, more congestion, less parking, and more road rage. And drivers' attention is more divided than ever, with cell phones, DVD players, GPS systems -- not to mention non-technical distractions like eating, putting on makeup, or settling arguments between backseat passengers. Every one of these can be a factor in a collision.

2. The average US motor vehicle is nearly 20% HEAVIER than the ones we used to ride in.

According to the Center for Auto Safety, the weight of the average passenger car increased from 3,227 pounds in 1980 to 3,868 pounds in 2000. (2) Even at relatively low speeds like 30 miles per hour, the 600+ pound increase in one or more of the cars’ weight could dramatically increase the damage of a crash. Add to that the wider range of weights in the vehicles on today’s roads (from the Honda Civic DX at 2,628 pounds (3), to the AWD Cadillac Escalade at 5,708 pounds (4)), and the possibilities for injuries and fatalities are even greater.

3. The average American child spends MORE TIME in the car than ever.

The National Household Travel Study, released in 2003, found that three fourths of children aged 5 and younger rode in private cars daily, averaging 65 minutes per day. In reporting the study, the Washington Post wrote that younger children, not yet in school, probably spend significantly more time in the car than that. (5) Those with stay at home parents go wherever (and whenever) Mom or Dad goes, and those with working parents often drive with them to day care near the workplace. Suburban sprawl also makes a difference: "Fetching a carton of milk used to mean toting children along to the corner store. Now it means strapping them in for a 20-minute drive to K-Mart." (6) The more time spent in the car, the more risk of being in a collision. That's why most car crashes tend to happen close to home, not on the highway -- we spend more time close to home!

Safety improvements like seat belts, air bags and car seats have helped decreased the number of deaths over the past 30 years, but motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the U.S. (7) They still cause about 25% of injury deaths among children 12 and younger. (8) We all have anecdotes about how our childhoods were simpler. Some may argue that the old days were better, and in many ways, they were. But there is no question that advancements in technology and communications have also enhanced (and prolonged) our lives. So resist the temptation to disregard today’s safety advice. Make sure your kids stay safe whenever they are in a car, so that in years to come (when their world is unrecognizable to us!), they, too, will be talking about "back in the day."

SOURCES: 1 US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, number of motor vehicles since 1960. 2 Statements of Clarence M. Ditlow, Director, Center for Auto Safety, to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, December 6, 2001. 3 US News & World Report, Automotive Rankings & Reviews, 2008. 4 Cadillac.com, 2008 AWD Escalade, Vehicle Information, Curb Weight 5 WashingtonPost.com, “The Road Too Much Traveled: For Many Children, Drive Time Just Keeps Going,” January 27, 2003 6 WashingtonPost.com, January 27, 2003 7 CDC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System [online]. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (producer). Available from URL: www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars. [2008 May 5].8 National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. 2003. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System. Atlanta, GA. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/.

(This article was originally published on http://www.carseatponcho.com/.) About Donna Eng: Donna Eng is the inventor of the Car Seat Poncho, and the CEO of H Barry Boo LLC. She invented the Car Seat Poncho at her dining room table, after searching in vain for a product that would keep her son both safe and warm in his convertible car seat. Prior to founding H Barry Boo, Eng had a 15-year career in advertising and market research. About the Car Seat Poncho: The Car Seat Poncho is the safe alternative to a coat for children who ride in a convertible car seat. Regular winter coats are often too thick to allow the safety harness to fasten properly, which could lead to the ejection in a crash. The Car Seat Poncho is the easy way to keep a child safe and warm in the car seat, and is more convenient than a coat because it can be worn outside of the car as well. The Car Seat Poncho is available online at http://www.carseatponcho.com/, and is patent pending.