The Brown Paper Bag

Once upon a time, there was a girl who dreamed of sewing. And knitting. And crocheting. But most of all, she dreamed of embroidering. That’s because one day her grandmother gave her a present. It was a gift that was especially important because her grandmother had many grandchildren. And she could have given this gift to any of the older ones. But she didn’t. She gave this twelve-year-old girl her most precious possession – a small brown paper bag with all the colors of the rainbow in it. And a wooden hoop. The girl didn’t know what to do with these beautiful things so she tucked them away on her secret shelf in her bedroom closet – the shelf with the sparkly stones that she found on a camping trip, and the beautiful necklace that her friend gave her.

She took the brown paper bag out of the closet from time to time and spread all of the embroidery hanks on her bed. She arranged them in variegated sections. She stared at them, rubbed her fingers across the soft floss, and wondered what she was supposed to do with them. But she never asked anyone. Never. In time the bag became crumpled and torn from the opening and closing of it. Until one day when the girl was about twenty.

She started a job at a submarine shop. But right next door – down a cement staircase, into a damp basement, a craft store opened up. The now grown-up girl started going there on her lunch breaks. She didn’t know what she could do with the things in the store, but she wandered around and marveled at all the beauty that surrounded her.

One day a young clerk was working on a project – with embroidery floss. And a wooden hoop. The grown-up girl was awestruck. “How do you do that?” she asked. The clerk showed the woman how to make some of the stitches. The woman went home and tried it. It worked! She began to make many things with her floss. She embroidered plackets for her husband’s shirt, flowers on the front of her dress, and tablecloth decorations.

Her thirst for knowledge of crafts finally realized, she ventured into sewing, smocking, knitting, and crochet. She made many outfits for her little girl. Tops with decorative hand-stitching around the collars… and doll clothes to match her daughter's clothes. Her creative heart burst open, and every known craft that she could put her hand to, she worked with joy and zeal.

She showed her embroidery to her grandmother. “Oh my, Pet, your work is beautiful,” she said. The grown-up girl’s heart soared.

In time the woman’s daughter grew up, married, and had two girls of her own. The grown-up girl made special things for her granddaughters… quilts, dresses with handmade piping for the collars, and hats with ribbon flowers on the front. As her granddaughters grew, the woman taught them many things – how to sew, scrapbook with paper, paint and bake.

When her granddaughters were grown, the woman had no one to teach, so she made a business for herself. She made beautiful hats with embroidery and ribbonwork flowers and jewelry that she fashioned herself. Her mother said, “You do beautiful work Pet. Nanny would have been proud of you.”

The grown-up girl brought to mind standing by her grandmother’s treadle sewing machine when she was just six years old, asking, “What are you doing, Nanny?”

“I’m basting,” her grandmother replied.

“What’s basting?”

“It’s making big stitches to hold the fabric together until I sew it on the machine.”

She recalled watching her grandmother deftly crocheting toilet tissue hats and doilies for the table as she made up the designs from her head. She remembered her grandmother sewing quilts by hand from old clothing that had worn out. She snuggled up with one of those quilts when she was a girl (even though some of the squares made her itchy because they were made of wool).

And then she remembered standing at her grandmother’s side as her life ebbed away. She touched her grandmother’s wrinkled hands and felt grateful for everything those hands taught her.

Now, the grown-up girl is old. Her brown paper bag of floss long gone, she packaged up some ribbons and books on embroidery and gave them to a younger friend who is learning the craft. She is happy to pass along her ribbons and her knowledge to someone who will value them just as much as she did. I know that’s how she feels because, that grown-up girl is me.