"A Snip in Time"

“A Snip in Time”

Barbara Weisenberger

Imagine, if you will, a little girl – about 6 or 7 – eagerly opening up a small package taken from her Christmas stocking and seeing the glee in her eyes when it turned out to be her very first pair of scissors. Now, you may say, that’s not likely, but I would beg to differ. As a very little girl, in the 1950s, I loved paper dolls, but we couldn’t afford them. Instead, I would take a catalog and carefully page through it until I found just the right model to clip out, and then I would spend even more time “shopping” for just the right clothes to dress my new paper doll.

As I grew up, my love for creating doll clothes, grew with me. I could always find old clothes or towels, for my creations, but unfortunately, a lot of times I didn’t have access to scissors that were sharp enough to cut fabric. Occasionally, either myself or one of my 4 brothers, would receive a gift which included a pair of safety scissors and I would do my best to put them to work for me, at least until the owner reclaimed them.

I think it’s hard for anyone to understand how excited I was when I was able to take Home Ec in Junior High, knowing that part of this class would be using a sewing machine! I couldn’t wait to get started – and when I saw all the equipment and accessories (not to mention so many pairs of scissors), I was in sewing heaven. This class turned out to be one of my biggest disappointments, however, mainly because all the other girls came to class with skills I had never even imagined. When the grades were handed out at the end of the semester, my heart hurt when I saw a “D” for Home Ec.

Still, I wanted to sew. I remember the day we got an old portable sewing machine with a worn, wooden carrying case; an old rusty clip on each side which fastened the cover to the base. The handle had long ago disintegrated and had been replaced with an old necktie which was tied together. There was no place to leave it set up, so it was stored under the keyboard of our upright piano. When I wanted to sew, I would have to pull it out (it probably weighed about 30 pounds and I only weighed about 80 pounds), and – putting my back into it – heft it onto the kitchen table. Needless to say, it only came out when it was needed.

Unfortunately, one day as I was hefting it to the table, one of the side clips broke and the machine smashed to the floor, landing on the top of my foot. It was quite some time before I used that machine again. Fortunately, I graduated a few years after that little accident and my parents gave me my first sewing machine. I was thrilled, but – as with most 18 year olds – I was enamored with all the fun a teenager could have and spent little time thinking about sewing.

I remembered that machine though, when my 5-year-old daughter wanted to be a red, furry bunny with a pink fluffy tail! Out came my graduation gift and while I was out shopping for red bunny fur and pink fluffy fur, I also distinctly remember purchasing my first, really good pair, of scissors (which just happened to be Fiskars). I kept sewing from that day on until I discovered a new love – theatre and costumes.

With some wonderful women mentoring me, I began to understand how everything I so enjoyed, could contribute to entertain others. I volunteered for local community theatre and, while the work was hard, I was in my element. And then, something amazing happened – I wanted more! At the age of 51, I enrolled at our local University as a Theatre Arts Major. True, I didn’t just learn about costumes, but I did learn how interconnected everything is in the theatrical world. At the age of 56, I graduated magna cum laude with my Bachelor’s degree.

Life still had a few more surprises for me. After graduating, I was offered a position as Costume Designer/Costume Shop Manager at a nearby University. I still remember my first day in the Costume Shop, setting things up, getting ready for the students I would be supervising as we constructed costumes for the upcoming show. There was a large pegboard area near the ironing board and on that board were so many scissors of all shapes and sizes! It was amazing – for a girl who barely had any scissors to cut paper dolls from a catalog, to a specialized designer with so many scissors at my beck and call.

I was the luckiest person in the world! But, believe it or not, there was still one more surprise in store for me. The year 2020 started off really rough for my husband and I. He had three separate health emergencies all at once, that first week of January. Eventually, John was taking up to 12 medications a day and was often confused and out of touch with his surroundings. By February, following surgery for one condition and physical therapy for another, he wasn’t doing much better, but we decided he would manage so I could begin work on the next upcoming University show. As I began my work on that show, I just knew this would have to be my last show. My husband had been so supportive when I became a college student, I knew he deserved my full support now. I let the Director know this was going to be my last show and I told him I would do my very best to make this show everything he wanted.

I’m not going to say it was easy; caring for a spouse and going through the rigors of designing and creating a show, but I put my heart into it. Then, the week before dress rehearsals, the pandemic broke our world and the University closed down, cancelling all performances. My heart was broken. My final show would never be seen, I would not even be able to say my goodbyes to the cast and crew. I felt just as lost as those days, so long ago, when I wanted to cut out paper dolls or cut fabric for my doll clothes and couldn’t because I had no scissors. The sense of loss and emptiness was searing.

Caring for my husband, being home bound to protect him, left me with so much time with nothing to do. I decided, the least I could do was make the two of us a few face masks. I researched what I needed to do and set to work to create a good design and picked through my fabrics to create “stylish” pieces. Then I thought, the least I could do is make some for friends and family. It was probably somewhere around 100 masks created when I realized it was too expensive for me to continue – shipping alone was more than my limited budget would allow.

That’s when I began listing my face masks in my Etsy shop. My goal in selling face masks wasn’t to make money – in fact, the amount I sold them for was slightly more than the costs. My goal was to make a good, quality face mask that would brighten people’s days as we struggled through this difficult time. As I write this today, I have sold over 7,000 face masks, I’ve gone through 4 sewing machines, countless pairs of scissors and more fabric and thread than I can even begin to estimate.

It’s kind of a complete circle. I wanted so much to create things as a child, but was held back because of inexperience and lack of scissors – now I’m only held back by myself – I have developed valuable skills, have found ways to share them with others, and these days, I create things I love and you can be sure, I can always be found adding another pair of scissors to my work room because, hey, maybe life has more surprises in mind for me – best to be ready – right?