Sewing Cryptology

I finally decided to combine the four sets of sewing notions that I have accumulated in the last 15 years—my own from various projects and the three sets inherited from my mother’s mother, my father’s mother, and my husband’s mother. It is pretty fun to see all the different colors of thread that we have used, the types of buttons we chose, and the different accessories and tools that pile up from all the different eras during which we four have sewed. It also makes me feel a little closer to these ladies, because I have gleaned just a little insight into their crafty pasts.

I came upon this one yellowed envelope with iron-on transfers for personalizing clothing. It had an aged look and an antique font that made me guess it was from one of my grandmothers’ collections. I opened up the letter sheet to see what she must have spelled. Because a “C” was missing, I figured maybe it was used to spell my father’s name, “Cliff.” But this theory didn’t quite work out with the other gaps. (I felt a little bit like Mendeleev piecing together his first periodic table.) After a little puzzling and detective work and I discovered it spelled out “Chuck” my uncle’s name. I don’t know why, but it just melted my heart to think of my grandma carefully cutting out and ironing these letters onto one of little Uncle Chuck’s team uniforms 40 years ago.