In praise of Alice and Edna

 

Sometimes you go to an estate sale and you just feel a connection with the previous occupants of the house. The sale I went to Friday was at the home of two 90-something spinster sisters, and that alone seemed to promise great things. The contents of their home - a fairly unassuming ranch house - spoke to a life filled with elegance. The sisters - or at least one of them - spoke French and read good  books. They owned a considerable amount of sterling and wore good jewelry. They traveled, and they visited the stores I would have visited and brought home the souvenirs I would have bought.

 

They were excellent, perhaps extraordinary, seamstresses. They did not finish all of their projects, and no wonder, because they went to such pains to achieve perfection. They used tailor tacks (a stitch of thread to make a mark) instead of chalk, and they hand-basted seams before sewing them to make sure the garment fit.

  

They knew how to shop, and where to shop. In the box lots I brought home, mostly because I wanted some patterns inside, I found little paper bags from Macy's and Gimbels, filled with lovely notions - buttons, seam binding, a roll of Irish linen tape, a gorgeous length of sage-green polka dotted ribbon. The thought that Gimbels and Macy's once had notions counters was thrilling. And then it occurred to me that the sisters were shopping long before every city had a Macy's. To shop at Macy's, the sisters needed to travel from upstate New York, most likely to New York City. And while I sorted through the boxes, I made up a story about the sisters, Alice and Edna. They must have worked - maybe Edna was a schoolteacher, and Alice an executive secretary - and put money aside for shopping trips. They took the train into the city a few weekends a year, and they shopped at good stores. They came home with their purchases and stitched late into the night, and people would always notice how elegant they looked. And as much as this story pleased me, I wanted to know whether it was true, and so I went back to the sale the next day, knowing full well the real story might be a disappointment. I know the woman running the estate sale a little, and so I asked her about Alice and Edna, and boy, was I wrong.

 

Their lives were so much richer than I imagined. They didn't move to the little house until they were in their 80s, and they needed to be closer to family members. Up until then, they lived just outside of New York City. Alice spent her career working in the offices of the W.T. Grant Co., and Edna was the CEO of a trust on Wall Street. They were career women, in the mold of Katharine Hepburn in the movies. And judging from the patterns they bought, they must have looked fabulous.

I'll never know which sister cut an advertisement out of the newspaper and sketched a version of the jacket she wanted to make: "gray wool lined with red cotton." I'm guessing Alice, maybe during a dull report at a quarterly meeting at W.T. Grant.

 

Or which sister hurried to Macy's on her lunch hour, a snippet of green wool in her bag, to buy seam binding and buttons. Maybe that was Edna, taking a break from her responsibilities at work to dally at the notions counter, swatch in hand, musing over her choices.

Comments

[Tina in Duluth]

Fabulous!

I've been looking for old sewing machines and found a beautiful lavender 1960 Gimbels brand. It made me sad that I was cautioned out of buying it from a repair man. I wonder what Alice and Edna sewed on?

I've been looking for seam binding in that color for a vintage dress my daughter has! And whoever thought pointy darts were a good idea? Is that all that worked with the undergarments of the day? A & E would have known!

[Allie in MI]

Oh my goodness wouldn't you have LOVED to have known them. I bet they had stories to tell!!!!

[georgiapeachez]

How much fun was that! I always wonder about the lives of the people at these estate sales. I went to one recently that the man had worked at NASA Langley and there was framed memorabilia about the Apollo rockets. I wondered what his role had been.
Great patterns and notions! xo, suzy

[Lisa]

Oh that sounds like such fun! I love your story, the real story, and looking at some of the treasures you found!

[gail]

What a great sale! And what a great couple of sisters! I love making up stories for the things I have bought. I love the real story even more. Thanks for sharing Barbara ;)

[julie]

You know I love reading your posts but this is my most favorite of all (is it OK to link to it tomorrow?). I'm in the middle of sewing my daughter's communion dress and feeling a little overwhelmed...but your post/story about the sisters, the pretty notions, the plans for sewing...makes me want to get back to it this morning and finish the dress.

[Julie]

What a wonderful story - thanks very much for going back the second day and sharing with the rest of us! Jewels

[Carol]

When I go to an estate sale, I always wonder about the people who's stuff I am rummaging through. I think it's so cool that you went back and found out about these great ladies, and every time you look at these finds, you'll think of Alice & Edna!

[Alli]

Wow, what a great story! It's so wonderful that their things went to someone who can appreciate the sisters themselves.

[Jen]

Great story! I love it all, girls after my own heart!

[maddie]

Oh swoon!.. what a wonderful thing to find.. and then to feel so connected!.. what a happy thing!

Maddie, dithering on where to put her mushrooms!

[susan]

such a fun game! i like both stories of their lives. oh how i envy them! i have always believed i was born in the wrong era.
those patterns are so gorgeous, and the notions are so fabulous

[stephanie]

Neat, neat! The patterns alone are awesome let alone the notions....Thanks for posting I enjoyed reading it .

[tammyCA]

Oh, I love this kinda stuff SO much! That's the best part of finding vintage items, wondering about the people who owned them and what their lives were like. How would they ever know how excited we get finding these treasures - just everyday treasures? I am always wondering about the people behind the objects...they lived through the decades that I wished that I had ('course, sometimes I wonder about how uncomfortable wearing garters/stockings & girdles to get into those ultraslim clothes...lol).
Thank goodness for all the people, like the sisters, who saved everything & for those like you who value and share them. :)

[laurie - magpie ethel]

I think this is one of the reasons I am so drawn to estate sales - women like Edna and Alice. I love to take a peek into a person's life and figure out what made them tick and what they saved. I like that you played detective and found out the real story with these two...thanks for sharing!

[Beth Leintz]

I would have loved to go to the Alice & Edna estate sale- but you already knew that. I often do the same thing at sales and try to figure out just WHO lived in the house. Good for you for asking.