Despite my sad childhood, my happiest memories were of visiting my maternal grandmother, who lived in a little shotgun house surrounded by all manner of unusual plants. Granny could grow anything. She had a pair of Siamese cats, Sampson and Delilah, that had happened upon her house and found their forever home. Sampson's tail had quite a kink in it, and Delilah was very cross-eyed, and no doubt they had been discarded.
Granny had been born in the 1890's, and had clear memories of both world wars. She knew how to do many things, and was so clever in running her household on very little. I've mentioned her before - she made the darling chicken potholders from scraps and feed sacks and bit of calicoes.
One other thing she did was take long strips of cloth -- many times the selvedge cut from the edges of a length of cloth -- and wrap wire coat hangers with it. She'd fold the outer edges of the cloth strips towards the middle of the back side of the cloth, and wind it around the hanger. When she had gone all the way around, she'd secure the cloth with a few stitches. Then she's tack another piece to the back of the hanger, at the top, and curl a little rosette at the base of the hanger, again tacking it here and there.
I'm not sure how she kept her hangers from ending up in a scrap metal drive in WWII. She kept a "milch cow" in her yard during the war, and "La Aragonesa" stayed on to live out her life long after the milk gave out. Granny also had the very best Victory Garden in town, we were told.
I have two of those hangers, and I treasure them as if they are solid gold or set with rubies.
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What wonderful hangers. I didn't like my grandmother at all. She was a witch. And mean! But I am happy to share these wonderful memories with you and your granny!!
What great memories of your grandmother! The hangers are wonderful! Happy Monday!
One grandmother was my allotment; the rest passed on before I knew them. My grandmother was wonderful; she was all of them put together, I suppose.
How very wonderful to have these wonderful hangers made by your grandmother's hands, to be able to hold something that she put so much care and attention into is a very rare and special gift. Thanks so much for sharing them with us and thank you as well for your kind words on my blog, your words touched my heart deeply. I do truly feel that our Sass left us so quickly, just as your Gracie left right after Twinkie's passing, so she could be with her big brother again. Boston & Sass were rescue dogs as well and gave us so much more love than we could ever give them. Thank you again for you kindness, Deb xo
My gramma B made crocheted hangers. Your grannys fabric one are so very sweet! Janice