The Zig-Zagged Washcloths

In the second post I wrote for my blog, I told you about a dishcloth that Mom mended.

When she passed away, I inherited her home and everything in it, even the washcloths that were in her bathroom closet.

They weren’t fancy but they were colorful.

Having grown up in the Great Depression, she knew the value of maintaining what she owned to make it last as long as possible.

She used to buy white washcloths so she could bleach them and keep them snowy white. 

But the binding on the edges often wore out before the washcloths did. 

Mom loved to sew. Whenever she bought new washcloths, she took them to her sewing machine and zigzagged a couple of rows of stitching around the edges with whatever color thread she had on the machine. 

Sometimes she used up odd bobbins of brightly colored thread for this purpose. Occasionally a single washcloth could have multiple colors of stitching.

So when I inherited them, there were a lot of colorfully edged washcloths.  

Mom passed away sixteen years ago. I still have most of the washcloths. 

Some are still in pretty good shape. Some are getting threadbare, but the stitching Mom did around the edges is still intact. 

There is something comforting in that. It’s almost as if she is still caring for me.