My mom sewed everything when I was growing up, too. She's the type who can look at a thing hanging on a rack and mentally disassemble it and make it at home without a pattern. Me? Like you, I think this is the first time I've threaded a needle.

I grew up around fabrics, too, but completely different kinds. My grandmother always had piles of scrap fabric because she worked as a house cleaner and would take discarded clothes, sheets, and other fabrics as a "tip" to take home and turn into rag rugs to sell. (We've since inherited her loom.) My mother was also a thrift shopper, so there were always piles around, but mostly cheap?

I've only ever bought silk secondhand. How cool to have grown up around it and all the other fancy fabrics.