Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society
by Doris Penner
This article is adapted from a presentation made to the MHV Womens's Auxilary on 10 Sept. 1998.
The Neischaul probably began in Manitoba in the 1920s with the wave of Mennonites who came to Canada from the Soviet Union at the time. The concept came from the Mädchenschulen - a vocational school for girls to learn homemaking skills. In Manitoba it was instituted as a short two-month course held in the homes of instructors. Courses were taught in Steinbach and Landmark (earlier called Prairie Rose) and likely in other communities as well.
For five days a week, the young women - of about ages 16 to 23 or 24 - learned to make patterns and sew, and in the evenings, they gathered to learn and do handicrafts.
For girls from places like Grunthal, Kleefeld, Domain, Lena, Rosenort, and Arnaud it meant living away from home at a boarding place near the school.
The idea for girls attending the Neischaul was to prepare them for the time when they would be married and be required to run their own households - and sewing was seen as one of the most useful skills a young woman could learn. Some participants were already engaged to be married and others at least had their eye seriously on a potential husband.
Many of the girls, however, took the course because their parents wanted them to sew for the family at home first, and a few such as Marlene (Martens) Toews of Rosenort wished to become seamstresses and thereby earn their living. For others, still, it was a alternative to going to high school - a compromise of sorts since high school was out to the question for most girls at the time. Agnes Janzen said her parents couldn't afford high school but they managed to come up with $40 for the sewing course.
The young women started out by learning to make patterns which included taking accurate measurements and drafting the pattern on paper. Of course, there were patterns available commercially, but the selection was limited and with most farm and village families far from shopping centres and not well off, it was the usual thing to make your won. This skill also helped in "making over" clothes to fit another member of the family when one outgrew a garment.
The women started actual sewing with something easy like an apron and a slip, then quickly progressed to bloomers, bras, and pyjamas, then on to dresses. They were expected to sew not one lady's dress, but three - on cotton or "everyday" dress, one tjleen zindoachshet (semi-dressy) and one grot Zindoachshet (very dressy) - as well as a women's suit, a smocked girl's dress and a pair of boy's trousers.
In the evenings, the students learned and worked at such handicrafts as tatting (lace-making with a shuttle), embroidery, crocheting, velvet cushion tops, cutwork for tablecloths and pillowcases, nadlemallarie (a satin stitch with blended colours) and crafts like clay and paper flowers.
The instructors of the Neischaul are stories in themselves. One of these was Olga (Guenther) Reimer who is living today in the Prairie Rose Apartments in Landmark. She taught her first class in Steinbach at age 26 - the year her mother died - and carried on for about six or seven years when she moved to British Columbia because of her father's health.
Reimer's desire had been to go to Normal School to become a teacher, but her father saw sewing as being more useful and channelled her into sewing classes which she took in Winkler. It is interesting to note that she quickly became an instructor and thus fulfilled her desire to teach after all.
The young teacher shared the family home with her father and a sister Helen who was 20 years her senior. Helen did the cooking - which included supplying the students in the course with coffee breaks and birthday cakes - while Reimer sewed for others in the community and taught sewing to bring in the family income.
The Guenther home was on Elm Street (it is still there) where the upstairs had been converted to a classroom.
Tina Kroeker began teaching sewing classes in 1948 in her home near Landmark (where she lives today). She taught for about five years which kept her busy while her husband (cont. on p.2)