Inside this cabinet is the avacado color Sears sewing machine that I learned to sew on when I was a young girl. I was somewhere between six and eight and my first project was an outfit for a doll. From that first project, I have never stopped sewing. Along the way I have picked up many other skills from knitting to woodworking. If it involves crafting, I have most likely done it. Drawing and painting have never been my thing. I cannot really make a stick figure look right, but put me in a room with a sewing machine or glue gun and watch me create.

Although my mother helped me to learn the basics, I took to sewing like a duck to water and self taught from that first project onwards. My mother knew how to sew, from her years spent in 4H, but she was a woman of the 70/80’s who wanted a career over a homemaker life and so the machine quickly became my machine. My grandmother worked all her life in a sewing factory making uniforms out of that horrendous jersey fabric. The kind with the holes in it for breathability, think football jerseys. She must have worked at that factory for close to 70 years. I remember bathing suits and various other items she made for family members out of remnants from that factory. As you can imagine, I quickly came to loathe polyester clothing of any kind.

This machine is still in excellent condition, but it rarely gets used for much anymore, save a wonderful perch for Emerson and Elliot to enjoy the outdoor wildlife from behind the glass and a tangible reminder of rare happy moments I have from my childhood. They would probably say that this suits them just fine. I agree.