Why doesn’t Sergio have this?

My dad, who was a lot older, still had his mom's sewing machine sitting around our house when I was a kid. It was one of the really old school ones that used a treadle and your feet to run it.

It looked a lot like this.

il_794xN.1896810598_g69d.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with knowing how to sew! My mom taught me how to sew by hand and by machine (as well as crotchet, counter cross stitch, and knitting). Also learned sewing fundamentals in school and in Boy Scouts.

When I was in the Army, my buddies would laugh at me about why I kept a sewing kit in my First Aid pouch (kept a small one in my pocket as well). Well you never know when you might loose a button or tear your uniform in the field (rip stop my ass!) You also never know when when you might have to stitch a person up (an incident that got me selected for field medic training.) For basic survival, a sewing kit can be made into a fishing line pretty easily.

Just like with baking and grilling, I'me the go to person for sewing around my house. Scout badges, buttons, hemming pants or curtains. Nothing wrong with knowing how to sew!
 
My dad, who was a lot older, still had his mom's sewing machine sitting around our house when I was a kid. It was one of the really old school ones that used a treadle and your feet to run it.

It looked a lot like this.

il_794xN.1896810598_g69d.jpg

that looks just like the one that my aunt had. IIRC, the sewing machine swivels down when you close the leaf that is to the left. Looks like desk with the lid closed.
 
that looks just like the one that my aunt had. IIRC, the sewing machine swivels down when you close the leaf that is to the left. Looks like desk with the lid closed.

Yeah! That’s how the one my mom had worked. Man, I spent so many hours as a kid pushing that pedal with my hands as fast as I could and watching it almost take off!
 
My grand mother was a seamstress for Neiman Marcus, Tiche Goettenger's, and Sanger Brothers stores in Dallas. Probably from the turn of the century till the early 50's. She was a "One guitar" gal. She had a big, giant Singer that was foot powered and nothing else. After she stopped sewing for the big stores, she kept busy in alterations, except from her home in Little Mexico in Dallas. People really liked her work, enough that they braved the smells from the Neuhoff Packing plant behind the barrio. Good God that smell was bad, but they as Mexicans were just stuck with it in favor of cheap rent. My mom attempted to keep the machine after grams passing, but it by that time was a rusty and non working pile. As a little kid, that thing was as big as a space shuttle to me...
 
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This is one of the most interesting derailed threads I’ve ever seen!

My wife had an antique sewing machine in the basement for 20 years. Belonged to her dad but she sold it just a few years ago. The Singer I bought her in the 80s still works perfectly but I don’t think we’ve used it in 10 years. I’m the one that sews on buttons, fixes hems, and darns socks. Not that she can’t - she managed a dry cleaners with repair services for a few years - but she knows all the good shops in town that do a better job so she doesn’t even try anymore. It’s a talent that isn’t being passed on very much today.
 
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