November 22, 2013
Dear Everyone:
Thirty-something years ago, when “Jeannie” and I were sharing an
apartment in
Walnut Creek, we went to a store called
Montgomery Ward
because they were having a sale on
sewing machines.
When we got there, we discovered that the sale had ended the day
before. Notwithstanding, the
woman who ran the department assured me that I could get a machine at
the sale price, so we went home with a new sewing machine.
I used that machine for decades, making all my own clothes including
custom-tailored business suits.
Time marches on.
Montgomery Ward no longer exists.
My office job moved from downtown
San Francisco to several
East
Bay suburbs, where the tax codes were more favorable to Big Businesses.
Business attire became more relaxed; tailored suits were no
longer de rigueur, having been
replaced with “Business Casual”.
I used the sewing machine less and less.
When I moved from the townhouse to my current condominium, I
chose not to move the (very heavy) sewing machine, which had become less
and less reliable after 35-plus years of service.
Like many other possessions, I gave it away before the move.
Over the past four years there have been moments when doing something
like shortening a new garment would have been so much easier with a
sewing machine. (All new
garments require shortening.
I’m two inches shorter myself than I was in high school.
Did I mention that all those business suits, etc., were
custom-tailored?)
So this last week I finally went out and bought another new sewing
machine. Presumably, this
one will also last another 35 years, by which time clothes and such will
matter less and less.
In the meantime, I have a brand new machine to learn.
It even comes with a DVD to show you how to use it.
And with many, many “improvements” over the “older” models, but
without sacrificing the better points, like the “free arm platform”,
which means pulling away the regular flatbed surface to make working on
small, tight pieces, like sleeves, much easier.
I always liked that part.
It also sports a bewildering array of fancy-schmancy “decorative”
stitches that I have never used in the past and don’t really see myself
using any time in the future.
On the other hand, who
doesn’t like drop-in bobbins and
self-threading needles?
“Jeannie”, of course, is thrilled.
She already has a full list of projects that “she” wants to work
on as soon as “she” learns how to sew.
Which is to say, any project that only requires straight seams.
Anything else will be my pleasure to help with, naturally.
And, quite frankly, I can’t wait.
It’s been, literally, years since I’ve done any “real” sewing.
Hand-hemming doesn’t count.
Just in time for
Christmas!!!
Love, as always,
Pete
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