My Sewing Machine Story

I started sewing on my Grandma's old Singer when I was a teenager and young adult. I don't remember very much about it except I was terribly afraid of making mistakes. And that machine didn't work so well. I really didn't use it that much for those reasons. 

When I was first married, I decided to start sewing in earnest. Out came that old Singer again. I managed to make myself a semblance of a maternity dress (which has since been relegated to the scrap stash) and a flannel blanket for my first baby which was two squares of cloth badly bound with bias tape. I still have that blanket, and it still has the ugly black marks that old machine left on it. How frustrating to learn on a machine that didn't work right, and how was I to know any different?

I remember briefly discussing this with my husband. I wasn't dying for a new machine or anything, but he thought it might be nice to get me something a little better. He asked what brand was good, and I had really no idea what to say.

I don't know that he will ever be able to surprise me like he did then. One day he came home from work with a present for me. Mind you, things were pretty tight financially at that time. We were just starting out and had just had our first baby. But it was tax return season, and he had an idea up his sleeve. He blew me away by coming home with a brand new Bernina he had picked out all by himself. I wasn't even that surprised when he gave me my engagement ring! That moment still is vivid in my mind. I just couldn't believe it.

With that little Bernina came a sewing class. I packed up my baby boy and sat through that class drinking up every piece of information presented. During breaks I would browse the offerings of the shop, drooling over all the accessories, the fabric, the books...

As the salesperson gave me that first tour of my new machine, I remember just being taken away with how smoothly and quietly it stitched. That built in automatic buttonhole! Those fancy stitches!  Automatic reverse! And this was just an entry level machine. I was utterly and hopelessly in love.

Fast forward 13 years (has it been that long?). That trusty Bernina is still humming along cheerfully. I love it to death. I am not sure I could ever trade it in because of its sentimental value to me. I had no idea back then what a Bernina really was. It didn't take me long to figure out I was given the Cadillac of sewing machines.

That's my little sewing machine (love) story! Somebody really loves me.