From the metal-pedal to the microchip....

About a month ago I took a "Get Intimate with Your Sewing Machine" class. It wasn't as sexy as it sounded. Still I learned how to thread the bobbin, thread the machine, load the bobbin, do a hem stitch, change the stitches and the width and length of the stitches, and finally change the "feet" on my machine (in case I want to install a zipper or do a button hole which we also practiced).

This led to the startling realization that the technology that has developed in the area of word processing is much like that of the sewing arena. Back when I was first playing with words, I used a pencil and paper. And my first sewing ventures were with needle and thread.... I did both these tasks "by hand."

Then my mother taught me how to sew using her treadle machine. I think it was a Singer. This could possibly be compared to the sort of typewriters that had the thing that "dinged" and you had to move the thingy (shuttle?) and the paper back to the start. My first typewriter was a blue and white one for kids that had "issues" (or perhaps it was the 10 year old attempting to operate it).

In junior high I took a Home Economics class (back then we called it "junior high" not "middle school" and we had Home Ec not Family and Consumer Sciences. In that class I learned how to sew on an electric sewing machine. My mother decided to get with the program and bought a Sears Kenmore machine. In my typing class (it was typing.... not keyboarding) we learned on electric typewriters that had a "return" key rather than an "enter" key.... (I sometimes confuse kids by calling that key the wrong thing on the computer keyboard).

In college I didn't have a computer... Oh no. I had a Brother Personal Word Processor with built in LCD and it used floppy discs on which I saved everything. It looked a lot like an electric typewriter and could be used that way. For most of college this was how I did my essays. There wasn't a sewing equivalent for me at that level... At the tail end of the college years I got wise to technology and discovered the computer. This new sewing machine that my mother generously bestowed upon me is nothing short of amazing. It IS a computer. I am stunned by the capabilities and how "user friendly" it seems to be so far.

My first project was to sew up a little comforter of sorts using some fabric I bought awhile back. My sewing efforts were fairly minimal but it was good for me to start with something familiar before I attempted something like zippers or elastic or patterns even. For more cool vintage fabric like this.... check out Michael Miller fabrics.