A Present for Myself

My mom gave me some spending money for my birthday last month and I thought you might be interested to know what I bought with it. I treated myself to a brand new sewing machine! Here's a picture of my new toy, the Brother LS 2125 model. I haven't taken it out of the box just yet, wanted to read the manual first. Here's a photo of Max checking it out:

It seemed an appropriate way to spend the money, since my mom was the first example I had of a sewer. She used to have a beautiful sewing room set up in the laundry room of my parents' house, complete with custom built drawers for patterns and thread and other sewing notions and supplies and cupboards full of fabric, and a beautiful avocado green Singer sewing machine. When I was growing up, she used to make some of my clothes and I can still remember the beautiful dresses she used to make me every year for my annual piano recital. Over the years, my mom has kept busy with other pursuits and the sewing room has been used for other things but the memories remain.

I learned to sew in Home Economics class in Grade 7 and 8. Way back then, girls had to take Home Ec, it was a required course and in those days, girls weren't allowed to take woodshop, which is what the boys took while we were learning how to cook and sew. By the time my sister got to Grade 7, eight years later, kids either had to take both classes or got to choose.

I think the first thing I ever made was a bean bag frog. (Amazingly, the directions to make one are easily found on the Internet, you can look it up!) Then we all made a smock. There must have been other things that we had to sew, but those are the two things that stick out in my memory.

The reason for this purchase will be revealed in later posts. Suffice it to say, I'm very much looking forward to putting this machine to good use!