As I write this on Saturday, I am celebrating National Sewing Machine Day! And what am I doing today? Mending a bedspread and curtains. In my great-grandmothers’ times those chores would have been done by hand. We tend to take these machines for granted most of the time, but I can tell you that through the pandemic, there is no entry-level sewing machine to be had. Perhaps now a supply of basic machines is starting to trickle back into retail stores, but I am told that over the last few months every basic inexpensive machine was snapped up. And why? Because of the massive army of sewing volunteers who rose up from quarantine to sew masks and PPE for their communities.
But that is just the start of this tale. I am hearing so many stories of people who lost jobs or were furloughed indefinitely, and decided to sew masks at home. Their friends and neighbors asked if they could buy masks. The demand grew until, they found they had a new business and needed to upgrade their machine pretty fast!
Everyone has their story of this event, but I am gathering stories about sewing and quilting from our friends, customers and industry contacts, about what we have all been doing for the last few months. There are a lot of stories about pulling Grandma’s dusty old machine out of a closet, and learning how to sew again. There are a lot of people out there (male and female, young and old) who have rediscovered the joy of sewing with a machine. Yay! That makes me smile!
(But make sure you clean and oil those babies, and take them for a tune-up with a sewing machine tech when things open up again.)
You have probably noticed that we stopped listing my travel schedule and our classroom schedule at the bottom of the newsletter. We have cancelled all of our events, including our 5-day workshops with Paula Nadelstern and Susan Carlson in October. We all agreed it was the right thing to do. I have no plans to travel in the foreseeable future. When we come through this there will be an explosion of activity and opportunities to get together to sew and make art.
I miss all of you SO much but I am also deeply honored that so many of you chose to use our service for your fabrics and sewing supplies during this time. For those of you who have been rediscovering your Super Power of Sewing for making masks, we are proud to have supplied your heroic efforts at your sewing machines.
I have had many sewing machines throughout my life since childhood, and many years ago I finally got a Bernina and never looked back. I know that all of you are deeply attached to your machines, and those hours we spend stitching bring us so much joy, and so much relief from the troubling times we live in now.
with Hope for the Future,
Luana and Paul
