Thanks to my mom (who taught me to sew by getting me to make a dress when I was about nine or ten -- I was stuck inside, pinning pattern pieces, cutting fabric and sewing for just about eternity <-- but in retrospect, I'm glad I have that skill, so thanks, mom!), I can make a respectable skirt for my girls and have a great little collection of vintage 1950s and '60s sewing paraphernalia. Besides the football shaped buttonholer case and some so-dated-they're-funny instruction manuals, I have a great old gear-driven metal Singer sewing machine that I've been told will sew through anything, including fingers.
