A couple of weeks before Christmas, I had a sad, sad day. I had a brainstorm for a couple of great Christmas presents for Zack, and when I sat down at my machine to make them, I discovered that my machine had died. The whole feed dog mechanism had given out, which made sewing impossible. It was so sad. The machine had been acting up a little funny, and to tell you the truth, it was never the same after I made the above gorilla costume last year. I remember the day I got that beautiful machine. Let's go back in time to 1992.
Mark and I had just gotten married, and we had no money. He was in dental school, and I was finishing up my degree also. I would drop Mark off at school at 7:30am with a lunch and a dinner, and pick him up from the library at 11:00pm. In the meantime, I was going to school and working, but I still had some free time, and I longed for a sewing machine. Instead, I had to be content with knitting, because a sewing machine was a long way off for us.
One day Mark dropped me off at school and drove the car to Creighton. Now, the rich kids whose parents were paying for dental school had parking permits to park in the dental school parking garage. But the guys who were paying for school on their own just parked on the street near the dental school. Unfortunately, Creighton University is located pretty much in the 'hood of Omaha. When Mark went out to our car, he discovered that somebody had broken into it and stolen our stereo. One thing you should know about Mark, is that he has always appreciated premium audio, and the car stereo system was something to make any audiophile happy. Also, it was something that a common criminal could easily pawn for some quick cash. Anyway, the CD player was gone from the dashboard, and the window was smashed. It was a really creepy feeling.
The next day, we took the car to the insurance agent in town, and were given very pleasant news. In addition to the stereo completely going to be covered, also they were going to have to replace the entire dashboard. Seems this hoodlum with his crowbar had left a 1" indentation in the dash as he pried out the CD player. The dash couldn't be repaired--only replaced. As we had the title to the car, we were given the option of taking it in for a repair, or to be handed a check for $900. That was a lot of money to poor, newlywed students. There wasn't even a thought about replacing the dashboard.
We went shopping.
First we ordered the new CD player. This was in the days before the internet, so you had to go to the library and get a copy of some weird stereo magazine. In the back pages, you went through pages and pages of mail order electronics stores. Then you had to call around to get the best price, and finally order your goods.
Once that was done, we split the $900. I bought a sewing machine.
Mark bought a Beretta 92FS. He is wearing a shirt I made him in this photo.
I got right to work sewing. I made this stylish nightgown.
I made Mark a bunch of fancy dress shirts for school. I made prom dresses for high school girls. I made skirts. I made curtains. I made hideous crafts. I loved my sewing machine.
Although I was sad that it died, I sure used it a lot in those 18 years. Now that I found the old photo albums, I should scan some of the pictures of my fine creations from those early days.
And, as they say out with the old....in with the new. Guess what I got for Christmas? I bought myself a new machine. Janome 2010. So far, I'm in love with it.
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