National Sewing Machine Day Sparks Memories

I just learned that today, June 13, is National Sewing Machine Day.

Who makes up these momentous days of national commemoration?! I don't mind the days of commemoration such as National Doughnut Day, when manufacturers give away samples of their edible products free to the first 100 or so customers. But who's going to give away a free sewing machine?!

Nonetheless, learning that today is National Sewing Machine Day set me to recalling those very machines and the people in my family who owned and used them.

Nannie Summers, my maternal grandmother, had an old treadle-powered sewing machine. (I guess that the more technical descriptor would be "a foot-powered treadle sewing machine.") I never recall seeing her actually use it, but I'm pretty sure she did sometime. I do recall being mesmerized as a child by the foot treadle. I would sit on the floor beneath the machine and use both hands to press down the iron treadle. I couldn't imagine how Nannie, using her feet, must have made that machine hum as she sewed material.

Mother had a much more modern sewing machine, a Necchi. t was electrically powered, giving her feet a rest. Instead of pressing a treadle with her foot, all she had to do to get the needle to sewing was to use her right knee to press a lever that was attached to the cabinet that housed the machine's electric motor.

Mother was a frequent customer at Edith's sewing center in Fountain City. There, she would buy thread, needles, zippers, patterns (McCalls, Simplicity, and Butterick were ones I remember), cloth by the yard, and something called "notions." I always assumed the latter was a catch-all category for miscellaneous products that didn't fit into any of the other product categories, little gadgets that were supposed to make the job of sewing easier and faster.

I can still see in my mind's eye Mother, whenever the sewing bug bit her, laying out the pattern and the fabric on the living room floor and weighting them down with table knives to keep them in place while she cut the cloth. She then worked tirelessly at that Necchi sewing machine to put it all together into a nice dress or whatever.

She made a lot of her own and my sister's clothes. She even made a sport coat for Daddy. It was uncharacteristically hideous, and she knew it was. But Daddy often wore it anyway because he didn't want to disappoint, discourage, or embarrass Mother.

When I was a kid, I often played under Mother's sewing machine cabinet. The power cord was wound between two hooks beneath it, and I pretended that the large plug end that connected to the machine was a police radio transmitter. (I must have watched too many episodes of Highway Patrol starring Broderick Crawford as he portrayed chief Dan Matthews. On that old program, he was often shown reaching into the open car window and speaking on the police radio.)

When my mother-in-law, who also sewed a great deal, passed, my wife got her Pfaff sewing machine for our oldest daughter. The daughter didn't have room for it at the time, so we were stuck with it. We had neither a need nor the room for it either. My wife has her own Singer sewing machine. So the Pfaff is now taking up space in our dining room, awaiting the day when our daughter finally finds room for it.

Just an interesting little factoid here about Singer: Did you know that Singer, they of sewing machine fame, also made firearms and other non-sewing-related products during World War II? They first made M1911A1 semiautomatic pistols, and the government found their quality to be so good that they gave them contracts to make even more sophisticated products, including components for the Sperry T-1 bomb sight, B-29 bomber gunfire control computers, directional gyro and artificial horizon instruments, and automatic pilot parts.

Do you have a sewing machine? Do you use it? What memories do you have of sewing machines in your childhood? (Do you happen to have a Singer-made 1911 pistol? They're incredibly rare; some could be worth as much as $275,000!) Share any memories or comments in the comments section.