Monday, October 18, 2010

The sewing machine challenge

How hard is it to use a sewing machine? As a kid I have watched my grandmother and my mother use the sewing machine. It looked complicated, and that is the way it has been ingrained into my mind. I have one of the modern sewing machine that sits on a table. I have been meaning to try it out for years. Yesterday I took it out of storage and bravely confronted the manual. I kept telling myself that it couldn't be very hard. For a long time I have been curious to find out how it really works. This is one machine that every single woman, literate or not, could handle with ease, yet always appeared a mystery to me.

Today, the shroud of mystery lifted. I actually read through the manual and learned how to use the sewing machine. Surprisingly, this modern electric-powered machine works in the same way as the pedal driven sewing machine of yore. They both have the same mechanical parts to handle the threads. I learned how to make a simple straightforward stitch. With some help from my wife, I now have a black backdrop for my photo studio (spent AUD$25 on 5 meters of black muslin and stitched together for a bigger spread)

I feel I have made a significant inroad into a woman's traditional stronghold. It feels good.

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