Friday, April 10, 2020

My Mom's Bernina 730...Now It's Making Masks


My daughter picked up a temporary job while she can no longer attend classes at university. And because she works at a place that's deemed "essential," they recommended she wear masks while working. Of course, we could try and buy some, but an easier path would be just to make them ourselves.

We set up my mom's Bernina.

When my mom died, the three of us divided up things in the house. Among the treasures that ended up with us was my mom's sewing machine. It must be close to fifty-years old. And it still works like a charm. 

I remember the sewing machine set up in the laundry room at our old home. It sat there until after she passed away. Growing up, my mom used that machine to make blankets and clothes. I remember wearing shirts to elementary school that my mom made. I also remember most of the kids in that school wore clothes made by their mothers.

And we didn't care at all.


I know times have changed, and clothing is so inexpensive that people no longer need to make their own clothes anymore. I think the material costs more than the clothes nowadays, anyway. I can't imagine a kid showing up at a school today wearing something that didn't come from a clothing store.

Years ago, I had a co-worker who loves to sew. We used to talk about sewing machines, the good ones, the crap ones, getting parts for machines when they break--it was kind of cool chatting about something as ordinary as sewing machines.


Right now my mom's--now my daughter's--sewing machine is in our front room. We have a table built specifically for the Model 730, which is pretty cool. I can imagine my dad, not only getting my mom a good machine, but the table as well. I'll bet it made her one happy mamma.

Now, the machine's being used to sew together masks. I don't think my mom would ever have imagined it would be used for that. I don't think any of us would ever imagine we'd be using a sewing machine to make masks. 

My mom made shirts, pants, blankets, and pajamas.

We're making masks.

It's a different world.

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