Penny's husband posted this on Facebook
 

This is Penny's husband Don, borrowing Penny's membership a moment to share with the wonderful folks here what I posted on our Facebook account last night after a little more practice on our 1934 Singer "Dottie", named in honor of Penny's mother Dorothy. For me, it says it all. Thank you for allowing me to share. And those of you who look at me like I'm strange when I tell you of my enthusiasm for the sewing arts know who you are........

To you men who are not comfortable enough with who you are and your relationship with women to say " I love sewing machines and sewing", I say hey, "Man up.You don't know what you're missing bubba". The mechanical complexity of an antique sewing machine rivals that of any precision, well orchestrated musical assemblage of parts like any other fine tool. My favorite sewing machine is a 1934 Singer hand crank imported back in the day from Scotland. The quiet "tink tink" of the needle as it moves through the material and joins two pieces is pleasing. The coordination required to apply just the right amount of tension to the material with your non-dominant hand while guiding the material in a perfectly straight line and cranking at a constant rate is no different from coordination required when I use my band saw. You have to know exactly where you are going too, and think three steps ahead of your current move.The skill and experience necessary to understand the relationship between thread tension, stitch spacing and characteristics of materials doesn't come easy. This hobby is as satisfying as any I have come across. "Sewing is for women" you sneer? Hey dudes. I laugh and say "give me your grandmothers old machine". Don.

I'm working on mastering a 1913 vintage Singer 66-1 treadle. When I get that down pat, I'll try the hand crankers :D

Sewing is fun and enjoyable. And at the same time we get to play with all sorts of "tools". After all "tools" are a guy thing, right.
I like fixing 'em up and using them. How the women in my life lived with only one sewing machine is beyond me. Now that I'm involved we have in excess of ..... um the some total of all our fingers and toes :)

Joe

Bravo! I love it when a man can embrace what the "average" man would say is only meant for women. I was so pleased with my boyfriend when he went to my toga meet and actually decided to use a hand crank, on his own (no pushing by me) and sewed some decent blocks. I imagine the singer 66 he won me, which i will be converting to a hand crank will be dual owned by him and i. I love a man whose confident to go outside his manly comfort zone and do things uncommon to the male stereotype. So all that said, congrats! Enjoy the hobby!!

I'll show this to my nephew who enjoys sewing with me. I know he gets ribbed about it by some of his friends.

When he tells me about that, I let him know that the more you know, the more valuable you are as a person. And someday sewing may put food on his table. He's a good kid - don't know if he really likes the sewing or the attention from me, but either way, he's learning!

Kudos to you Don!! Sewing is a necessary skill to be used by both men and women. It is refreshing to see your post. :)
You obviously have an eye for the details, talent and coordination that it takes to sew on an older machine, with their various challenges.
Keep up the good work! :):):)

Hello Don,

Well done, bravo bravo! It is wonderful to see how much you have enjoyed sewing with the hand machine.

It is a myth that hand machines are difficult to use. They are the best machines for a child to learn to sew with because you have total control over the speed, far more so than with a treadle. When doing small scale work the brain more naturally tunes in with what the hand is doing than with what the feet are doing.

Why should it be considered girly to use a sewing machine? Traditionally, tailors were men, and there are still plenty of tailors today. Just think how many tailors there are in places like India and Africa still working away on treadles and hand machines.

When I was researching my family tree a couple of years ago I was delighted to find a great-great-great grandfather who was a tailor. He would have done all his sewing by hand - machines arrived too late for him. His daughter was the original Elizabeth Lenard, my great-great grandmother, after whom I named my blog. She in turn was the mother and grandmother of several tailoresses.

Perhaps you have it in the blood, Don!

in Guatemala, most of the tailors are men. most of the weavers are women.

i think it's all good for men to learn sewing and cooking and women to learn how to operate power tools. why those things are stereotyped is beyond me. enjoy!

Ages ago my DH figured out my sewing machine is much more complicated than all of his power tools combined. BTW I can operate his saws with ease - when he does siding or something I do the saw - saves him time. So he insisted that our boys learn to use a sewing machine before they were allowed to use any other power tool. As far as a HC being better for children - I'm not sure how true that is in all aspects - if they take their eye off the needle and look at the HC they could get a vaccination - happened to me... I put finger guards on the HC machines or any other machine my GDs use just for a safety precaution.

My late husband, an architect, could turn his hand to almost anything. When I was away one weekend with workmates, he picked up the fabric I had set aside to make a jumpsuit for my 14 month old girl, and made the clothing himself, including covered press stud closures. I was very proud when we were out and people admired the bright jumpsuit to say "Her daddy made that for her!"