I learned to sew on my mother's treadle when I was about 10. She sewed all of my and my sister's dresses on it. Then my dad won a Kenmore for her in a contest about the time that I learned to use an electric machine in junior high home ec class. Then I started sewing all my own clothes for school, right through high school, then my first daughter's clothes. My ex-husband bought me my own machine, a Singer, for Mother's Day one year and I had it for many years. I've owned a couple of Singer's since and have one now. Nothing fancy,I don't need a lot of bells and whistles.