When I was young, my mother was one of the few mothers with a job. She and her sisters worked in a slip factory. She was a piece worker and would get paid on how many she did each day. She only used her sewing machine for repairs at home. Years later, she would make clothes for herself, and specialty clothes for my dad, as he suffered a stroke. My "sewing" memories are sitting on the stairs of the factory with the other kids after school, waiting for our mothers. The ownera were a nice couple and he used to give the girls pieces of lace and odds and ends to make clothes for our dolls. Now I know that the factory was a sweatshop, she worked hard.