Peepers, thank you so much for this fascinating thread!
Like many others, it was Mom who taught me to sew on her black Singer in the bedroom in the late 1950s. I started with doll clothes (so teeny, tiny!) and then moved to clothes for myself. I even remember my dad making slip covers for our old daybed. Once out of college, I got a little sewing machine at an estate sale and started sewing again. Too busy with work, I stopped sewing for many years. Now that I'm retired though, I've taken up quilting. I bought a Singer 201 in memory or my mom and have managed to acquire a few other machines along the way.