My mom won a sewing machine with a beautiful red and white houndstooth wool suit. Her sister Lydia sewed designer clothes in Chicago and later came home to take care of their mother and sewed piece work in what we called the shirt factory. I can remember her counting up her tickets to calculate what she would be paid. My mom's good machine was a Pfaff which we were not allowed to touch. Lydia's good machine was an Elna. My sister and I had a singer treadle, which is in my sewing room now. Never was allowed to take Home Ec in high school--my dad insisted on physics, chemistry, trig, and calculus.