My grandmother (dad's mom) was a well-known seamstress in our city. She worked for a department store in the designer department and made the designer clothing to be modeled in the annual international fashion show as well as directed all alterations and made a lot of the custom orders herself. She was also an incredible knitter and crocheter. My father and mother had to travel to Indiana on the train and my grandmother unraveled a dress and re-knit it into a very stylish, custom design for my mom so that she'd have something to wear that would hold its shape while sitting on the train for 3 days. She did this in less than 2 days.
Anyway, when my grandmother died, my grandfather didn't know what to do with all her equipment including her sewing machines, 3 of them. My dad offered to take them although he wanted to take them to the dump. He put them in the back yard where they sat and rusted to complete junk in just one year. Apparently one of them was a Necchi industrial machine that was rare and was a gift from the store she worked in all those years to support the family. My mother still tells me how proud she was of that machine because it was a zig-zag and very powerful. I still remember the Singer treadle machine and how we kids would play with the pedal and the stitch length knob, not quite sure what it all did. Well, after the machines were completely unusable, dad got his wish and was able to justify taking them to the dump.
As you can probably tell, I've never quite forgiven him. Sorry to have vented. I'm still trying to figure out why I'm collecting these machines.