Sarabela

I hope this is ok to share here since it's not a machine. It is definitely vintage. It's a series of books that were left to me by an elderly lady that I used to care for. She wanted them to be loved and used and she knew I would appreciate them. She passed away a year ago at age 98. When she was 17 years old she had a job sewing in a factory making, oh I forget exactly what she told me now but I want to say it was $9 a week. She gave her parents half and saved up the rest until she had enough to send away for a mail order sewing class. She talked about how proud she was. She had to study the books, take tests, and sew a proper dress. She mailed in her tests and dress and she passed and they mailed her dress back to her. That started a long career of seamstress work. She married a man and they had 2 sons. The man proved to love the bottle more than his family so she kicked him to the curb and raised the boys on her own with no help from their dad. She became quite popular as a seamstress and talked about making clothes for doctor's wives and politicians wives as well as foreign diplomats. Here are some pictures of my treasures.