Origins in NYC
I have an old commercial Singer in the basement too. My dad was first a pocket book maker and then an upholsterer so he would sew vinyl and leather cushions, slip covers and replace the foam rubber in cushions using that sewing machine.
When I was a kid he took me on jobs in the summer all over NYC & LI and we fixed the coil springs on old sofas & chairs in the customers' homes. He taught me how to hold magnetic tacks in my mouth and use the magnetic uholstery hammer & webbing stretcher & tie springs.
But later as I got out of high school he told me to get a college education because the newer furniture was no longer being made with "good" wood &, he said, people will no longer be fixing furniture in the futue so i better find some other way to make a living. He had a lot of foresight that way.
I got my degree in respiratory therapy and found a way to make my own living just as he said