In the late 70's historian James Burke's series Connections was aired. It chronicled how inventions throughout history, like the computer, came about through a series of interconnected but at the time seemingly unrelated events. My tinkering and fascination with sewing machines is similar; a string of connected event's but at the time seemingly unrelated.
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| Our grandson and Dasie. One of our many pets |
It started with allergies. Cindy has what's called multiple chemical sensitivities. Perfumes, fabric softener, chemical cleaners and similar items make her very sick. In addition, she has allergies to mold yeast and various foods. This makes working in an office or other environment somewhat difficult and a challenge at times. I remember one time she was hired as a vet tech. Out of 100's of people they picked her. Growing up on a horse farm, bottle feeding a pair of baby Raccoon's at age 8, hand taming a wild African Grey Parrot and having a Belgium Draft Horse as a pet (the short list of pets) I'm sure helped her get the position. She was walking on air. After a few days she came home early crying. Not only did her new pants with permanent press cause her to break out in a rash, she found out she was now allergic to cats. Dream job gone. Her debut as a doughnut maker was cut short too when she started to pass out, nearly falling into the vat of hot doughnut nut oil. She discovered her allergies to yeast that day.
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| Another rescue |
Add to all of this, she couldn't seam to find jewelry or handbags that match her complexion at a fair price. For a redhead (I love her freckles by the way) not having jewelry to match your outfits - well let's not go there. Working at home was the perfect fit. All the jewelry a girl could want, a matching bag and nobodies Chanel #5 not knocking you out of commission for a few days. She worked for years as she says as "an organizer of beads" before she added bags.
Her first bags were created on an old Sewmore built about the same time Connections aired. A hardy little Japaneses machine, but not an industrial. We found a 1950's Necchi BU high lift machine, but not strong enough either.
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| Not Cindy but close |
Since I new nothing about sewing, I had no idea what it took to sew 4 layers of leather, 2 layers of stabilizer and 2 layers of fabric together. At that point stabilizer was something you found on an airplane. Backtack that was for boating, right? A binder? I had not used one since high school. Well, after days of scouring the Internet, reading blogs, joining umpteen yahoo sewing groups (great resource by the way), watching YouTube and joining various web resources like leatherworker.net, I now was armed with a little sewing knowledge and dangerous. The search was on for a industrial behemoth...
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