Farewell, Daisy!

During my sewing years I have worked on a variety of different types of sewing machines.

The first one was my mother’s machine that she had received as a present upon her wedding, early sixties model. That machine was the production site for my entire Barbie-fashion-collection. At that time I still wanted to become a fashion designer.  This machine was exchanged for a Pfaff later on, which I was allowed to use every once in a while, but it was always made clear that this was not my machine.

An Aunt then gave me an old cabinet sewing machine that which could be run either by foot pedal, or on electricity. It had been in her way and found a place in our cellar. That was not exactly a highly motivating environment for sewing, but as it was not portable it could not easily be brought upstairs to work with, and then returned back. However, for several years the existence of this machine counted as a sufficient argument against the acquisition of my own machine – “You have one downstairs, and you don’t really use it much!”

A few years later I inherited a portable machine left by my great aunt – again an old one, post-war model, very heavy, but with very nice stitches and a purring sound.  It must have been a top model when it was acquired, even featured approximately 30 embroidery stitches, although I never figured out how to change the pattern notches. This was the machine on which I produced my first patchwork pieces.

When my mother acquired a fancy Bernina I was the recipient of her by then older Pfaff and took it with me. By that time it had begun to develop little peculiarities, however, and although I did use it for several years I was never really happy with it. Unfortunately I had been rather quick in passing on the old post-war model, which I really began to regret when the Pfaff turned out to be beyond repair.

That was the time when I decided it was the right moment to finally acquire my very own and new machine. It must have been approximately ten years ago, because I already knew my husband. Because I did not want to have a sewing computer I decided on a Husqvarna “Daisy”. I used this machine a lot, it went with me to my first Nancy Crow workshops, and I really grew attached to it.

Nevertheless, two other machines somehow appeared in my life during the past six years, and Daisy sort of receded into the background. Lately it had only been going with me when I was teaching workshops where I only needed a machine for demonstrations, because it was the easiest machine to be transported. When I heard that a former student of mine was looking for a machine of her own because so far she had been sharing a machine with her mother I immediately thought that that would be a nice place for Daisy. She would be appreciated again, and today we two parted. I was surprised how hard I took the separation, though – probably because it was my very first very own and self-paid machine? It’s not that I am short of sewing machines – I still have two and will always be able to sew on a substitute even while one is being taken care of at the dealers’...

In any case, I wish Daisy and Rabea a lot of fun together. Farewell, Daisy!