CraftSanity with Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood

I'm a sucker for old sewing machines. I'm not particularly fond of how they sew, but I LOVE how cool they look.This lovely Ambassador sewing machine belongs to Cara Redeker-Theile, the artist I feature in my latest art and craft column. The piece will be in tomorrow's print edition of The Grand Rapids Press (back of the Home/Garden section) and also posted online. Check back here tomorrow for links.

Cara's machine was a $20-thrift store find and fully operational. It doesn't do anything fancy and weighs a ton, but has already lasted longer than most modern machines ever will. Seeing it reminded me of an interesting piece tracing the history of sewing machines that I just read in the March issue of Threads magazine. The article by sewing machine aficionado, Dale Yelich, credits Elias Howe with patenting the first practical lockstitch machine in 1846. The first "portable" electric sewing machines didn't come on the scene until 1920. And you wonder why great grandma had big muscles. She had to be ripped to lift her 2-ton sewing machine onto the dinning room table in order to sew a new dress.

I wish sewing machine manufacturers would bring back some of these old vintage machine designs with a modern twist. It would be so awesome to be able to sew on with vintage-looking turquoise machine tricked out with all the modern-day functions. I love my Janome, but it's plain white and pretty boring to look at. I wonder if the original owner of Cara's Ambassador realized how lovely that machine is? Hmm. I'll probably always find old sewing machines intriguing.