Most Amish women can cook, clean, quilting, knitting, sewing and more. These, to us, are our talents or gifts from God. Some can do other special things like painting pictures, writing poems, etc.
Our granddaughter can sew, but she can do special things. Like, one of her neighbors is an Englisher and they have a daughter about her age. The girl wanted a certain dress for a special situation but it was expensive. She took my granddaughter to the store to see the dress. This was on Thursday. They bought the material. With no pattern - my granddaughter made that dress for the girl and she wore it to her church on Sunday. The only problem my granddaughter said she had was putting the zipper in. She had never done it before, but she got it in perfect.
She also makes things to sell - like doll clothes, bag holders, stuffed animals and more. Also, she does sewing for those that ask her - Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Englishers. If she had her way, she would spend her whole day doing sewing - she loves to sew. Sometimes she does sewing for her Mother - making clothes for the family.
The problem is, she is using her Mother's sewing machine. If they both want it at the same time, Mother goes first. So the need of a machine in the family was a problem. We asked everyone we knew if they had one to sell or found one, we would like to buy it. In antique stores, they are so expensive or they need a lot of work. We even told Marilyn, we needed one, but she didn't think she would come across one.
Marilyn was out going to garage sales last Friday, when she came across one. The lady didn't know if it worked but she thought it did. So Marilyn called us. Elmer answered the phone and wanted to know if it was a treadle. Marilyn had no idea what a treadle was. Finally I got the phone and asked her if it was electric. She said of course not, she wouldn't have called if it was, but she thought we would want to see it and offered to come and get us. We thought it would be better if we got a driver with a van in case we bought it - to get it back here. Then we called a driver. We also called Kevin and asked him if he would go over the machine if we got it. He said he had a few things ahead of us, but was sure he and Michael would get it done before her birthday.
We got to Marilyn's apartment and followed her to the ladies house. The sewing machine was sitting on her porch. She said it was her grandmother's and had kept it for that reason, but she never used it, so felt it was time to sell it. She wanted $30.00 for the machine and stand. It was a Singer, which I prefer. The belt was broken, but somehow Elmer got it together and I gave it a trail run to make sure it worked and it did. We bought in on the spot. Elmer told her she didn't know what she had here and how much it was worth. He gave her much more money that she asked for it which shocked her. We want to be fair.
When it came time to fold the sewing machine down, the lady didn't know that it went down like it did. After we got it in the van, I commented on the quilts that she made. They were beautiful lap quilts.
After leaving there, we took it over to Kevin's house. He looked it over and said he felt that it needed a good cleaning. There was no chair with the stand, so he and Michael would make a chair to go with it. As our granddaughter's birthday isn't until September, he said they would have it done long before her birthday.
The above picture is similar to the sewing machine we bought. We bought a 1923 Singer Redeye 66 (the model at the time) working treadle sewing machine including the cabinet stand. There were also lots of accessories in the drawers, which I have home to clean up before our granddaughter gets the machine.
But the story doesn't end there. Marilyn was looking on her computer and came across someone selling an Owners Manual to the same year, make and model machine that we bought. She called me and I told her to buy it, which she did. It should be coming in the mail in a week or so.
So we thank Marilyn, the lady that sold it, the driver, and Kevin and Michael for all they did and are doing for this beautiful Singer sewing machine, cabinet and chair for our granddaughter.
Kevin said he would hold the sewing machine at his house until our granddaughter's birthday. When she goes to school that day, he and Michael will deliver it and set it up in her bedroom. She will sure have a great surprise in her bedroom when she gets home from school that day.
Trust God's Wisdom,
Anna
1 comment:
I apologize for deleting the comments on this post. I must have hit the wrong button. I am sorry for my mistake.
Marilyn
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