The Machine

My great grandfather owned a dress factory and my grandmother, his daughter, ran it. She had an eye for detail and her taste was impeccable. She created many masterpieces, cut patterns and taught many people everything that they know, including my mother.

Mom started sewing and knitting at an early age. The whole family was creative and had a hand in all aspects of the fashion industry. In the house where I am currently living the legacy of my own house of fashion was born. There was a large industrial sewing machine that used to hum a beautiful sound every Sunday when I was a child. She used to dress her sisters, her daughter and herself.

I look in the basement for that sewing machine, which, sadly, is now gone. I have many small items here and there; brown pattern paper, pins, chalk, needle threaders, thread, twine, that all remind me of them, those memories and those Sunday mornings.

If I sit quietly enough, I can still hear the whir of the machine and I can imagine my grandmother downstairs cutting patterns and dressing her girls, her 'dolls'.