Where it all started

I can fondly remember sitting in the shopping cart as a small child watching in awe as the Kmart Fabric Associate cut yardage for my mother.  Yes, Kmart used to sell fabric.  Oh how I can still hear that bolt of fabric hitting the counter as she unrolled yard after yard of fabric. Thump, thump, thump... So much potential in that puddle of cloth on the counter.  Her fingers would scrape against the Formica surface as she measured and then folded what would become matching Easter dresses for my sister and me.  Right then and there I KNEW I would someday sell fabric at Kmart.

I was three, what do you want?  It seemed like the perfect job.

My love for Singer sewing machines came a little later.  Kmart ceased to sell fabric so I applied at JoAnn fabrics as a summer job in high school.  And yes, that three-year-old was right, it was the perfect job for me.  Now some will argue that taking a job in a fabric store might not be the best idea for a Fabric Junkie.  And what is also not a good idea is being employed by a company that will allow you to cash your paycheck at their store so you can purchase more FABRIC!

JoAnn's sold Singer sewing machines. While I was employed by them during my college years, they set aside a large area of the store just to showcase those machines.  They were so pretty.  And there was so many of them.  And they could do so many wonderful things.  My favorite part of the job then?  Selling Singer sewing machines.  It was part of my JOB to sit there and sew.  I needed to be able to WOW the customers with what this machine could do.  It was perfect, even if I was still making $3.35 an hour, cashing my checks at the store, and coming home with fabric.  I did make commission from every sale which meant... yes... more fabric at the end of the day.

Thus began my addiction to fabric and my love of Singer sewing machines. At present count, there are 8 Singers sitting here.  Two of the 8 Singers don't really count because they belong to my mother. They were dropped off to be repaired and now I think they're just hiding. Of the machines that actually belong to me, two are treadle machines. One was purchased just before I was married because I told my fiance that I've always wanted one and the other belonged one of my mother's friend.  It needed a home.  Two machines are matching crank style machines.  They're great as long as you can get a teenager to turn the crank for you.  One machine sitting here was from a treadle at one time.  Someone wanted to make a table out of the treadle part and discarded the machine. My mother brought that one over because it was left over from her church rummage sale and...yeah, it needed a home.  I'm looking for a motor for that one.  The final Singer is from 1986 and was a gift from my boyfriend at the time.  Turns out, he used my JoAnn fabric store discount and bought the exact machine that I favored and sold the most.

Yup, that boy was a keeper.  Although, one of these days, I'm really afraid I'll come home to find that he's gathered my girlfriends for an intervention. He loves me, that's for sure, but he does tend to struggle to understand why I have so many sewing machines.