These domestic sewing machines are such elegant and beautiful objects, if only they could tell us where they have been living. What kind of a room did they sit in, who used them and what in their working lives did they make? We commented that our fingerprints in the accumulated dust overlay others made a century or so ago, so we didn’t clean them for the camera. |
It's encouraging that more people want to sew now, tired of fast fashion, where profit rules, the climate loses and the people who make garments can be cruelly exploited. It could be a good time to put these beautiful machines on show. They need to be seen and admired in their retirement, not hidden away in a case, tidied into a cupboard or idling on storeroom shelves." |