Susan Katz

Unexpected Joy

The first thing that I can remember making on a sewing machine was a teddy bear. I was seven years old. When I was three, my mother’s great-aunt Minnie died, and one of the things my mother inherited was a Dixon treadle sewing machine. My father motorized the machine, and I was mesmerized watching my mother sew. When I begged to be taught to use the machine, my mother bought a pre-printed teddy bear panel: a piece of cotton fabric that was printed with all the pieces (and instructions) needed to create a teddy bear. All you had to do was cut it out and follow the instructions.